Interactive effects of social context and sex role identity on female self-disclosure during the acquaintance process

Female subjects who differed in masculinity and in femininity self-disclosed to a same-sex confederate in contexts that made either social/expressive motives or instrumental motives particularly salient. The confederate spoke first on each of four disclosure topics, presenting either intimate or nonintimate information in her disclosures. The results were consistent with our primary assertion that measures of sex role identity would accurately forecast contextual variations in female self-disclosure. Specifically, femininity tended to promote self-disclosure in social/expressive contexts while clearly inhibiting such exchanges in the instrumental context. Supplementary data revealed that the tendency of highly feminine participants to close up in the instrumental context stemmed not from problems in their contemporaneous interpersonal relationships with their partners, but rather from a concern that disclosing too much might adversely affect their partners' evaluation of their competencies. Although masculinity did not exert direct effects of female self-disclosure within any particular context, it did have an influence, for subjects high in femininity were highly self-revealing across contexts if they were also high in masculinity (i.e., androgynous).This research was supported by National Institute of Mental health Grant MH 43726-01 to David R. Shaffer.     

Patterns of self-disclosure in homosexual and heterosexual college students

Two hypotheses concerning self-disclosure were investigated and confirmed in the present study, comparing homosexual and heterosexual college students. The first hypothesis was that self-disclosure, as measured by the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, would be positively correlated with psychological femininity. The second hypothesis was that homosexual males and heterosexual females would exhibit similar patterns of high disclosure and femininity. No significant differences were found in total disclosure between homosexuals and heterosexuals, although homosexuals disclosed less to father, and more to friends than to parents. The conclusion was that psychological femininity and masculinity are more important than biological sex in determining self-disclosure.     

Personality Traits in Clinical Depression and Remitted Depression: An Analysis of Instrumental-Agentic and Expressive-Communal Traits

The present study evaluated levels of instrumental and expressive traits and vulnerability to severe depression. A sample of 44 depressed psychiatric patients (i.e., 22 currently depressed patients and 22 remitted depressed patients) completed the Beck Depression Inventory and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, a well-known personality measure that assesses masculinity (i.e., instrumentality) and femininity (i.e., expressivity). Analyses revealed that currently depressed patients, relative to the remitted depressed patients, had significantly lower levels of both instrumental and expressive traits. Overall, most currently depressed patients were characterized by unhealthy, undifferentiated sex-role self-concepts (i.e., low levels of masculinity and femininity) while the sex-role self-concepts of remitted depressed patients closely resembled those found in nonclinical populations. The current results qualify recent research on the impact of depression on personality ratings by suggesting that severe depression may contribute by lowering scores on self-report assessments of socially desirable personality traits reflecting agentic, instrumental characteristics, and communal, expressive characteristics.     

Sex role orientation and domains of self-esteem

The relation of sex role orientation to self-esteem was more closely examined by the inclusion of five distinct self-esteem domains in this study of Chinese adolescents. Analysis of variance showed that the masculine and androgynous groups were superior in academic, appearance, and general self-esteem than the feminine and undifferentiated groups. The former two groups were also higher in physical ability self-esteem than the feminine group. The superiority of the androgynous group was noted in the domain of social self-esteem too. Results of multiple regression were in general supportive of the masculinity model in that masculinity was most strongly associated with self-esteem, whereas the effect of femininity was much less evident. Analyses also showed that for males, femininity was related to academic, appearance, and general self-esteem, whereas for females, femininity was found somewhat related to social self-esteem. Results of this study were discussed in terms of the agentic and expressive qualities of different sex role and self-esteem domains.The very capable assistance in data analysis by Kit Yi Wong is gratefully acknowledged.     

