Androgyny Flashcards
What does androgyny mean in everyday terms?
Someone who cannot be clearly identified as male or female
What does androgyny mean in psych?
A personality type that’s characterized by a balance of masculine and feminine traits, attitudes and behaviors
- Could be a man or woman whose competitive/aggressive at work but also a caring and sensitive parent
Who developed a method for measuring androgyny?
Sandra Bem
What did Bem suggest?
High androgyny associated with psychological well being due to them being better equipped to adapt to a range of situations
- Non androgynous have a narrower range of traits to draw on
- A male whose very feminine or a female whose very masculine WOULD NOT be categorized as androgynous
What is the Bem Sex role inventory (BSRI)
20 characteristics that would be identified as masculine
- 20 characteristics that would be identified as feminine
- Another 20 neutral traits are included
- Respondents required to rate themselves on a 7 point rating scale
- 1: ‘never true of me’
- 7: ‘always true of me’
- Scores classified on the basis of 2 dimensions (masculine-feminine, androgynous-undifferentiated)
What are the scores of the BSRI?
- High masc, Low fem = Masculine
- High fem, Low masc = Feminine
- High masc, High fem = Androgynous
- Low fem, Low masc = Undifferentiated
What’s the first set of strengths in relation to it’s approach?
Quantitative approach
- Gender identity measured quantitatively
- Useful for research purposes when it’s necessary to qualify a defendant variable
What’s the second set of strengths in relation to BSRI?
Appeared to be reliable and valid when developed
Why is the 2nd set a strength?
- Developed by asking 50 male and 50 female judges to rate 200 traits
- Rated in terms of how much traits represented femaleness and maleness
- BSRI piloted to 1000 students
- Results corresponded with participants own description of their gender, demonstrated validity
- Follow up study involving a smaller sample of the same students produced similar scores when students were tested a month later
- demonstrated test-retest reliability
What is the first set of limitations about the use of qualitative methods?
Spence argues that there’s more to gender than a set of behaviors
Why is the 1st set a limitation?
- Qualitative methods offer a better way of analyzing gender
- EG: personal attribute questionnaire adds another dimension
- The ‘instrumentality and expressivity’
- suggests quantitative and qualitative methods may be more useful
What is the second set of limitations in relation to temporal validity?
BSRI developed over 40 years ago
Why is the 2nd set a limitation?
- Behaviors which are regarded as ‘typical’ and ‘acceptable’ have changed since then
- Bem’s scale is made up of stereotypical ideas of masculinity and femininity
- may be outdated
- used with only US sample
- Maleness and femaleness may not be the same all cultures
- Lacks temporal validity
- Lacks generalizability
- May not be a suitable measure today
What is the third set of limitations in relation to lack of insight?
People may not have insight into their own gender
Why is the 3rd set a limitation?
- Eating themselves on questionnaires relies on people having an understanding of themselves that they may not have
- Gender may be more open to interpretation
- Scoring system is subjective
- How people apply the 7 point scale may differ
- Suggests its not an objective measure
