Sex-appropriate Behavior Research Articles

Human chemosignals modulate emotional perception of biological motion in a sex-specific manner

Androsta-4,16,-dien-3-one and estra-1,3,5(10),16-tetraen-3-ol have previously been shown to communicate opposite sex information that is differently effective to the two sex groups. The current study critically examines if the two human steroids could facilitate interactions with potential mates rather than competitors by acting on the recipients’ emotional perception in a sex-appropriate manner. Using dynamic point-light displays that portray the gaits of walkers whose emotional states are digitally morphed along the valence and the arousal axes, we show that smelling androstadienone subconsciously biases heterosexual women, but not men, towards perceiving the male, but not female, walkers as happier and more relaxed. By contrast, smelling estratetraenol subconsciously biases heterosexual men, but not women, towards perceiving the female, but not male, walkers as happier and more relaxed. These findings indicate that androstadienone and estratetraenol prime the identification of emotionally receptive states for the potential mates with whom they are associated, in manners contingent upon not only the recipients’ own sex but also their sex perception of other individuals that ensure sex-appropriate behavior.

Prenatal Hormones and Postnatal Socialization by Parents as Determinants of Male‐Typical Toy Play in Girls With Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia

Toy choices of 3- to 10-year-old children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and of their unaffected siblings were assessed. Also assessed was parental encouragement of sex-typed toy play. Girls with CAH displayed more male-typical toy choices than did their unaffected sisters, whereas boys with and without CAH did not differ. Mothers and fathers encouraged sex-typical toy play in children with and without CAH. However, girls with CAH received more positive feedback for play with girls' toys than did unaffected girls. Data show that increased male-typical toy play by girls with CAH cannot be explained by parental encouragement of male-typical toy play. Although parents encourage sex-appropriate behavior, their encouragement appears to be insufficient to override the interest of girls with CAH in cross-sexed toys.

Sex Differences in the Use of Science and Technology in Children's Cartoons

Television is among the many mechanisms that transmit information about sex-appropriate behavior to children. In order to examine whether television cartoons portray male and female characters using science and technology in a different manner, we examined the amount and type of science and technology utilized by characters in popular children's cartoons. Results revealed that most characters in these cartoons were male who were often depicted using science and technology, usually while being aggressive. When female characters were shown, they were portrayed as both able and prosocial, using science and technology for the greater good of others, rather than for destruction. In addition, female characters performed prosocial behaviors such as caring and sharing, showed self-confidence and explained things to others, and were less angry and violent than were male characters. Our findings suggest that the portrayal of female characters as competent may be successfully linked with the tendency to also show them as prosocial. Despite relatively positive portrayal of female characters, however, their appearance was rare and most likely not the main focus of the action.

Gender Role Portrayal Analysis of Children's Television Programming in Japan

Television viewing is a pervasive activity among Japanese children, yet little is known about the effects of television on their gender role attitudes and behaviors. One step in understanding television's contribution to such outcomes is to examine the messages conveyed through the medium directly and indirectly about gender role values. Unfortunately, most gender role analyses have ignored the programs most heavily viewed by Japanese children, namely, children's programming. In the current study, the gender role portrayals of 279 characters from a select sample of children's programs were analyzed. Results revealed that Japanese television programming for children is highly sex-typed. Males were overrepresented and were portrayed more often than females in professional occupations. Attributes descriptive of females were characteristic of relatively weak, younger, less mature individuals, while attributes descriptive of males were associated with powerful, older, likeable, mature persons. Males more than females were sex-typed and reinforced for sex-appropriate behavior. The implications for such portrayals on children's gender role concepts are discussed in the context of children's processing of televised information and the broader context of Japanese society. Suggestions for future research are offered.

