androgyny and the BSRI

Question 1

androgyny describes someone who from a psychological standpoint displays

Answer 1

a balance of both masculine and feminine characteristics
ie women who is aggressive

Question 2

adrogony can be viewed from two perspectives

Answer 2

personality ie women agression
appearance women in a suit

Question 3

in order to balance this — developed the BSRI

Answer 3

bem

Question 4

bem 1974 BSRI

Answer 4

60 characteristics , 20 male , 20 female , 2o neutral
measured through a self report 7 point likert scale
participants rate their own personality , which is measured across two dimensions of androgyny and masculinity or feminimity

Question 5

a weakness is the major methological issue with bems scale, it is a

Answer 5

self report measure
- androgyny is a type of gender , social construct , subjective , each individual has differing ideas on how androgynous they are
may be an unreliable measure

Question 6

a strength is that there is evidence supporting the reliability and validity of the scale for example the

Answer 6

BSM underwent a pilot study with 1000 students who rated their personality according the masculine , feminine and neutral characteristics
found that the classification given by the BSM mostly agreed with the students own perception of their personality
suggesting the BSM measures what it intended to measure , high validity

Question 7

bems BSRI may be considered an over simplification of such a complex and subjective social construct as gender as suggested by Golombock and Fivush 1994 , suggesting

Answer 7

that the BSRI does not consider smaller , but important aspects of gender and adrogony such as a persons interests
therefore the personal attribute questionnaire (PAQ) may be a suitable alternative due to measuring personality along different , but more ‘ personal ‘ dimensions