sex role stereotypes and androgyny

Question 1

define sex role stereotypes

Answer 1

shared set of expectations within social group about what men and women should do or think

Question 2

when are sex role stereotypes learnt

Answer 2

learnt from birth as children are exposed to attitudes of their parents/society

Question 3

how are sex role stereotypes learnt

Answer 3

learning sex role stereotypes is not through directly expressed behaviour, but can be explicit because we model the behaviour of individuals of same sex (social learning theory)

Question 4

define androgyny

Answer 4

androgyny is a the combination of having both male and female characteristics

Question 5

who introduced androgyny

Answer 5

Sandra Bem introduced the concept in 1970s

Question 6

what did sandra bem propose regarding androgyny

Answer 6

proposed person can be both masculine and feminine and argued that it is psychologically more healthy to avoid a fixed sex role stereotype

• stated men and women should feel free to adopt variety of masculine and feminine type behaviours to suit their personality

Question 7

what does BSRI stand for

Answer 7

Bems Sex Role Inventory

Question 8

what is used to measure androgyny developed by Sandra Bem

Answer 8

BSRI - bems sex role inventory

Question 9

what is the BSRI used for

Answer 9

measuring androgyny

Question 10

how was the BSRI developed

Answer 10

developed by asking 100 American undergraduates which personality traits they thought were desirable for men/women
- list of 200 items were narrowed down to 40 (20 masculine + 20 feminine) and 20 neutral items (added as distractors

• each person rated themselves on 7 point scale - scores for masculine item sand feminine items were added up and the person is given score for femininity/masculinity/ androgyny

Question 11

what are individuals categorised as in the BSRI

Answer 11

• masculine (high masc, low fem)
• feminine (low masc, high fem
• androgynous (high masc, high fem)
  (4th category added - undifferentiated - neither masc nor fem)

Question 12

what did Bem argue referring to gender schema theory

Answer 12

• argued that person who has free cognitive style (not controlled by gender schema) will be psychologically healthier

Question 13

eval points for sex role stereotypes and androgyny

Answer 13

(+) support from parental influence
(+) research supporting link between androgyny and psychological health
(-) BSRI lacks validity
(+) reliability of BSRI

Question 14

expand on eval point of (+) support from parental infleunce

Answer 14

• research supporting sex role stereotypes
• smith and lloyd showed mothers do treat boys and girls differently - 32 mothers were videotaped playing for 10 min with baby (not their own) where they didnt know their gender
• baby was dressed as either girl or boy and found when child was dressed/ named as boy the mother offered more masc toys (squeaky hammer)
• demonstrates parents do socialise their children into traditional gender roles through their interactions with the children

Question 15

expand on eval point (+) research supporting link between androgyny and psychological health

Answer 15

• research found positive correlation between androgyny and psychological harm
• Prakash et al tested 100 married females in india on masculinity/femininity and range of outcome measures related to health - depression + anxiety
• masculinity and femininity are measured using personal attribute scale (another test for androgyny) - females with high masculinity scores had lower depression whereas those with high femininity scores had higher depression scores
• suggests sex role stereotypes can have negative effect on individuals mental/physical health which supports importance of androgyny

Question 16

expand on eval point (-) BSRI lacks validity

Answer 16

• BSRI is vulnerable to social desirability bias (people appear certain way through lying) as well as response bias (individuals answer certain way for all questions)
• can be argued that BSRI measures self esteem rather than androgyny (self esteem is intervening variable)
• temporal validity for scale can also limit the explanation - societies adjectives may have changed may have changes since questionnaire was created in 1970s
• drawback because scale may not truly give accurate representation of whether individual should be considered masc/fem/androgynous
• questionable whether theory provides accurate representation