Abstract
To test the assumption that men and women exhibit comparable beliefs regarding the effect of available disciplinary actions when attributional stimuli are minimized undergraduates were asked to assume the role of a supervisor and record their beliefs regarding the influence of 12 separate discipline actions on a subordinate whose performance had been evaluated as unsatisfactory. The potential for attributional stimuli was reduced by providing participants no information regarding the cause of the unsatisfactory performance or the gender of the subordinate. One-way multivariate analysis of variance of ratings on a 9-point scale by 47 female and 51 male undergraduates showed no differences between their beliefs about the effect of the separate disciplinary actions. Different beliefs as an antecedent variable in research on attributions was not supported and training may be an option to reduce differences in the disciplinary decisions ascribed to gender and the attributional process.
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