CHAPTER 2

METHOD

This chapter describes the research design, the respondent, instruments that were

utilized in gathering data, the procedure in conducting the research and the tools for

analysis.

Research Design

The research design in this study is both descriptive and relational. It aims to find

out the level of stereotype threat vulnerability, the level of self- efficacy, and the

academic performance of the female engineering students. It also attempts to explore the

relationship of the variables in the study. The researchers used the survey method in

collecting data from the respondents.

Respondents

The following characteristics were considered in selecting our respondents: 1)

female engineering major students at WVCST in Iloilo City; 2) 1st year to 5th year majors

in Electronics & Communication (ECE), Electrical, Mechanical (EE), Marine (MarE) and

Mechanical Engineering (MEAE) as certified by the school; and 3) willing to participate

voluntarily in this research.

Instruments

The following instruments were employed by the researchers: 1) Educational

Profile, 2) Stigma Consciousness Scale, and 3) General Self-Efficacy Scale.

The Educational Profile (See Appendix A). This questionnaire required the

respondents to indicate their age, year level, degree program, marital status, hometown
and grade point average for the last 1st semester 2009-2010. It served to measure their

academic performance and exploring the sample demographics in accordance with the

objectives of the study

Stigma Consciousness Scale (See Appendix B) by Pinel (1999) was used to

measure the level of consciousness of stereotype threat among female engineering

students as well as intended for female adolescents. It is a one-dimensional 10-item, 7-

point likert-type scale wherein responses ranges from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly

Agree”. To compute the score, the responses in each number were summed up, but items

3, 8 and 10 are reverse coded. Lower values on the scale indicate that the person feels

more affected by their stereotype. Higher values on the scale indicate that the person feels

less affected by their stereotype.

General Self-Efficacy Scale (See Appendix C) assesses the general sense of

perceived self-efficacy is mainly administered to general population except children. This

scale has been reliably used internationally. It is also a one-dimensional 10-item self-

efficacy scale in which responses are made on a 4-point scale. Response format ranges

from “Not at all true” to “Exactly true.” Responses to all 10 items are summed up to yield

the final composite score with a range from 10 to 40. Higher scores indicate that the

person has a high self-efficacy while lower score values indicate that the person has a low

self-efficacy.

Procedure

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 The researchers followed well-planned steps so as to gather data in a systematic

way.

Preparatory steps

Formulating the Research Question. The researchers read recent publications in

the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2009) about the stereotype threat

phenomenon where experiments were done to investigate its effects on test performance.

These experiments normally deal with females in male-dominated areas. Since the studies

mostly involved laboratory research, the researchers opted to test the external validity of

these experiments.

Pre-Test. A pre-test was conducted to 10 female students in the John B. Lacson

Foundation Maritime University - a male-dominated school. The researchers tested the

clarity of instructions in the instruments as well as feedback solicited from the

respondents. After the pre-test, the researchers planned how to administer the survey to

the respondents as a group instead individually. Revisions were also made in the

questionnaires’ instructions.

Locating and Selecting Respondents

In preparing for the study proper, a letter of permission (See Appendix D) with

the request for the list of female students was sent to the dean of the College of

Engineering in WVCST. After the request was approved, the researchers computed for

the sample size using the formula of Lynch et al. (1974) with 0.90 reliability. The sample

size computed was 62. Convenience sampling was used for data gathering because of the

rarity of respondents and the researchers have no specific names of female engineering

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students. They were selected in accordance to the criteria set by the researchers

previously.

Study Proper

The researchers went to different classrooms with the permission of the

instructors to administer the survey. Only female engineering students were given

questionnaires to complete the required sample size. Other pertinent information

regarding the survey were stated and explained to them. In addition, the respondents were

informed that the results of the survey, whatever they would be, will be kept in secret for

the purpose of confidentiality.

Tools for Analysis

For the descriptive aspect of the study, frequency and percentage were computed

for the scores on 1) The Educational Profile, 2) General Self-efficacy Scale, 3) Stigma

Consciousness Scale.

% = 100
f
N

Where:

% = Percentage

f = Frequency of responses (of respondents)

N = Sample size

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 For the correlation aspect of the study using the Statistical Package for the Social

Sciences, Pearson’s coefficient was utilized for computing the correlation between

Stigma consciousness scale scores and academic performance, and between General Self-

efficacy scale scores and academic performance.

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