Is Dissonance a Factor in the Relationship between Sex-Role Orientation and Attitudes towards Women's Roles

Abstract

Research has consistently indicated a positive relationship between a feminine sex-role and anxiety, and there have been suggestions that liberal attitudes towards women are also predictive of anxiety. The present study asked if these two variables operated independently or in conjunction with each other. It was proposed that perhaps a lack of congruency between one's sex-role and one's attitude toward women was more closely related to anxiety than either characteristic taken singly. The results did not support an hypothesis of congruency. Whereas feminine women acknowledged more trait-anxiety than did masculine or androgynous women and liberal women reported more anxiety than traditional ones, these variables seemed to relate independently to anxiety rather than in conjunction with each other.