G - Sex-role stereotypes and androgyny

Question 1

What is the development of gender due to?

Answer 1

In part to biology (nature) and in part to life experiences (nurture).

Question 2

Androgyny

Answer 2

Formed from the two words ‘andr’, meaning male, and ‘gyny’, meaning female. The word means a combination of male and female characteristics.

Question 3

Gender

Answer 3

A person’s sense of maleness or femaleness, a psychological/social construct.

Question 4

Sex

Answer 4

Being genetically male (XY) or female (XX).

Question 5

Sex-role stereotypes

Answer 5

A set of shared expectations within a social group about what men and women should do and think.

Question 6

Stereotypes

Answer 6

A fixed belief about a particular group of people.

Question 7

From when/where is a sex-role stereotype learned?

Answer 7

From birth as children are exposed to the attitudes of their parents and other in their society who tell them ‘Little boys don’t cry’ or ‘Little girls don’t like climbing trees’.

Question 8

Is learning about sex-role stereotypes implicit or explicit?

Answer 8

Both implicit (through internalisation - schema building) and explicit (through modelling the behaviour of individuals of the same sex - SLT).

Question 9

What does implicit mean?

Answer 9

Not directly expressed.

Question 10

What does explicit mean?

Answer 10

Expressed.

Question 11

Who introduced the concept of psychological androgyny?

Answer 11

Sandra Bem in the 1970’s.

Question 12

What did Bem introduce the concept of in the 1970’s?

Answer 12

The concept of psychological androgyny , proposing that a person can be both masculine and feminine.

Question 13

What did Bem’s view contrast with?

Answer 13

The traditional view that masculine and feminine behaviours are two separate clusters.

Question 14

What did Bem argue?

Answer 14

That the traditional view was that rigid sex roles were important for mental health, whereas her view was that the opposite was true - that it was actually psychologically more healthy to avoid fixed sex-role stereotypes.

She instead argued that men and women should feel free to adopt a variety of masculine and feminine type behaviours as suits their personality.

Question 15

What cost can stifling personality have according to Bem?

Answer 15

A psychological cost which can lead to mental disorder.

Question 16

What did Bem claim?

Answer 16

You could not reliably tell someone’s gender by a list of their behaviours alone; most people perform some non-stereotypical behaviours.

Question 17

What did Bem say that stereotypes in modern society could cause?

Answer 17

Psychological and social harm by artificially restricting behaviour - reinforcing fixed (musturbatory) distinctions could result in lower self-worth.

Question 18

How did Bem say androgyny could be measured?

Answer 18

Using the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) - a psychological test.

Question 19

How was the BSRI developed/how does it work?

Answer 19

By asking 100 American undergraduates 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 neutral items were added as distractors.

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 then a person is given a score for femininity, masculinity and androgyny.

Question 20

Why did Bem design the BSRI?

Answer 20

To make it possible to test for masculinity and femininity independently rather than setting them against each other. In traditional tests, of you selected a masculine item you couldn’t select a feminine one.

Question 21

What was wrong about traditional androgyny tests which made Bem introduce the BSRI?

Answer 21

In traditional tests, of you selected a masculine item you couldn’t select a feminine one.

Question 22

How were you determined as masculine/feminine/androgynous in the original BSRI?

Answer 22

Using the original scoring method, individuals were categorised as masculine (high masculine score, low feminine), feminine (low masculine score, high feminine) and androgynous (high ratio of masculine to feminine traits).

Question 23

When were you categorised as feminine in the BSRI?

Answer 23

low masculine score, high feminine

Question 24

When were you categorised as masculine in the BSRI?

Answer 24

high masculine score, low feminine

Question 25

When were you categorised as androgynous in the BSRI?

Answer 25

high ratio of masculine to feminine traits

Question 26

What was changed/added to the BSRI?

Answer 26

A fourth category of undifferentiated (low scores for both masculine and feminine).

Question 27

Why was a fourth category of undifferentiated added to the BSRI?

Answer 27

After criticisms by Spence et al. (1975), who pointed out that Bem had not distinguished between persons who are androgynous (high in both masculine and feminine traits) and a different kind of androgyny, where a person is neither masculine nor feminine (low in both). This is the undifferentiated type.

Question 28

When were you categorised as undifferentiated in the BSRI?

Answer 28

neither masculine nor feminine (low in both)

Question 29

What are the two kinds of androgyny that were proposed by Bem and Spence et al. at different times?

Answer 29

Bem - high in both masculine and feminine traits.

Spence et al. - neither masculine nor feminine (low in both).

Question 30

What theory did Bem give in 1983?

Answer 30

Gender schema theory

Question 31

What did gender schema theory suggest?

Answer 31

• Everyone acts according to their dominant schema for a given situation.
• Some people have a wider repertoire of schematic references than others (they’re androgynous) so they respond independently of any gender concepts when faced with a decision as to how to behave in a particular situation.
• Some have learned very specific schematic (they’re strongly masculine or feminine).
• The difference between an androgynous and a traditionally sex-typed person is one of cognitive style.

Question 32

What has the fourth type - undifferentiated - been criticised for?

Answer 32

A lack of construct validity because are there enough items/range in the neutral category to fully describe someone???

Question 33

What was Bem’s argument in gender schema theory?

Answer 33

It was that a person who has a ‘freer’ cognitive style will be psychologically healthier.

Question 34

Who did Bem argue would be psychologically healthier in gender schema theory?

Answer 34

A person who has a ‘freer’ cognitive style will be psychologically healthier.