Masculinity-feminity as a possible factor underlying the personality responses of male and female art students.

Abstract

This study was undertaken to test four hypotheses regarding masculinity‐femininity as a factor underlying the personality characteristics of male and female art students. The Dynamic Personality Inventory was administered to 74 male and 115 female art students in four major English art colleges.All four hypotheses were confirmed. It was found that (1) mean DPI scores for both sexes tended to depart significantly and markedly from student norms over a wide variety of measures; (2) male art students showed sex‐role deviation with high scores for tactile interests' and ‘creative interests’, and with low scores on ‘authoritarianism’, ‘exhibitionism’, ‘masculinity’, and ‘initiative’; (3) female art students showed sex‐role deviation with high scores on ‘verbal aggression’, ‘drive for achievement (active)’, ‘interest in exploration and adventure’, and ‘sexuality’, and with low scores for ‘emotional dependence’, ‘femininity’, ‘social roles’, and ‘interest in children’; (4) female art students showed sex‐role deviation over a wider range of scales than the males, and assumed a greater number of opposite‐sex characteristics. Hypotheses (2) and (3) were confirmed to a limited extent only, in that sex‐role intensification was found to occur on some scales.Certain differences between the sexes in personality structure and on pattern of sex‐role deviation and intensification were noted. It was suggested that masculinity‐femininity in mature female artists would be worth investigating.