Sex-role Type Research Articles

Peculiarities of defense mechanisms and personal maturity in different women’s sex-role types with signs of exercise addiction

Peculiarities of defense mechanisms and personal maturity in different women’s sex-role types with signs of exercise addiction

The Differences of Career Attitude Maturity according to Biological Sex and Sex-role Identity Types of College Students majoring in Foodservice

The Differences of Career Attitude Maturity according to Biological Sex and Sex-role Identity Types of College Students majoring in Foodservice

The Differences of Career Attitude Maturity according to Biological Sex and Sex-role Identity Types of College Students majoring in Foodservice

The Differences of Career Attitude Maturity according to Biological Sex and Sex-role Identity Types of College Students majoring in Foodservice

Impact of gender role and gender traits on depression in adolescents

Objective To study the impact of gender, gender role and gender traits on depression in adolescents. Methods A sample of 1330 middle school students from seven provinces in China completed Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) and Gender Traits Inventory. Results 27.1 percents of participants displayed the symptoms of depression.The mean score of males of BDI was 10.04±8.38 while that of females was 10.33±8.37, indicating that there was no sex differences in depression of adolescents(P=0.535). The participants could be classified into 4 sex role types: masculine, feminine, androgynous and undifferentiated, and the BDI mean score of each type was 9.51±7.66, 12.30±8.81, 9.14±8.10, 10.72±8.66, and significant differences were found among adolescents with different gender roles(P=0.000). BDI scores of the feminine adolescents were the highest among the four gender roles, which were significantly higher than scores of the masculine and androgynous adolescents(P=0.000). Regression analysis indicated that adolescents with more positive masculine traits tended to be less depressive(t=-4.966, P<0.01)while adolescents with more negative masculine(t=2.574, P<0.01) or feminine (t=10.566, P<0.01)traits tended to be more depressive. Conclusion Gender role rather than gender has greater impacts on adolescent depression, and specifically, positive masculine traits represent protective factors for depression. Key words: Gender role; Gender traits; Adolescents; Depression

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Alternate Test Models for Impression Management in SMEs

It is not an uncommon trend in the present times that the number of women entrepreneurs continues to increase steadily. It is also found that women enter entrepreneurship majorly due to necessity than opportunity orientation. If that is the case does entrepreneurial impression management differ for both the gender? How does the necessity based entrepreneur face the increased competitive approaches of opportunity based entrepreneurs? This study attempts to find out the difference between impression management techniques and different social competencies employed by women and male entrepreneurs. Data was collected by means of questionnaire to new ventures and a total of hundred and seventeen observations were collected, from fifty seven females and sixty male entrepreneurs. It was observed that impression management techniques employed by women are different from that of males. In contrast to the sex role typing of females it was seen that women use assertion oriented techniques than compared to males. The results provide evidence that the potential for developing social competence and impression management techniques and promoting the abilities needed for a free and self-determined career has not been exhausted by any means.

The Relationship between Sex-role and Subjective Well-being in China

Since the development of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) in 1974, numerous studies have been devoted to sex role. Among these studies, the relation of sex-role to psychological well-being has received the most attention. To date, three theories regarding the utility of sex-roles have been proposed: the congruency model, the androgyny model, and the masculinity model. The congruency model posits that masculinity facilitates male's mental health but not female's while femininity facilitates female's well-being but not male's. Androgyny model states that people with high levels of both masculinity and femininity enjoy the highest level of well-being independent of their gender. Masculinity model holds that masculinity is the dominant factor that promotes one's psychological well-being. Since most related studies have been done in individualistic cultures, the present study aims to test the generality of the findings in a collectivistic culture, China, by examining the relation of sex-role to subjective well-being. Sex-role was measured by a Chinese version of the BSRI(for masculine subscale, α=0.86; for feminine subscale, α=0.82); Subjective Well-Being was measured by scale developed by Diener and his colleagues (1985)(for the Satisfaction with Life Scale(SWLS), α=0.85; for the Positive Affections and Negative Affections Scale(PANAS), α=0.85). Both scales were rated on a 7-point likert scale. A total of 1242 college students completed the above mentioned two scales online among which 394 were male and 848 were female. The age of the sample ranged from 17 to 25 with a mean of 20.88 (SD=1.46). Chinese college students scored higher on feminine scale than on masculine scale, confirming the collectivistic characteristics of Chinese culture. Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted with sex, masculinity and femininity as predictors and SWL and PANAS as criteria, respectively. Results demonstrated that the main effects of sex, masculinity and femininity were significant, but none of the interactions were significant. This suggests that the addictive androgyny model is most appropriate in explaining the relation of sex-role to subjective well-being in Chinese culture. Currently, the traditional congruency model is not applicable to neither Western nor Eastern cultures. However, a masculine sex role is ideal in western world while androgyny is ideal in China, suggesting differences exist across cultures in ideal sex-role type. The study also suggests that findings of sex role related research based on a western sample should not be assumed to generalize to other cultures without further examination.

