Sex and gender Flashcards
Define what gender means
Gender- is an individuals sense of maleness or femaleness
it is a psychological construct as well as a social construct
Define what sex means
Sex is whether a person is genetically male XY or female XX
Is biological so can’t be changed
Define what sex-role stereotypes means
Sex-role stereotypes are the shared expectations within a society regarding what behaviour is appropriate for men and women
Define what stereotypes mean
what is meant by ‘roles’ in relation to behaviour
Stereotypes are the fixed beliefs about a specific group of people
EG. males are strong
Roles are the behaviours that individuals show in situations.
Research by Smith and Llyod 1978, explain what it is focused on
Smith and Lloyd (1978) did research that involves parental influence on sex role stereotypes
Explain the AP of Smith and Lloyd’s 1978 research
The aim was to investigate if mother’s treat boy and girl babies differently.
The procedure included a sample of 32 mothers who were recorded playing with a 6 month old baby for 10 minutes. The babies and mother’s we not related and the baby was dressed in line with sex role stereotypes and named as a boy or girl which was not consistent with that babies sex. 7 toys were available including 2 masc, 2 fem, and 2 neutral toys.
(32 m, 6 month babies, were dressed and named opposite to their sex, 7 toys available in room to see if the toy chosen correlates to the assumed gender of the baby)
Explain the RC of Smith and Lloyd’s 1978 research
The results for Smith and Lloyd’s research found that if the mother thought the baby was a particular gender, they verbally encouraged the baby to play with that stereotypical toy.
E.g . mother encourages the motor toys because the mother perceived the sex of the infant, in line with typical gender expectations.
Conclusion: This suggests that parental behaviour could have an impact on learning sex role stereotypes
What is androgyny?
The co-existence of both male and female characteristics in an individual
What is the difference between the two categories in BSRI:
- Androgynous
- undifferentiated
Androgyny traits include High masculine and feminine traits
Undifferentiated traits includes Low masculine and feminine traits
What did Bem (1983) believe?
That androgynous individuals have a different cognitive style and adopt behaviours when necessary that are independent of their gender concepts.
Androgynous people are not influenced by sex-role stereotypes
Explain BSRI what stands for
what it involves and when it was developed and who by
Bem Sex Role Inventory 1974- sandra Bem
Self-report measure (questionnaire)
Rated themselves 1-7 on 60 characteristics ; 20 stereo-typically female, 20 stereo-typically male and 20 gender neutral.
High scoring masculine characteristics and high scoring feminine characteristics mean they are androgynous
Why does Bem believe that it is advantageous to be androgynous?
It allows people to have qualities to enable them to cope with a range of situations
It is an indicator of better psychological well-being
What did Bem (1974) find
when she used the BSRI scale to measure androgyny?
34% of males were androgynous
27% of females were androgynous
Small amount of people are predominately androgynous
What did Flaherty and Dusek (1980) find?
Androgynous individuals have a higher degree of self esteem, a better sense of emotional well-being and having more adaptable behaviour
What did Peters and Cantrell (1993) find?
Androgynous females have the best quality of relationships, supporting the idea of being in a positive condition and having higher interpersonal functioning.
What did Rose and Montemayor (1994) find?
25% to 30% of US high school students defined themselves as androgynous
More females falling into masculine category than males falling into feminine category
Sex roles are less rigid in older children
Evaluation of BSRI
Good test-retest reliability
Lack external validity in terms of being relevant to modern day society; created in 1970’s
Issues with generalisation; created in America
Over simplistic to reduce femininity and masculinity to a single score
Nature vs nurture argument for androgyny?
Parents who adopt an equal attitude to gender roles are more likely to foster this attitude in their children. Children’s who mother’s in non traditional sex role orientations
What are some negatives of androgyny?
Negative male characteristics = over-aggressive
Negative female characteristics = too timid
What is the contemporary approach to androgyny?
An attempt to measure additional aspects of gender related behaviour, such as interests and abilities, rather than simply personality characteristics
