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1. Gender and the Social Cure in Undergraduate Physics Students: Physics Identity, Self-Efficacy, Belonging, and Wellbeing

Author

Ewan Bottomley, Vivienne Wild, Paula J. Miles, Kenneth I. Mavor, and Antje Kohnle

Abstract

The social cure is the concept that strong connections and social bonds are good for wellbeing and physical health. Having strong social support makes hardship easier to cope with. We hypothesize that we could apply the relationship to educational contexts, with a sense of belonging as part of the cohort or community helping students to cope with educational hurdles, resulting in greater wellbeing. We examined the case of women in physics. Previous research has suggested that women in physics classes report a lesser sense of belonging than men. We aimed to replicate this finding and examine how a sense of belonging relates to wellbeing. We surveyed 310 physics students (205 men, 105 women) from a small research-intensive university in the UK. The survey measured students' physics identity, sense of belonging to the physics community, self-efficacy (belief in ability to complete physics-based tasks), and general wellbeing. We found that women and men reported similar levels of belonging and wellbeing, although women reported less physics identity and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy explained a significant fraction of the variance in wellbeing for both men and women. Additionally, belonging explained variance in wellbeing over and above self-efficacy and physics identity for men, but not for women. These results indicate that for men there is a stronger association between belonging and wellbeing, compared to women, but that it does not result in women having an overall lower sense of wellbeing.

Published
2024
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2. The relationship between gender and academic performance in undergraduate physics students : the role of physics identity, perceived recognition, and self-efficacy

Author

Ewan Bottomley, Antje Kohnle, Kenneth I Mavor, Paula J Miles, Vivienne Wild, University of St Andrews. Centre for Higher Education Research, University of St Andrews. School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews. School of Physics and Astronomy, and University of St Andrews. Centre for Research into Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Subjects
Physics identity, MCC, Perceived recognition as a physicist, QC Physics, General Physics and Astronomy, Gender, E-DAS, Academic performance, Self-efficacy, QC
Abstract

Studies focusing on physics undergraduate students have found that women tend not to identify as strongly with physics, compared to men. Recent research has examined potential factors that influence the experience of women in physics. Several of these factors, such as students' beliefs in their ability to complete physics-based tasks (i.e., self-efficacy) and students' belief that others perceive them as a physicist (i.e., perceived recognition), have been associated with physics identity in the context of introductory university physics courses in the United States (US). The current study extends this previous work, surveying students at all levels of the undergraduate degree at a research-intensive university in the UK. Students were asked about their physics identity, physics self-efficacy, and the extent to which they believed others perceived them as physicists. The survey responses were then matched with students' grades. Using matched responses from the start and end of an academic year from 169 students (110 men, 59 women), two analyses were performed. The first analysis found that average scores for women for physics identity, and self-efficacy were lower than for men both at the start and end of the academic year. The second analysis found that after controlling for the start-of-year scores in physics identity, self-efficacy, and perceived recognition, students' mid-year grades significantly predicted variance in their end-of-year scores for self-efficacy, perceived recognition, and (possibly also) physics identity. This study also found that the gap in perceived recognition between men and women increased over the academic year. The results contribute to understanding potential barriers for women in physics and have implications for instruction in terms of promoting students' physics identity, self-efficacy, and perceived recognition. Publisher PDF

Published
2022

3. Exploring the links between psychological flexibility, individual well‐being, and relationship quality

Author

David Gillanders, Karen Twiselton, Ewan Bottomley, and Sarah C. E. Stanton

Subjects
Flexibility (engineering), Social Psychology, media_common.quotation_subject, structural equation modelling, Affect (psychology), psychological flexibility, Structural equation modeling, actor-partner interdependence model, Risk analysis (engineering), affect, Anthropology, Well-being, Developmental and Educational Psychology, relationship quality, Quality (business), Life-span and Life-course Studies, Psychology, media_common
Abstract

The ability to engage flexibly with thoughts and behaviour in line with the demands of a situation—termed psychological flexibility—has been linked to individual wellbeing. This registered report presents two studies that investigate the links between psychological flexibility, individual wellbeing, and relationship quality. Using structural equation modelling, Study 1 found that people who were more psychologically flexible reported higher levels of positive affect and lower levels of negative affect, which in turn was associated with higher relationship quality. Using dyadic mediation analysis, Study 2 replicated and extended these findings in a sample of 200 romantic couples, revealing both actor and partner effects. This research offers insight into the implications of psychological flexibility for relationship functioning.

Published
2020

4. Gender effects in perceived recognition as a physicist and physics identity

Author

Vivienne Wild, Paula J. Miles, Kenneth I. Mavor, Ewan Bottomley, Antje Kohnle, University of St Andrews. Centre for Higher Education Research, University of St Andrews. School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews. Centre for Research into Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, and University of St Andrews. School of Physics and Astronomy

Subjects
Psychoanalysis, BF Psychology, education, ComputingMilieux_COMPUTERSANDEDUCATION, Identity (social science), BF, Physicist
Abstract

This study investigated gender differences in perceived recognition as a physicist and its relation to physics identity. We surveyed 688 physics majors (228 women, 460 men) at a research-intensive university in the UK at both the lower and upper undergraduate levels with items measuring perceived recognition and physics identity. Similarly to other studies, we find that women report lower recognition as a physicist from their instructors, families and friends compared to men. In contrast, there were no gender differences in students’ perceptions of friends asking them for their advice/input in physics-related problems. Perceived recognition from instructors was lower than recognition from family and friends for both men and women. We find that both perceived recognition from instructors and physics identity are significantly lower for upper level students compared with lower level students. Multiple linear regressions for men and women individually found that both perceived recognition from instructors and from family/friends predicted students’ physics identity. These results may indicate a shift in students’ understanding of what it means to be a physicist as they progress through the degree program. The results point to further research being needed to understand better the mechanism by which students form perceptions of instructors seeing them as physics people. Publisher PDF

Published
2021

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