Sex-role Behavior Research Articles

Sex-role acquisition, parental behavior, and sexual orientation: Some tentative hypotheses ? A rejoinder

Sex-role acquisition, parental behavior, and sexual orientation: Some tentative hypotheses ? A rejoinder

“Consistency” and “contradiction” in the development of gender role characteristics

There is currently an increasing amount of theoretical and empirical work arguing that stereotyped sex role behavior is maladaptive in our culture and that “androgyny” or “sex role transcendence” is a preferred mode of being. The latter, however, seems to require individual inconsistency and self-contradiction in behaviors and attitudes (since the individual is both active and passive, both independent and dependent, etc.). Theories of cognitive consistency maintain that individuals avoid self-contradiction and inconsistency, and therefore that androgyny runs counter to important motivational principles. This article examines this issue in some detail, and concludes that theories of cognitive dissonance and consistency reflect particular socio-cultural conditions rather than universal motivation principles. There is nothing inherently uncomfortable or “inconsistent” about androgyny and sex role transcendence.

Development of the Revised Sex-Role Behavior Scale

This study describes the construction of the Revised Sex-Role Behavior Scale (SRBS-2), a 240-item self-report inventory comprised of male-valued, female-valued, and sex-specific items in four interest/behavior areas: Recreational and leisure activities, vocational preferences, social interaction, and marital behaviors. Two-hundred sixteen items were administered to 520 undergraduate males and females under three instructional sets. One-third of the subjects compared the typical young adult man and woman on the items, one-third rated the desirability of the items for men and women, and the remaining subjects rated themselves. Subjects in this latter condition also rated the 160 items from the SRBS-1. Typical and desirability ratings were used to select items to add to the SRBS-1 male-valued (more typical of men but desirable for both sexes), female-valued, and sex-specific (more typical of one sex and desirable only for that sex) scales. The resulting overall and area subscales had adequate internal consistency. Intercorrelations among the area subscales showed a fair degree of consistency across behavior areas, suggesting that global sex-role behavior assessments may be obtained with the overall SRBS-2 scales but that more detailed and accurate assessments require the use of separate area subscale scores.

Female Power and Male Dominance: On the Origins of Sexual Inequality.

List of tables and figures Preface Introduction Part I. Plans for Sex-Role Behaviour: 1. Scripts for female power 2. Scripts for male dominance Part II. Constructing Sex-Role Plans: 3. The environmental context of metaphors for sexual identities 4. Plans for the sexual division of labor 5. Blood, sex, and danger Part III. The Women's World: 6. The bases for female political and economic power and authority 7. The decline of the women's world: the effect of colonialism Part IV. The Dynamics of Male Dominance and Sexual Inequality: 8. The bases for male dominance 9. Why women? Part V. Conquerors of the Land Flowing with Milk and Honey: Epilogue Appendixes Notes Bibliography Index.

Teaching Sex Roles: Four Experiences

Belief in appropriate sex role behavior is so embedded in culture that it becomes an unconscious ideology. Understanding the gender/sex-role differences, how they emerge, and their implications for social organization is a key component in contemporary courses in Sociology of the Family. Four techniques have been useful in exposing students to content and direction of sex-role socialization, its impact on shaping aspirations, and how discrimination operates to inhibit deviance from traditional role expectations. (1) Socialization Content: Children's Television (see also Levinson, 1976). Students learned about content analysis, collectively developed a code system, and analyzed 60 hours of Saturday morning network television programs. The proportion of males and females, their roles in the plot, and the adult male/female occupational roles were examined. (2) Direction of Content: Toy Salesperson (see also Kutner and Levinson, 1978). Students were directed to enter toy stores, toy sections of department stores, and the like and ask salespersons to suggest birthday presents for their 5-year-old twin nephew and niece. If initial suggestions were sex stereotyped, students asked for something a bit more creative or a toy their nephew and niece could share. Suggestions were recorded and experiences shared in class.

Perceptions of Sex Roles of Young and Middle-Aged Women and Men

48 female and 48 male college students used the Bern Sex-role Inventory to describe either a young or middle-aged woman or man. Female subjects perceived that women become increasingly feminine and less androgynous with age. No age-related changes were perceived in men's sex-role behaviors.

