Androgyny Flashcards
Androgyny describes
an individual who shows high levels of both masculine and feminine traits.
Sandra Bem challenged the idea that individuals are either exclusively masculine or feminine.
Bem argued that….
Rigid sex roles are detrimental to mental health
It is psychologically healthy to avoid fixed sex-role stereotypes
Androgynous hypothesis: androgyny is a positive and desirable condition
what did Bem propose
She proposed that men and women should be free to adopt masculine- and feminine-type behaviours to suit their personality.
For example, a man who likes cooking shouldn’t feel he has to avoid this activity because it isn’t deemed ‘manly’ enough.
She said that inhibiting or suppressing personality traits that are seen as being too ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ could ultimately affect psychological health and in some cases lead to a mental disorder.
Explanations for Androgyny
Olds (1981) believed that androgyny is a higher developmental stage reached only by some.
Bem (1983) argued that androgynous individuals have a different cognitive style and adopt behaviours that are independent of any gender concepts.
According to cognitive gender schema theory, androgynous people are gender aschematic (which means they are not influenced by sex-role stereotypes). Arguably, individuals become androgynous only when they perceive the world without gender stereotypes.
Orlofsky (1977) put forward a behavioural explanation for androgyny. He argued that individuals acquire masculine and feminine qualities through reinforcement instead, therefore learning which behaviours are applicable to which situations.
what did Bem invent
Bem invented the Sex Role Inventory as a way of measuring androgyny.
what is the Sex Role inventory
The inventory was developed by asking 100 American undergraduates (in 1974) which personality traits they thought were desirable for men or women. The original list of 200 items was narrowed down to 40 (20 masculine and 20 feminine) traits and 20 gender-neutral items were added as distractors.
The inventory is a self-report measure.
Each person rates themselves on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from never or almost never true to almost always true.
Numerical scores for all masculine items are added up and the same for all feminine items and gender-neutral items, to calculate their overall type.
when was the Sex role inventory test revised
The test was revised in 1977 to create four categories of person:
Masculine – high masculinity, low femininity
Feminine – low masculinity, high femininity
Androgynous – high masculinity, high femininity
Undifferentiated – low masculinity, low femininity
Androgyny is the result of scoring above the median in both masculine and feminine categories
sex role inventory
If the number of masculine and feminine items are roughly equal, you are
undifferentiated (if both totals are low) or androgynous (if both totals are high).
If the two scores are quite different, then you are either classed as masculine or feminine (depending which score is bigger).
evaluation of Bem
Bem (1974) used the BSRI to measure androgyny, finding 34% of males and 27% of females to be androgynous, which suggests a sizeable minority of people are predominantly androgynous rather than being masculine or feminine.
The following studies support/challenge Burchardt & Serbin’s (1982) study and Bem’s androgynous hypothesis….
Flaherty and Dusek (1980) who found that androgynous individuals have a higher degree of self-esteem, a better sense of emotional well-being and more adaptable behaviour.
what did Taylor and Hall suggest
Taylor and Hall (1982) suggested that masculinity, in males and females, is a better predictor of psychological well-being than androgyny.
What could explain the stronger correlation between masculine qualities and psychological well-being than feminine qualities?
It may be because of the masculine bias in Western cultures, where masculine qualities like independence and competitiveness are more valued than feminine ones such as co-operation and nurturing.
What is meant by test-retest reliability?
This refers to consistency over time and is concerned with whether the same person will receive the same or similar score if they are assessed more than once (e.g. on two different days).
Research has demonstrated high test-retest reliability for the BSRI over a four-week period – correlations range from 0.76 to 0.94 – strong positive correlation (Bem, 1981).
However, the BSRI has been criticised
for lacking external validity.
What are the two factors that lower the external validity of the BSRI?
(Recap: The inventory was developed by asking 100 American undergraduates in 1974 which personality traits they thought were desirable for men or women)
Culture and time could therefore lower the external validity of the measure.
:(Hoffman and Borders (2001)
asked a group of almost 400 undergraduates to rate the items on the BSRI as masculine or feminine. The results were that only two terms were still endorsed as masculine or feminine – and these were the adjectives masculine and feminine. All other terms failed to reach a 75% agreement level.
what did Hoffman and Borders (2001) findings suggest
The findings of Hoffman’s study suggest that the BSRI is no longer relevant i.e. it lacks temporal validity.
The adjectives used in the BSRI were selected back in the 1970’s and people’s attitudes towards masculinity and femininity have undoubtedly changed since then. Gender roles are arguably less traditional today.
Bem argues that androgyny is a psychologically healthy state. However, it could be argued that androgyny is not psychologically healthy, why?
It pressurises individuals to reach levels of adequacy in terms of both masculinity and femininity, rather than on a more traditional single level of competence, i.e. being either masculine or feminine.
Bem’s approach to measuring masculinity and femininity could be criticised for being reductionist.
This is because it arguably over-simplifies gender types by reducing masculinity and femininity down to single scores.
More contemporary approaches to androgyny have attempted to measure additional aspects of gender-related behaviour, such as interests and abilities, rather than simply personality characteristics,
What could explain why masculinity is often equally associated with positive mental health in comparison with androgyny?
It may be that because of the masculine bias in Western cultures, where masculine qualities like independence and competitiveness are highly valued.
Masculine qualities are therefore seen as superior, even within androgynous individuals.
