Gender and Engineering: The Importance of Anticipatory Emotions

• In Event: Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Students' Emotions and Learning

Abstract

This study focuses on understanding and explaining the relations between anticipatory and retrospective emotions, gender, self-efficacy, and planned persistence in STEM among first year undergraduate students in engineering. Participants (N = 464) reported their anticipatory emotions and initial self-efficacy prior to starting a Bachelor’s program in engineering, and reported their corresponding retrospective emotions and STEM career intentions seven months later. Results highlight gender differences in anticipatory and retrospective emotions, and identify anticipatory anxiety as a predictor of retrospective anxiety and intentions to pursue a career in STEM, with gender and self-efficacy moderating these relations. Results are discussed in relation to the affective forecasting and the accessibility model of emotional self-reports.

Authors

• John Ranellucci, Hunter College

• Kristy A. Robinson, McGill University

• Emily Bovee, Michigan State University

• Daina Briedis, Michigan State University

• S. Patrick Walton, Michigan State University

• Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia, Michigan State University