Early barbiturate exposure: The brain, sexually dimorphic behavior and learning

Barbiturates, one of the most widely prescribed and abused classes of drugs, reportedly have been prescribed in as many as 25% of pregnancies in the U.S. and Europe over the last 30 years. Nevertheless, there exists little if any data on long-term consequences of prenatal exposure to barbiturates in humans. Evidence from laboratory animals indicates that exposure to barbiturates during early developmental periods results in abnormal neural and biochemical differentiation of the central nervous system, deficits in learning, retarded attainment of developmental milestones, alteration of behavioral and physiological sex differences, increased activity, and decreased responsiveness to aversive and appetitive stimuli. Barbiturates appear to influence the brain via two routes: (1) by direct action on neural tissue; and (2) indirectly by altering hepatic metabolism of steroid hormones. It is concluded that prenatal exposure to barbiturates in human subjects may lead to learning disabilities, decreased IQ, performance deficits, increased incidence of psychosocial maladjustment, and demasculinization of gender identity and sex role behavior in males.

The role of psychological androgyny in female students' dental career choices

Studies of the characteristics of graduate students in several made-dominated and female-dominated disciplines suggest that expressivity and instrumentality are related to career choices. The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) was administered to female dental and dental hygiene students to determine whether female dental students are stereotypically androgynous and differ from female dental hygiene students in their sex-role behavior and preference. The rationale for this assumption was based on the relatively female exclusiveness of the dental hygiene profession and the notable male dominance of dentistry. The female dental hygiene students were classified by their self-description as being predominantly feminine, the female dental students by their self-description as androgynous. The differences as measured by the BSRI were statistically significant (p = .007).

Heterosexual and homosexual mothers' self-described sex-role behavior and ideal sex-role behavior in children

Self-descriptive scores and ratings assigned to an “ideal” child on the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) by heterosexual and homosexual mothers were compared, and no significant differences were found. However, significance was obtained when mothers were classified in terms of self-described sex-role behavior on the BSRI. Mothers tended to rate an “ideal” child in the same manner in which they rated themselves. Results show mothers' self-described sex-role behavior to be a better indicator of desired sex-role behavior in children than mothers sexual orientation. Similarities in sex-role behavior and attitudes of heterosexual and homosexual mothers far outweight these mothers' differences when determined by self-description and attitudes toward ideal child behavior.

Diary-keeping as a sex-role behavior

Two surveys on diary-keeping were conducted in a young adult population. The data showed that many more women than men kept diaries. However, an equal proportion of male and female diary-keepers would allow inspection of their diaries.

Self-Ratings and Projected Ratings of Sex Role Attitudes

To ascertain the veridicality of projected attitudes toward sex role behavior, 74 male and 74 female undergraduates filled out the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS) using three different targets: self, typical female classmate, and typical male classmate. Analyses of variance on respondents' total AWS scores and on the six AWS subscale scores showed significant interactions between sex of respondent and sex of target for all seven variables. Since the directions of the interactions were not consistent across subscales, the results indicated the methodological necessity of using measurements which examine a variety of specific subclasses of sex role behaviors (rather than using unidimensional scales or total test scores) when stereotypic sex role attitudes are sought. In general, both sexes were found to have a fairly accurate perception of women's attitudes, but both sexes consistently perceived the typical male as more conservative than the male self-ratings justified.

A Cross-Cultural Study of Mexican American, Black American, and White American Women at a Large Urban University

Despite increased emphasis in recent literature on the psychology of women, there are few cross-cultural empirical studies of specific ethnic groups of women. This study examines comparatively how 279 Mexican American, black American, and white American college female freshmen in Houston, Texas, perceive themselves according to masculine, feminine, and androgynous measurements. The study investigates the perceived sex-role differences among the three groups of women according to the Bem Sex Role Inventory. While there were some significant differences among the three groups, the groups were more similar than different with regard to sex-role categories. The greatest percentage of each of the three ethnic/racial groups was androgynous. The findings suggest that social class is more influential than ethnicity/race in determining sex-role behavior of women. As people move upward in social class, they tend to be more homogeneous.

Acculturation and the Hispanic Woman: Attitudes Toward Women, Sex-Role Attribution, Sex-Role Behavior, and Demographics

The present study investigated the relationship of acculturation to the variables of attitudes toward women, sex-role attribution, sex-role behaviors, and demographics in Hispanic women. First, Mexican American women, and other Hispanic women, were investigated to determine if they could be placed on a continuum of acculturation. Second, the relationship between different levels of acculturation and the above variables was investigated. Last, the predictive power of these variables to acculturation level was determined through multiple regression techniques. The sample drawn did not significantly differ from the original population used in acculturation research by Olmedo, Martinez, and Martinez, indicating that the Mexican American woman can be placed on a continuum of acculturation regardless of age or geographical location. Greater acculturation was positively correlated with more liberal attitudes toward women, single status, more education, and younger age. Greater acculturation was negatively correlated with more feminine household behaviors. The best subset of predictors of acculturation was found to be education and self-attribution of feminine and masculine sex-role characteristics.

