Directions in sex role research: Past, present and future

Abstract

During recent decades the study of sex roles in psychology has changed its orientation, influenced primarily by the Women's Movement of the sixties. New theories are developing and old paradigms have been severely questioned. But little critical evaluation of current research and theory is occurring. Often new theory is uncritically accepted. Serious problems in research methodology are arising, such as the usefulness of tertiary sample populations, the meaning of an isolated sex role analysis which does not consider wider social forces, and the predictive value of current scales with respect to sex role behaviour.