Models and Measurements of Psychological Androgyny: A Cross-Cultural Extension of Theory and Research

This paper explores models and measurements of psychological androgyny by extending research to a new cultural context—Singapore. Five studies, which include the construction of a culturally appropriate measurement of masculinity and femininity and the investigation of the masculine, additive, and interactive models of psychological androgyny, are reported. The results indicate that the Singapore Androgyny Inventory (SAI) demonstrated good internal consistency and temporal stability. M and F scales were unidimensional and orthogonal with composite items reflecting instrumental and expressive orientations. Masculinity was associated with need for achievement (r = .56), and femininity related to need for affiliation (r = .24). In addition, a 2 (gender) × 2 (M) × 2 (F) analysis of variance revealed main effects for both masculinity and femininity on personal and social self-concept, but no significant interaction effects. The same analysis demonstrated main effects only for masculinity on psychological well-being and self-acceptance. Taken together, evidence supported a differentiated additive model rather than a masculine or interactive model of androgyny, self-concept, and mental health. The advantages of cross-cultural extensions in psychological androgyny research are also discussed.     

Sex differences, social desirability, masculinity, and the tendency to worry.

Relationships between worry and sex differences, social desirability, masculinity, and femininity were explored in this study. Data were obtained from 141 undergraduates who answered a questionnaire containing a worry scale, the Crowne-Marlowe (1964) Social Desirability Scale, the Bem (1974) Sex Role Inventory, the Trait Anxiety scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970), and several demographic items. Women reported significantly higher levels of worry than men did, and worry was significantly correlated with lower social desirability and with lower masculinity but not with femininity. However, multiple regression strategies revealed that sex differences in reported worry cannot be accounted for solely by variations in social desirability and masculinity. Also, sex differences in the tendency to worry were not eliminated by statistically controlling for trait anxiety, social desirability, and masculinity simultaneously.     

Academic self-disclosure in adolescence

Adolescents' dialogues with friends and classmates about their academic performance constitute a central arena of self-disclosure for developing teenagers. Yet researchers have generally limited the range of their study of academic self-disclosure to gifted students. This study brings together the literature on self-disclosure, academic achievement, and adolescent development to elucidate the overlapping elements at play in adolescents' everyday decisions to talk about their academic performance. With an ethnically diverse sample of San Francisco Bay Area ("Silicon Valley") 10th and 12th graders, the authors developed a 12-scenario instrument specifying both interpersonal context (attraction/friendship) and relative-intelligence relationship (more, less, or equally smart), querying degrees of academic self-disclosure associated with these contexts. The results indicated that self-disclosure was highly (positively) influenced by the achievement level of both the discloser and listener, modestly influenced by friendship versus romantic interest, and influenced in anticipated directions by gender and age.     

Similarity and attraction in homosexual males: The effects of age and masculinity-femininity

Recent research on homosexual partner preferences has focused on sexual attraction, but little attention has been paid to stable, long-term relationships in this population. The present research is concerned with the roles of similarity and complementarity in relatively durable relationships. One-hundred and eleven homosexual males completed a questionnaire describing themselves, including their masculinity and femininity (Bem, 1974), and characteristics of their ideal partner. Results indicated a desire for a partner who was logical and expressive, similar in age, and similar in masculinity—femininity. No special features of homosexuality nor sex roles seem necessary to explain these results.     

Janet Taylor Spence: Innovator in the Study of Gender

Janet Spence’s contributions moved gender researchers beyond a simple understanding of psychological gender in terms of individual differences in masculinity and femininity. In early work, she constructed the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, or PAQ, consisting of a masculine and a feminine scale, which she interpreted as assessing the core of psychological masculinity and femininity. Spence subsequently recognized that the masculine, or instrumental, scale reliably predicts only self-assertive, dominant behaviors and that the feminine, or expressive, scale reliably predicts only other-oriented, relational behaviors. Moreover, as her work developed, Spence came to understand this self-ascribed instrumentality and expressiveness, not as gender identity, but as two of the several types of psychological attributes that may become associated with individuals’ self-categorization as male or female. She then defined gender identity as the basic, existential sense of being male or female, which generally corresponds to one’s biological sex. Building on her ideas, we argue that gender identity instead encompasses both the sex categorization of oneself, usually as male or female, and self-assessments on gender-stereotypic instrumental and expressive attributes. These two levels of gender identity are linked by people’s self-stereotyping to the extent that they value their group membership as male or female.     

