Androgyny

What does androgyny mean

• displaying balance of masculine and feminine characteristics

• E.g. man or woman who’s competitive & aggressive at work but caring parent

BSRI (Bem sex inventory role)

• measure androgyny using questionnaire of scale of 60 traits (20 fem, 20 masc, 20 neutral) to produce scores on masculinity-femininity and androgynous-undifferentiated (neutral score). Ppl rated themselves on a 7 point scale- 60 questions

• Masculinity: A gender term associated with male traits/roles.

• Femininity: A gender term associated with female traits/roles.

• Androgynous- High masculine, high feminine

What did Bem say having a higher Androgyny mean

• associated with better mental health because can adapt to a both genders (higher neutral score)- show both masculine and feminine traits

Strength- support for relationship between androgyny and psychological health

• research found positive correlation between androgyny and psychological health

• Study tested 100 females in India on feminine/ masculine traits & range of outcomes measured like depression, anxiety

• Found females with high masculine traits had lower depression scores than those with high feminine traits

• Supports idea that androgyny has psycho-protective effects as those with feminine and masculine has better health outcomes

Limitation- BSRI lacks validity

• link between androgyny & psychological health may be due to self-esteem, since many traits in the test are socially desirable- so scoring high on masc and fem traits ( androgynous) would be higher in self-esteem than someone who chose only male or female items.- suggests androgyny doesn't explain psychological healthiness, but rather self-esteem.

• uses uni students from Stanford so were similar age, background (white middle class) self report so can be response bias

• old study (1970a) so out of date- doesn’t reflect societies changing views about gender- recent study asked ppl to reste themselves in BSRI again and found only 2 /400 were had both masc & fem traits

• Lacks INTERNAL and TEMPORAL validity

Limitation- self awareness

• people may not have insight into their degree of masculinity, femininity, androgyny

• asking ppl to rate themselves on a questionaire relies on them understanding their behaviour that they may not know

• Gender is a social construct that’s open to interpretation instead of sex that’s a biological fact

• Also questionnaire scoring system is subjective as ppls interpretation of 7 score system is different for everyone

• Suggests BSRI isn’t objective, scientific way of assessing androgyny