Computer Science Majors: Sex Role Orientation, Academic Achievement, and Social Cognitive Factors

This study examined the sex role orientations endorsed by 188 male and female students majoring in computer science, a male‐dominated college degree program. The relations among sex role orientation and academic achievement and social cognitive factors influential in career decision‐making self‐efficacy were explored. Findings revealed that androgynous‐ and feminine‐oriented students scored significantly higher on career decision‐making self‐efficacy as compared with undifferentiated students. No significant sex role orientation differences were found for academic achievement and general and career locus of control.

The Attitudes of Men and Women concerning Gender Differences in Grief

Attitudes concerning gender and grief were investigated using a convenience sample of 106 men and women ages 23 to 82 years. Participants rated conjugal grief behaviors of target figures for sympathy and appropriateness on the Attitudes Toward Gender and Grief Scale, rated their own sex-role type on the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and provided demographic information and a brief grief history. Results from factor analysis of the Attitudes Toward Gender and Grief Scale showed evidence for the construct validity of the scale by yielding three factors: sympathy, appropriateness of instrumental grief, and appropriateness of intuitive grief. The hypothesis that factor analysis of the Attitudes Toward Gender and Grief Scale would show that vignettes describing gender-stereotypical grief behavior would load positively on factors for sympathy and appropriateness was not confirmed. However, the hypothesis that female participants would give more sympathy to grieving people than males was confirmed. Contrary to expectation, participants did not give female target figures more sympathy than male figures; women did not give the most sympathy to female target figures; and men did not give male target figures the least sympathy. As hypothesized, feminine sex-typed and androgynous participants gave more sympathy to grieving people than masculine sex-typed participants. Findings were discussed in terms of evolutionary, developmental, and sex-role socialization theories.

Exploring gender role identity, value orientation of occupation and sex of respondent in influencing attitudes towards male and female offenders

Objectives. This study extends work by Horn and Hollin (1997) in examining the role of sex, gender role and masculinity/femininity of occupational culture in expression of attitudes towards male and female offenders. Methods. Measures included Melvin, Gramling, and Gardner's (1985) attitudes towards prisoners and the Bem (1974) sex role type inventory (BSRI). Respondents (N= 157) represented masculine (engineering), feminine (nursing) and neutral (radiography) occupations. Results. There were no statistically significant main effects and only one significant interaction: men or women, having feminine gender values, working in a masculine occupation were harsher on women offenders than any other combination. Conclusion. Those with more masculine orientation had similar attitudes towards offenders as respondents having a feminine gender role orientation. The interactional effect suggests an influence of occupational socialization rather than social gender expectations. The evidence for a convergence of attitudes towards male and female offenders remains inconclusive. Possible applications to the criminal justice system are discussed.

Fear of Success among Women Managers: An Empirical Investigation

Fear of success is regarded as a major problem facing women managers in the organizational setting. Such female-specific fear of success motive originates from sex-role socialization process. In the present study, an attempt is made to study the impact of managerial level and sex-role orientation on fear of success. The study is based on an empirical investigation conducted among 160 women managers from senior, middle, and junior levels of management from 10 major PSUs. Contrary to expectations, the results reveal that the average score of women managers on fear of success is low and managerial level does not have any significant influence on it. However, sex-role orientation is found to be having significant influence on fear of success. Androgynous and masculine sex-role type women managers experienced much less fear of success than the feminine sex-role type.