Sex differences in gender-related childhood memories

Based on theories of gender development, especially the one proposed by Nancy Chodorow, it was predicted that boys' gender-related childhood memories will be different from girls' on five dimensions related to activity, emotionality, and sex appropriateness. Forty-five men and 45 women were asked to describe their earliest gender-related childhood memories. The memories were analyzed by two judges. The data document a significant sex difference in the activity and emotionality of the memories. Men's memories were more active and women's more emotional. The predictions that men's memories of sex-appropriate behavior will be more positive, will have fewer deviations from sex-appropriate behavior, and when such deviations occur, they will be associated with more negative emotions were not confirmed. It is suggested that childhood memories can be seen as reflecting actual differences between the sexes in childhood experiences, or as the result of a process of memory selection that reflects men's and women's different gender-related experiences as adults.

Response styles to sadness are related to sex and sex-role orientation

Nolen-Hoeksema's (1987) response style theory states that women ruminate on sadness more than men, and that men distract themselves from sadness more than women. These response styles are assumed to develop through the socialization of sex-appropriate behavior. The present study extended this argument by examining the relation of sex-role orientation to response styles in an adult sample. It was hypothesized that greater femininity is associated with more rumination and less distraction in response to sadness, and that greater masculinity is associated with less rumination and more distraction in response to sadness. Male and female undergraduates completed the short form of the BSRI and a coping measure. Consistent with expectations, subjects' sex-role scores were significant predictors of coping responses. Higher femininity was associated with more rumination, whereas higher masculinity was associated with more distraction. As in previous research, sex differences emerged. Female subjects relative to male subjects reported more rumination and less distraction in response to sadness. The sex-role findings are discussed in relation to current conceptualizations of femininity and masculinity measures, and in relation to sex-role differences in depression.

Does Early Sex Typing Result from Children's Attempts to Match Their Behavior to Sex Role Stereotypes?

PERRY, DAVID G.; WHITE, ADAM J.; and PERRY, LOUISE C. Does Early Sex Typing Result from Children's Attempts to Match Their Behavior to Sex Role Stereotypes? CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 2114-2121. Most cognitive theories of sex typing-including cognitive social learning theory and cognitive-developmental theory-suggest that sex typing results, in part, from a 2-step process: children are thought to acquire stereotypes of sex-appropriate behavior, primarily through observational learning; they are then thought to adopt as their own preferences the behaviors they have encoded as appropriate for their own sex. To determine if very early sex typing occurs in this sequence, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds were tested both for knowledge of sex role stereotypes and for preferences for sex-typed activities. Contrary to the hypothesized sequence, boys' acquisition of sex role stereotypes lagged behind (by about 1 year) rather than preceded their development of sextyped preferences. Girls' data neither clearly refuted nor clearly confirmed the hypothesized sequence. A secondary finding was that boys displayed equally strong tendencies to endorse same-sex activities and to reject cross-sex activities, whereas girls unexpectedly displayed a stronger tendency to reject cross-sex behavior than to endorse same-sex behavior.

Using Television to Change Stereotypes

Stereotypes of illness and health play a role in mental health. Can television be used to alter stereotypes? An evaluation of a PBS children's series (Freeslyle) designed to change sex-role stereotypes provides evidence that it can under certain conditions. When 26 quarter-hour programs were viewed and discussed in a classroom setting, 9-12 year old males and females made large changes in their beliefs and attitudes regarding sex-appropriate behavior of children and adults. Many of these effects were still in evidence nine months later. When the programs were viewed in a classroom with no follow-up discussion, there were many fewer significant effects. For those who viewed the shows at home, effects were fewer yet and limited to the heaviest viewers. However, both types of mere viewing were associated with change in the desired direction, even when the movement was not statistically significant. The Freestyle experiment is instructive to those interested in funding or designing a TV series to change stere...

Sex-role expectations, power, and psychological distress

Data collected in a community survey of psychiatric epidemiology in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1967 are reanalyzed to examine the relationship of sex-role expectations and power to rates of psychological distress. The results indicate that people who occupy powerful roles have low rates of distress, regardless of whether they conform to or deviate from role expectations. The occupation of the powerless role, however, is particularly productive of distress when the occupant of this role deviates from sex-appropriate behavior. The findings suggest that sex differences in distress may in part be deducible from more general differences in power and role expectations.

The effect of a workshop on attitudes of female nursing students toward male homosexuality.

