Androgyny

androgyny definition

Androgyny refers to a personality type that has a balance of masculine and feminine traits

Bem's assumptions about androgyny

- suggested that high androgyny is associated with psychological well-being

> psychologically androgynous people are better at adapting to a range of situations
( non androgynous people find the harder as they have less traits to draw on)

Remember: an over-representation of the opposite gender characteristic is not androgyny- their must be balance

What is used to measure androgyny

Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (1974)

Details of the BSRI

- consists of 60 items (characteristics)

• 20 commonly judged as 'masculine'
• 20 commonly judged as 'feminine'
• 20 'neutral' traits

- ps rate themselves on a 7 point rating scale for each item

- scores are classified on the basis of 2 dimensions
( masc-fem or androgynous-undifferentiated)

* high masc & high fem = androgynous
* low masc & low fem = undifferentiated

Strength: qualitative approach

+ the BSRI is useful for research purposes as it's easy to analyse

CP: Spence (1984): there's more to gender that a set of stereotypical traits, qualitative data may be better

Strength: qualitative approach (compromise)

The personal attribute questionnaire (PAQ)

> combines different scales & and another dimension (instrumentally and expressively) to Bem's masc-fem dimension

>> suggests both qualitative and quantitative approaches are useful for studying different aspects of androgyny

Strength: valid and reliable at the time

> the BSRI scale was developed by asking 50 male and 50 female judges to rate 200 traits of how much they were masc or fem

> the 20 highest scored traits were put on the BSRI then piloted to over 1000 students and the results corresponded with the ps description of their gender identity (demonstrates validity)

> a follow-up study with a smaller sample of the same ps produced similar scores a month later (demonstrates test-retest reliability)

Strength: valid and reliable at the time COUNTERPOINT

- the BSRI was developed 50 years ago, current gender stereotypes and attitudes towards gender have changed

Means that the BSRI lacks temporal validity and generalisability to other cultures (Western bias)

Limitation: Self-awareness is needed for the BSRI

- some people may lack insight into their degree of masc and fem traits

- rating scales require great understanding of one's own behaviour- not all are able to articulate this on a scale

- gender is subjective and open to interpretation and so the rating scale so peoples' application of it may differ

This means that the BSRI may not be a scientific measure of gender (masculinity, femininity & androgyny)

EXTRA: challenged assumptions about androgyny

Some researchers (e.g. Adams & Sheer, 1985) disagree with Bem's assumption that androgynous people are not psychologically healthy as they can adapt easier.

> they argue that more masc people are better adjusted as masc traits are highly valued in individualistic cultures

However, this doesn't isn't completely undermine Bem's assumption because it may be true in other cultures.

But it does show that this assumption can't be generalised cross-culturally