Androgyny

What is androgyny?

A personality type characterised by a balance of masculine and feminine traits, attitudes and behaviours

Who developed the Bem Sex Role Inventory?

Sandra Bem

What year was the BSRI developed?

1974

What did Sandra Bem suggest high androgyny meant?

Psychological wellbeing

Why do more androgynous people have higher psychological wellbeing?

Because they are better equipped to adapt to a range of situations

Why are non-androgynous people less equipped?

Because they have a narrower range of traits to draw on

What does not equate to androgyny?

An over-representation of opposite gender traits

What is included on the BSRI?

20 characteristics associated with being feminine, 20 masculine and 20 neutral

How to respondents rate themselves for the BSRI?

A 7-point scale, with 1 being not true ever and 7 being always true

If you have a high masculine score and low feminine, what are you classified as?

Masculine

If you have a low masculine score and high feminine, what are you classified as?

Feminine

If you have a high masculine score and high feminine, what are you classified as?

Androgynous

If you have a low masculine score and low feminine, what are you classified as?

Undifferentiated

Name three masculine traits according to the BSRI

Aggressive, competitive, and dominant

Name three feminine traits according to the BSRI

Affectionate, childlike, and shy

Name three neutral traits according to the BSRI

Friendly, jealous, and secretive

What are the 5 evaluation points for androgyny?

Quantitative approach

Valid and reliable

Counterpoint

Self-awareness

Androgyny and well-being

What is a strength of the BSRI?

It's a quantitative approach

- Useful for research when you need to quantify the DV

- Spence said there is more to gender than set behaviours and said qualitative methods are better for analysis

- Combining different scales e.g personal attribute questionnaire adds another dimension

What is another strength of the BSRI?

It was valid and reliable for when it was made

- They asked 50 women and 50 men to judge 200 traits, the 20 highest scored became the 20 on the list

- It was piloted for 1000 students and the results corresponded = validity

- Follow-up study a fe months later produced similar scores = test-retest validity

What is a counterpoint to that strength?

- The BSRI was developed 40+ years ago

- Behaviours have changed, based on outdated stereotypes of gender

- Everyone in study was from USA = not generalisable, lacks temporal validity

What is a limitation of the BSRI?

Self- awareness

- People may not have insight into their degree of femininity/masculinity/androgyny

- Asking them to rate themselves relies on them understanding their personality and behaviour

- Gender is a social construct and open to interpretation

-Application of 7-point scale may differ

- = Not scientific or objective

What is another limitation?

Bem placed great emphasis that androgynous individuals are more psychologically healthy as they are better prepared to deal with situations as they have a balance of traits

However, Adams and Sherer argued those with a higher proportion of masculine traits are better adjusted as they are more valuable in an individulist society