Sex-Role Identity and Achievement Motivation

Abstract

The hypothesis tested in this study was that the social role demands of college and feminine sex-typed roles were to some extent incompatible and that this resulted in sex-role confusion among college females and among males with a more feminine identification. Two samples of male and female undergraduates were tested on measures of social value-social behavior consistency, i.e., the measure of role confusion, and identification. It was found that females in general do show greater value-behavior inconsistency in line with the hypotheses, but this was restricted to a class of behaviors relevant to achievement motivation only and not to a wider range of inter-personal roles. The same findings were obtained when more feminine males were compared with more masculine males, but no differences in value-behavior consistency as a function of masculinity-femininity of identification were shown by females. Implications for counseling were examined.