Bulimia nervosa: sex role attitude, sex role behavior, and sex role related locus of control in bulimarexic women.

Thirty-four women with bulimia nervosa and 34 women without bulimarexic symptoms (but matched for age, weight, deviance from ideal weight, and educational status) were compared as to how liberated their attitude towards the woman's role in society (= their sex role attitude, SRA) and their actual own behavior as females (= their sex role behavior, SRB) were. The degree to which their general attitude towards sex role and their own sex role behavior differed from each other was also investigated. Experimental and control group were also compared concerning their sex role related locus of control (SRLC). SRA and SRB were significantly less liberated in the bulimarexic group than in the control group. In addition, the bulimarexic group showed a wide gap between their general attitude (SRA) and actual behavior (SRB) as to the degree of liberation. No such discrepancy was found in the control subjects. The sex related locus of control data showed that bulimarexic women had significantly higher external and fatalistic control, and lower internal control than the comparison subjects.

Gender and nonverbal decoding skill as determinants of interpersonal expectancy effects.

This research investigated the occurrence of the self-fulfilling prophecy in sameand mixed-sex dyads. Males and females served as interviewers and interacted with both male and female interviewees. We hypothesized that male interviewers (a) would be more influenced by erroneous preinteraction information about interviewees than females, (b) would show more biased behavior toward their interviewees, and (c) would be more influential at producing behavior in the interviewees that confirmed their expectations. We also anticipated that females as interviewees would be more responsive than males to the interpersonal expectations of their interviewers and thus, females were predicted to show stronger behavioral confirmation. The results demonstrated that expectancy effects operate in both same- and mixed-sex dyads. Support was found for the hypotheses that males would be more biased by their expectations and would produce stronger behavioral confirmation in their interviewees than females. The results also indicated that females as interviewees more readily showed behavioral confirmation than males. The relationship between expectancy effects and interviewees' nonverbal decoding skills was also investigated. Males who were good audio decoders accurately diagnosed more bias in the behavior of their interviewers than males who were poor decoders. A significant relationship between decoding skill and sensitivity to interviewer bias was not found for female interviewees. It is suggested that the findings of this study have implications for understanding sex role stereotypes and sex role behavior.

Sex role orientation and behavior in a work setting.

Sex role orientation and behavior in a work setting.

Sex role orientation and behavior in a work setting.

Sex role orientation and behavior in a work setting.

Impact of Maternal Employment on Daughters' Sex-Role Orientation and Fear of Success

Maternal employment was related to scores on the Bem Sex-role Inventory as well as to fear of success in a sample of 90 high school females. Data indicated that the daughters of working mothers were significantly more androgynous and demonstrated less fear of success than did the daughters of non-working mothers. Results are discussed in terms of the modeling of a broad spectrum of sex-role behaviors by the employed mothers that are positively reflected in the daughters' self-concept.

Characteristics of Significant Dating Relationships: MaleVersusFemale Initiators, IdealizedVersusActual Settings

Summary The present study assessed discrepancies between single women's (N = 84) perceptions of idealized settings versus actual locations where significant opposite-sex relationships began. In addition, the effects of female violations of sex-role stereotypic behaviors (i.e., asking males for the first date) were assessed. While approximately three-fourths of all the idealized as well as actual locations involved only five settings (work, friends, school, parties, bars), over 50 percent of the women's perceived ideal settings did not match the actual places where their significant relationships occurred. When females adopted nontraditional sex-role behaviors, at least for the most significant relationship, the length of the relationship was nine months shorter than for those adhering to conventional sex-role stereotypic behaviors. Relationships between, on the one hand, ideal and actual settings and, on the other, characteristics of the relationship (e.g., male versus female initiators, still friends, or dating) and demographic variables (e.g., age, education, religious orientation) were examined.

Training Men and Women for Androgynous Behaviors in Organizations

Organizational problems that arise from traditional sex-role behaviors are discussed. Androgyny is presented as a concept that can be integrated with behavioral-science training programs, especially human-resource-management programs. Androgyny is viewed as an effective mixture of behaviors that traditionally have been termed "masculine" and "feminine." Examples of traditional behavior are cited, and ways for male and female employees to acquire androgynous behavior are suggested.