Androgyny Flashcards
What is androgyny?
Co-existence of male and female characteristics within the same individual
What did Olds and Bem argue about androgyny?
Olds- believed that androgyny is a higher developmental stage reached only by some
Bem - argued that androgynous individuals have a different cognitive style and adopt behaviours, when necessary, that are independent of their gender concepts meaning that androgynous people are gender aschematic (not influenced by sex-role stereotyped)
What does BSRI stand for?
Bem Sex Role Inventory
What was the BSRI/
Bem developed a hypothesis that androgyny was a positive and desirable condition and created a self-report measure of masculinity - femininity and gender roles.
What did the self report consist of?
60 items rated on a seven point scale - 20 related to stereotypically masculine characteristics, 20 related to stereotypically feminine characteristics and 20 gender neutral
What four categories did the BSRI suggest a person could fit into?
Masculine (high M, low F)
Feminine (high F, low M)
Androgynous (low M, low F)
Undifferentiated (high M, high F)
What did a predicted derived from BSRI suggest?
Androgyny is a better indicator of psychological well being than just having masculine/ feminine qualities
What was Bem’s research?
Used the BSRI to measure androgyny, finding 34% of males and 27% of females to androgynous, which suggests a sizeable minority of people are predominately androgynous rather than being masculine or feminine
What was Flaherty and Dusek’s research?
Found that androgynous individuals have a higher degree of self-esteem, a better sense of emotional well being and being more adaptable, backing up the idea of psychological androgyny indicating psychological well being
What was Peters and Cantrell research?
Used the BSRI to find that androgynous females had the best quality of relationships , supporting the idea of being in a positive condition and being associated with higher inter-personal functioning than individuals who are predominately masculine or feminine
What was Rose and Montemayor’s research?
Found that 25-30% of US high school students defined themselves as androgynous with more girls than boys showing this pattern and more girls falling into the masculine category than boys into the feminine category - supporting the idea that sex roles are less rigid in older children
What are some evaluative points for the BSRI test?
Has good test-retest reliability - producing consistent results when used on different occasions with same participants.
Created by American students in the 70’s based on what they perceived as desirable characteristics in men and women - therefore may lack external validity as not necessarily relevant to today and other cultures
What is he evaluation of Bem viewing androgyny as positive and desirable?
It may not always be positive as individuals can exhibit negative masculine characteristics (over aggressive) and negative feminine characteristics (too timid) in certain situations
Why is Old’s suggestion that androgyny is a higher stage of development sometimes criticised?(evaluation)
There is no explanation as to why this only occurs in some individuals or how it occurs in some people
What is the problem with reducing masculinity and femininity down to a single score?
It is over simplistic - more contemporary approaches attempt to measure additional aspects of gender related behaviour such as interests and abilities rather than simply personality characteristics