Sex role and emotional functioning in infertile couples: Some further evidence

Studies examining sex-role and psychological reactions to infertility have produced inconsistent findings. It is argued that this is due in part to individuals with different diagnoses having been grouped together rather than analysed as separate sub-sets. Findings are presented from a study investigating sex-role and emotional function in a sample of 128 males and 127 females with undiagnosed primary infertility. The data were collected on the couples' initial visit to a specialist clinic. Masculine men, compared with the other three sex-role types, had the lowest GHQ and state and trait anxiety scores while undifferentiated men obtained the highest trait anxiety scores and the lowest marital adjustment scores. Little difference was observed between sex-role types in women. The results are discussed in relation to previously reported studies.

Androgyny and psychological well-being among older and younger Japanese adults.

The present study examined Gutmann's role reversal theory and Sinnott's role blurring (androgyny) theory. A total of 384 Japanese community aged were compared to 289 students using the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to measure psychological well-being. Masculinity was higher among men than women, and the old showed higher femininity than the young. However, no significant cohort by sex interaction was observed in either masculine or feminine scores. To examine the relationship between androgyny and psychological well-being, subjects were classified into androgynous, masculine, feminine and undifferentiated groups. Analysis of variance (sex role typing x sex x cohort) on self-esteem revealed a significant sex role typing effect. The androgynous men and women possessed the highest self-esteem, followed by the masculine, feminine and undifferentiated men and women, in this order. Our results supported Sinnott's but not Gutmann's theory.

CHILDREN'S SEX-ROLE DEVELOPMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR WORKING MOTHERS

In order to examine the likelihood that androgynous students would report that their mothers worked outside the home while raising their children more often than other sex role types, 118 undergraduates and 142 parents were administered the Bern Sex-Role Inventory. Results revealed that androgynous students were more likely to have had a mother who worked outside the home, suggesting implications for child rearing as well as adaptive sex-role development.

Construction of a romantic love attitude scale

The purpose of this paper was to construct a romantic love attitude scale. Subjects were 182 (71 male and 111 female) undergraduates. From factor analysis, four factors were extracted: romanticism, romantic power, romantic love linked to marriage, and ideal romantic love. Validity of these scales was confirmed by sex and sex-role type differences, similar scale (pragma scale, liking and loving scale, and romanticism scale), and various aspects of romantic love experience and courtship: Females considered that romantic love was linked to marriage more than males. The more feminine they were, the more romantic they were and the more ideal romantic love they wished. Those who have loved some people at the same time wished less ideal romantic love than those who have not. Those who have dated with some people at one time didn't believe romantic power than those who had not. Those who loved someone one-sidedly or had one boy/girl friend believed romantic power than those who were not in love or dated with some people. The more people they have dated with, the less ideal romantic love they wished.

Coping, Androgyny, and Attributional Style

To examine the impact of androgyny and attributional style on coping ability, a demographic questionnaire, the Zeitlin Coping Inventory, the Bem Sex-role Inventory and the Attributional Style Questionnaire were completed by 301 first-year students at the University of Stellenbosch. It was found that androgynous female subjects displayed significantly better coping abilities than female subjects with feminine, masculine, or undifferentiated sex-role orientations. No significant difference was found between coping abilities of androgynous and masculine male subjects, although both androgynous and masculine males showed significantly better coping abilities than males with feminine or undifferentiated sex-role orientations. Regarding a specific aspect of coping, namely flexibility of coping style, both male and female subjects with androgynous sex-role orientations displayed significantly more flexibility in their coping styles than subjects of any other sex-role type. Regarding attributional style, a significant positive correlation was found between good coping ability and an internal, stable, and global attributional style for positive events. A significant positive correlation was likewise found between good coping ability and an external, unstable, and specific attributional style for negative events. The conclusion was drawn that androgyny and an adaptive attributional style served as important coping resources.

The relationship between sex role and emotional functioning in patients undergoing assisted conception.