The responses of 64 female nursing students to the Survey of Attitudes Toward Deviance--Homosexuality Scale (May, 1974) indicated that they held more negative attitudes and more stereotyped beliefs regarding male homosexuality than did May's sample of male counselors and psychologists. After a 2-hour workshop, the attitudes of the 37 students in the experimental groups had changed and were similar to those expressed by May's sample. A testing 4 months later indicated that this change remained stable. Some attitudes relating to morality and social distance continued to be somewhat unfavorable. It made no difference in attitude change if the workshop presenters did or did not identify themselves as homosexual. The students with initially more negative attitudes toward homosexuality changed more as a result of the workshop experience than those with more positive attitudes. For both experimental and control subjects, more positive pretest attitudes toward homosexuality were associated with emotional stability, objectivity, good personal relations, restraint, friendliness, an interest in masculine activities, and greater support for equality of the sexes, as well as more liberal attitudes toward sex-appropriate behavior.

Sex-Role Preferences among Elementary School Children in Rural America

The present study, utilizing a modified version of the It Scale for Children, investigated sex-role preferences of 10 boys and 10 girls each in Grades 1, 3, and 5 from a rural community in the eastern United States. Boys showed a stronger preference for masculine toys and activities than girls for feminine ones. Girls' scores were significantly greater in variability which may suggest greater variability and latitude allowed females in this society in adopting or prefering masculine activities, toys, and roles. It may also imply that sex-appropriate behaviors may be more narrowly defined for males than females. The masculine role may be perceived as one of higher status, encouraging boys to maintain sex-appropriate behavior while influencing girls to adopt some masculine traits. A test for the equality of two proportions shows there is no significant difference between the percentages in the present analysis and in Brown's (1957) study. The sociocultural environment and lifestyle of a small rural community may be more consistent and traditional in defining and maintaining traditional sex-role stereotypes. Also discussed is the need to socialize children in an androgynous fashion.

Sex, Behavior, and Teacher Expectancies

A variety of personal characteristics have been shown to be influential in teacher-student relationships. The sex of the child as well as the appropriateness of his behavior were the factors evaluated in this study. An analysis of the results indicated that sex-inappropriate behavior was viewed less favorably than sex-appropriate behavior. A discussion of the results was presented with regard to support for previous studies and implications for future research.

Sex-role orientations of high school and college students

Previous studies (e.g., Matthews & Tiedeman, 1964; Rand & Miller, 1972) have found a decrease in career commitment of women between the junior high school and senior high school years. These studies hypothesized that this decrease may be a result of senior high school women giving marriage a greater priority in their plans. Interest in the psychology of women, however, has increased in recent years, with particular emphasis on the emotional, intellectual, and behavioral consequences of stereotypic sex-role connotations. The traditional roles of women in the educational and occupational sectors of society have been challenged by thoughtful and vocal advocates of equality and social change, necessitating reevaluation and redefinition of sex-appropriate behavior by both men and women. To explore possible reevaluations of sex-role attitudes, the present study analyzed sex-role orientations of 86 (43 females, 43 males)undergraduate introductory psychology students enrolled at Washington State University and 86 (43 females, 43 males) students attending Pullman, Washington, Public High school. All class levels were represented in the high school sample. Participation in the study was voluntary on the part of all students. Each student was issued a copy of the revised French-Lesser Student Attitude Scale, a 65-item true-false questionnaire (French & Lesser, 1964). This attitude scale consists of two subscales: a 34-item scale, which measures the extent to which subjects value various aspects of intellectual (career) attainment,

Identification and Measurement of Multidimensional Attitudes Toward Equality Between the Sexes

The proposal that support for equality between the sexes is multidimensional was supported by factor analysis of data from smaller samples and cross-validated on a sample of 639 (317 male and 322 female) subjects ranging in age fromn 14 to 73 years. A reliable 53-item multidimensional scale is offered for measuring an individual's support for equality between the sexes (a) in business and the professions, (b) in the home, (c) in respect to what is traditionally considered sex-appropriate behavior, and (d) in the performance of both social and domestic work. Evidence for construct validity is presented via the analyses of relations between the Sex Role Survey and (a) support for premarital sex, (b) cognitive ridgity, (c) authoritarianism, (d) tolerance for ambiguity, (e) values orientations, (f) evaluative and potency ratings of Man and Woman on the Semantic Differential, and so on.

