Gender Flashcards
Defne sex.
Whether a female is biologically male or female.
Define gender.
The social and psychological characteristics of males and females.
Define sex-role stereotypes.
Types of qualities and characteristics seen as appropriate for each sex.
How does socialisation link to our sex-role stereotypes?
By passing on beliefs, attitudes and behaviour from one generation to another. This means sex-role stereotypes are retaught and reinforced.
Describe the traditional female stereotype.
Nurturing, co-operative, domestic, emotional, passive (non-aggressive) and pretty.
Sex-role stereotypes differ substantially cross-culturally, what does this suggest?
This suggests that characteristics associated with sex-role stereotyping are culturally transmitted, which implies that environmental learning experiences are stronger than biological forces in determining sex-role stereotypes.
Categorising professions and behaviours places restrictive barriers, what is the evidence for this?
Restrictive barriers on the roles males and females can have in society. Only 3% of nursery teachers in Britain are male and there is only one British woman who has woman a Nobel prize for science.
Define Androgyny.
Co-existence of male and female characteristics within the same individual.
What did Olds (1981) believe about androgyny? Did Bem support this?
He believed it to be a higher developmental stage, only to be reached by some. Bem supported this as she suggested androgynous individuals have a different cognitive style and adopt behaviours when necessary.
What is Orlofsyk’s behavioural explanation for androgyny?
Learned through reinforcement, allowing individuals to acquire masculine and feminine qualities applicable to different situations.
Describe the traditional male stereotype.
Strong, independent, physical, aggressive and unemotional.
Reliability of BSRI
The BSRI has good test-retest reliability, as it produces consistent results when used on different occasions with the same participants.
Is androgyny always positive?
Androgynous individuals can exhibit negative characteristics such as being over-aggressive or too timid. It has been argued that it’s not psychologically healthy as it pressurises individuals into reaching a level of adequacy in terms of femininity and masculinity.
Is BRSI over-simplistic?
Reducing masculinity and femininity down to single scores is over-simplistic. more contemporary approaches to androgyny attempt to measure additional aspects of gender-related behaviour, such as interests and abilities, rather than just personality characteristics.
Why are there doubts about the validity of the BSRI?
It was created from data generated by American students in the 1970s about what they perceived to be desirable characteristics in men and women. Lacks temporal validity.
