GENDER - SEX ROLE STEREOTYPES AND ANDROGYNY
SEX-ROLE STEREOTYPES
Your sex is a biological fact
XX chromosomes for female, XY chromosomes for male
Gender is a social contrast based on how we think about men and women in terms of their roles (stereotypes)
Society has clear expectations about how men and women should behave
Stereotypes = a fixed belief about a particular group of people
Sex-role stereotypes are learnt from birth as children are exposed to attitudes in society
Learning of sex-role stereotypes can be both implicit and explicit as we model behaviours of same-sex people (SLT)
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ANDROGYNY
KEY THEORIST: SANDRA BEM, 1970s
Psychological androgyny = a person can be both masculine and feminine
Contrasts with the traditional view that masculine and feminine behaviours are two separate clusters
Traditional view was that rigid sex roles were important for mental health but her opposite view is that it’s more psychologically healthy to avoid fixed sex-role stereotype
Men and women should feel free to adopt a variety of masculine and feminine-type behaviours that suits their personality
Stifling personality can lead to mental health disorders
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BEM SEX ROLE INVENTORY (BSRI)
Asked 10 American undergrads what traits were desirable for men or women
Original list of 200 narrowed down to 40 with 20 neutral items added as disractors
Made the inventory to make it possible to test for masculinity and femininity independently rather than setting them against each other
In traditional tests, if you selected a masculine item, you couldn’t pick a feminine item
Masculine = high masc score, low fem score
Feminine = high fem score, low masc score
Androgynous = high ratio of masc to fem traits
Fourth category added later to account for individuals with a different type of androgyny where they’re neither masculine or feminine with low scores in both (undifferentiated)
For each 60 different attributes, you should rate yourself on a scale of 1-7 with 1 meaning never and 7 meaning almost always true
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GENDER SCHEMA THEORY
KEY THEORIST: BEM, 1983
Reformulated her approach and suggested that the difference between an androgynous person and a traditionally sex-typed person is one of cognitive style
When faced with a decision about behaviour, an androgynous person responds independently of any gender concepts
Contrastingly, a traditionally sex-typed person determines what would be appropriate for their gender using gender schemas
A person who has a “freer” cognitive style will be psychologically healthier
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EVALUATION
Research support from parent-child play ✅
Smith and Lloyd videotaped mothers playing for 10 minutes with a 6-month old baby that was not their own child, and who they did not know the gender of
When the child was dressed and named as a boy, the mother offered more masculine toys and vice versa
Parents socialise their children into traditional gender roles from an early age through their interactions with the children, suggesting why sex-role stereotypes still exist
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Link between androgyny and psychological health ✅
Prakash et al tested 100 married females in India on masculinity/femininity and outcomes measures related to health including physical health, anxiety, depression etc
High masculinity scores had lower depression, anxiety, stress and physical health scores in comparison to those with high femininity scores
Sex-role stereotypes can have a negative effect on individuals’ mental and physical health, supporting the importance of androgyny.
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BSRI has high reliability ✅
Test-retest refers to if a questionnaire is consistent in giving the same results on two or more separate occasions
BSRI has high test-retest reliability over a four-week period with correlations of 0.76 to 0.94
Shorter version with 30 items has a 0.90 correlation with the original
Consistent results over time, improving its reliability and.the overall validity of the theory
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Gender-neutral children ✅
Parents raising their children gender-neutrally and keeping their gender from family and friends so their children can develop away from sex-role stereotypes
Individuals raised like this are less likely to develop mental health conditions due to not being constrained bysex-role stereotypes
Positive impact on society as there’s a reduced demand for mental health services
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