The lack of precision in standard tests of capacities and the
likelihood, if not almost certainty, that our abilities are not correctly
assessed by our contemporaries, means that most of us must and do make up
our own minds. In setting our levels of difficulty, we cannot be sure of
how much or how little we can do. We can use what facts we have; and
beyond this, life is a gamble-an adventure in winning and losing.
Competition and Selfishness
There are two basic ways of classifying human purposes-competitive
versus cooperative, and selfish versus unselfish. Some people are made
uneasy by g about winning and losing, and about ambition, almost as if
they were taboo words from the world of selfish competition.
Yet winning does not require that we be against someone else; we
can reach our goals through competition or cooperation. Winning is not
just the result of selfish individualism. Ours is not a world in which
the price of one person's happiness is someone else's unhappiness. Many
have a vision of a world in which individuals achieve happiness by
cooperating with others to increase the happiness of all, rather than by
winning at others' expense and lessening their happiness.
Even though ambition in the service of altruism may seem
contradictory, Albert Schweitzer certainly had a powerful ambition to do
good when in the 1930s he left behind his career as musician and
theologian and established the little hospital in the jungle in
Lambarene, Africa. And similarly for Mother Teresa who today assists the
sick and poor in Calcutta. Are we supposed to think that these persons
were less driven toward their goals than are "selfish individualists"?
Whether in competitive or cooperative form, selfish or selfless, the
general desire to achieve can be expressed in many ways throughout
life.
Women and Men
Social custom may channel the interests of men and women into
different sectors of life, where they win and lose in different kinds of
venture. But everything in the process of dealing with achievement gaps
is similar: the dreams, the motivation, the management of winning and
losing, the creation of new goals.
Some women say, "I don't see the world in terms of success or
failure, or of winning and losing"; but rather, "We are not in the
picture-it doesn't fit us." I believe this is simply a matter of framing
things differently, a matter of language and what we choose to call
achievement.
In the traditional male and female roles, a man piling up and
defending his money is no more intense than a mother raising and
defending her children. Women's aspirations are just as high, and the
wish to achieve is just as powerful in creating dose and supportive
interpersonal relationships, as men's are in creating occupational
careers.
There is no reason to believe that the man's ambition is more
powerful than the woman's. Where losing and winning are concerned, in
situations defined as equally competitive for both boys and girls, there
are no differences in achievement striving.
Hundreds of experiments show no gender differences in levels of
aspiration. It is only in stereotyped, role-defined activities that
differences appear: boys' attainment standards are higher in athletic and
mechanical skills, while girls' standards are higher in artistic, verbal,
and social skills.
When women get into what have traditionally been considered
strictly male roles, they are as competitive and concerned about winning
and losing as men are in these activities. Research shows that women,
when in the role of executive, are more like executive men than they are
different, in terms of goals, motives, personalities, and behavior. The
Center for Creative Leadership summarizes this research and points
out:
Over the years, many people have argued that the abilities and
attitudes of male managers are very different from those of female
managers. Historically, the perceived differences have been used to keep
women out of the ranks of management, but now it has become fashionable
to say that the differences are beneficial, that women will complement
men in the management ranks and bring a healthy balance to
business.
As it turns out, the data show that these alleged gender
differences are not truly present in the workplace. Research has revealed
that executive women are not more impulsive, are not better able to
reduce interpersonal friction, are not more understanding or
humanitarian, not less dominant, not less optimistic about success, and
not less able to define and attain goals than men.
Research on men describes how in midlife they become more
interested in intimacy and nurturance. This change may occur because they
are starting to top out in their careers and thus to move their interests
and energies into different sectors of life where they can find
challenges-in many instances, their families and their interpersonal
relationships.
Changing Levels of Aspiration: Deciding How Much Is Enough
Tags:
achievement,
ambition,
dean,
farming,
flowers,
gaps,
goal,
growth opportunities,
Harvard,
hillside,
legs,
level of aspiration,
muscular strength,
northwest connecticut,
ohio state university,
pride,
rational mind,
risk,
rural education,
self-assessment,
talking books,
windowboxes,
young man