Play Behavior in the Year-Old Infant: Early Sex Differences

32 boys and 32 girls, 13 months old, were observed with their mothers in a standardized free play situation. There were striking sex differences in the infant's behavior toward their mothers and in their play. Earlier observation of the mothers' behavior toward the infants at 6 months indicates that some of these sex differences were related to the mothers' behavior toward the infants. It was suggested that parents behave differently toward girls and boys, even as infants, reinforcing sex-appropriate behavior. This study emphasizes the importance of observing the freely emitted behavior of the very young child.

PERSONAL SPACE IN CHILDREN

On the basis of an assumed relation between psychological closeness and physical proximity, it was hypothesized that, as the distance between members of depicted dyads increases, (a) the degree of acquaintance assigned to them by children would decrease, and (b) the degree of liking assigned would decrease. 2 tasks designed to test these hypotheses were administered to sixth-grade children. The first personal space task required Ss to assign acquaintance or liking designations to printed silhouettes of peer dyads. Data indicated strong inverse relations between interfigure distances and both degree of acquaintance and degree of liking. It was concluded that sixth graders assume a correlation between physical proximity and psychological closeness. The second personal space task required Ss to place distances between a self-referent figure and printed peer figures variously described. Data again showed the inverse relations. The sex differences also found were explained in terms of sex-appropriate behavior.

Identification, conscience development and sex-appropriate behavior.

Identification, conscience development and sex-appropriate behavior.

SEX-ROLE CONCEPTS AND SEX TYPING IN CHILDHOOD AS A FUNCTION OF SCHOOL AND HOME ENVIRONMENTS

The study compared sex-role attitudes and sex-typed reactions of children from "traditional" middle-class schools and homes (stressing socialization toward general standards) with those of children from "modern" middleclass schools and homes (stressing individualized development). Subjects were 105 fourth-grade nine-year-olds. Direct and projective techniques were used to test the hypothesis that conventional attitudes and reactivity would be more characteristic of children from traditional backgrounds. Findings support the hypothesis: unequivocal commitment to own sex role, sex-typed play, aggressive expression in boys, and family orientation in girls were more consistently characteristic of children from traditional backgrounds. Girls from modern backgrounds departed most from conventional expectations. This century has seen a broadening in the range of prevailing attitudes toward social sex roles for men and women and sex-appropriate behavior for boys and girls. Increasingly flexible attitudes have grown up and now

Sex-role preferences and adjustment in early adolescents.

Authorities dealing with the personality development and adjustment of children are continually stressing the major importance of achieving the role appropriate to one's sex. While there are a number of studies dealing with the masculinity-femininity dimension as it relates to adult adjustment, there is relatively little research examining sex-role preferences and adjustment in childhood. This lack of research has been acutely felt in the area of adolescent development. The present study was an effort at exploring the possible relations which might exist between sex-appropriate role preferences in early adolescents and several indices of adjust nent. The relations with which the author was principally concerned related to some variables readily observable in the school setting. Seward (12) has written that in early adolescence certain changes in sex-role expectation are introduced which strain the growing child's integrative ability. Many of the changes would appear to be related to the confusion which is being generated by a lack of clarity in the female role. For example, in a study of boys and girls at two age levels (12 and 15 years), Tryon (13) found that sexrole values for girls undergo some marked changes in the direction of greater masculine role preferences. Tuddenham (14) used Tryon's method with a younger group and concluded that girls have much more flexible role choices than boys and that masculine traits increase in value in girls with increasing age. Rabban (ii) noted that both working class and middle class boys ranging in age from 3 to 8 are more clearly aware of sex-appropriate behavior than are girls. In a study of junior high school youngsters, Helper (io) found that boys who follow the role model provided by their father gain

Sex-appropriate behavior in adolescence.

(1958). Sex-Appropriate Behavior in Adolescence. The Journal of Genetic Psychology: Vol. 93, No. 1, pp. 15-32.