It is suggested that infertility may be distressing because it results in an inability to fulfil traditional roles and thus those individuals who adhere to traditional sex roles may be more distressed by the experience of infertility. In order to examine the relationship between sex role and emotional well-being in infertility patients, 58 women attending a clinic for assisted conception procedures and 31 of their male partners completed questionnaires assessing sex-role type (i.e. masculine, feminine, androgynous or undifferentiated) and emotional, marital and sexual functioning. Women with a traditional feminine sex-role type were more anxious than those with a masculine sex-role type but there were no differences in depression or marital or sexual functioning. Men with an undifferentiated sex-role type were more anxious and depressed than those with other sex-role types. The findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between sex role and infertility, previous research into sex differences in distress amongst infertility patients, and the problems associated with measuring distress.

Same-sex friendship : effects of sex and sex-role type

Same-sex friendship : effects of sex and sex-role type

The development of ego identity at adolescence among Israeli Jews and Arabs

The objective of this study was to investigate the development of ego identity (EI; E. H. Erikson [1968]Identity: Youth and Crisis, Norton, New York) among Israeli Jewish and Arab adolescents. The main hypothesis was that the discordant group membership of Israeli-Arabs is detrimental to the development of EI. Subjects were Israeli-Jewish (n=1329) and Israeli-Arab (n=780) students in Grades 10-12, randomly drawn from nine schools. The Adolescent Ego Identity Scale (AEIS; Tzuriel [1984] "Sex Role Typing, Religiousness, and Ego Identity of Israeli Jewish and Arab Teenagers, Unpublished manuscript, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel; [1990] "Ego Identity Versus Identity Diffusion: Developmental and Educational Perspectives," Megamot:Behavior Research Quarterly, Vol. 32, pp. 484-509) was administered during regular classes time. A multivariate analysis of variance of Ethnic Group × Sex × Grade (2×2×3) performed on the six EI factors revealed that Arabs were higher than Jews on Solidity and Continuity, Commitment and Purposefulness, and Genuineness, but lower on Social Recognition, Meaningfulness-Alienation, and Physical Identity. Significant interactions of Ethnic Group × Sex on EI factors revealed that Arab girls were much higher than Arab boys on Commitment and Purposefulness, and on Solidity and Continuity, whereas in the Jewish group the sex differences were slighter or reversed. On Social Recognition, boys were higher than girls in both ethnic groups, but the gap was substantially higher among Arabs. On EI-Total Jewish boys were higher than the other subgroups, who scored almost equally. Significant interactions of Ethnic Group × Grade on two EI factors revealed a different developmental pattern for Jews and Arabs. Jews showed a gradual and slow increase from one grade to another on Solidity and Continuity with a steep decrease on Social Recognition. Arabs, in contrast showed relatively higher scores in Grades 10 and 12 than in Grade 11 on both factors. Sociocultural and situational interpretations were suggested to explain the results and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Sex role beliefs, control, and social isolation of battered women

This study compared battered and non-battered women on their sex role types, control needs, and inclusion needs. The subjects included 33 battered, married women matched with 33 unbattered married women on education, employment, status, and age. The instruments used were the Bern Sex Role Inventoy and the FIRO-B. Results indicated a significant relationship between the battered/non-battered status and sex role type and wanted control. Battered subjects were more feminine in sex role type than the non-battered subjects. Battered women were also more tolerant of external control.

A comparison between American and Japanese students' work values

A total of 724 American students completed the Work Aspects Preference Scale; 1212 Japanese students completed a Japanese translation of the same scale. All subjects were junior and senior high-school students. A full-factorial 2 × 2 × 2 multivariate analysis with main effects of country, gender, and grade level and the 13 subscales of the WAPS as dependent variables resulted in significant F values for all main and interaction effects, except the Country × Grade interaction. Subscale analyses revealed that American students had significantly higher scores (i.e., they rated the value as more important) than Japanese students on all subscales except Creativity; there were grade level differences on only 4 scales, but gender differences were found on 9 of the 13 subscales. Country × Gender interactions were interpreted with reference to sex-role stereotypes and recent findings on the mediating role of sex-role typing.