Psychological Masculinity amid Femininity: Relationship to Striving and Self-Concept in the Achievement and Interpersonal Domains

The relative influences of gender and individual differences in psychological masculinity and femininity on the achievement and interpersonal strivings, abilities, and self-concepts of 176 male and female college students were investigated. The results indicate that psychological masculinity and femininity are better predictors of strivings and self-concepts in the achievement and interpersonal domains than gender. Only with respect to subjects' expected and ideal financial responsibilities, an area which is governed by strong societal sex role norms, does the influence of gender surpass that of psychological masculinity and femininity. The results are discussed in terms of the personality strengths and social competencies that derive from masculine and feminine personality traits.     

Sex differences in self-disclosure: a meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 205 studies involving 23,702 Ss was conducted to determine whether there are sex differences in self-disclosure. Across these studies, women disclosed slightly more than men (d = .18). This effect size was not homogeneous across studies. Several moderator variables were found. Sex of target and the interaction effect of relationship to target and measure of self-disclosure moderated the effect of sex on self-disclosure. Sex differences in self-disclosure were significantly greater to female and same-sex partners than to opposite-sex or male partners. When the target had a relationship with the discloser (i.e., friend, parent, or spouse), women disclosed more than men regardless of whether self-disclosure was measured by self-report or observation. When the target was a stranger, men reported that they disclosed similarly to women; however, studies using observational measures of self-disclosure found that women disclosed more than men.     

Intimacy of disclosure topics and sex differences in self-disclosure

A 25-item self-disclosure questionnaire with items scaled for intimacy level was given to 32 male and 32 female college students. It was hypothesized that males would report disclosing less than females concerning intimate topics while there would be no sex differences in disclosure on nonintimate topics. The hypothesis was supported by the data. The results demonstrate that scoring self-disclosure scales by summing across all items can mask sex differences in disclosure patterns. Results are interpreted as supporting the assertions of several theorists that males reveal less personal information about themselves than do females.     

Vocational interests,personality, and sociosexuality as indicators of a general masculinity/femininity factor

Several individual difference domains include variables that show substantial sex differences and may be considered indicators of masculinity/femininity (M/F). We examined the structure of gender-related characteristics from three domains (vocational interests, personality characteristics, and sociosexually relevant sexual fantasies) to determine whether a general factor of M/F can be derived even when participant sex is controlled, and if so, which domains and which variables within those domains are the best indicators of that factor. In a sample of 198 undergraduate students, we found strong intercorrelations between indicators of M/F across domains in the combined-sex sample but only weak intercorrelations within sex. The results also indicated that a general masculinity/femininity factor could be obtained, even when participant sex was controlled, and was defined more strongly by personality characteristics and sociosexuality of sexual fantasies than by vocational interests.     

The naive perception of masculinity-femininity on the basis of expressive cues

Groups of naive judges rated 18 videotaped stimulus persons on masculinity, femininity, “dominance, assertiveness,” and “compassion, sensitivity to others.” Stimulus persons were broken down by sex and sex-typing—half were male, half female—and within sexes one third were classified as masculine, feminine, and androgynous on the basis of their scores on the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Two experiments are reported in which groups of judges rate stimulus persons on the basis of such different expressive information as videotaped pictures and recorded voices, videotaped pictures alone, videotaped bodies, videotaped heads, recorded voices, and still photos. The results showed: (1) Judges reliably rated masculinity-femininity from largely expressive cues: (2) judgments of masculinity-femininity were not predominantly determined by judgments of sex role-related traits: (3) the naive judgment of masculinity-femininity significantly corresponded to stimulus subjects' assessed sex roles; (4) stimulus subjects (particulary males) showed a consistent display of masculinity-femininity across expressive channels; and (5) judges used different expressive cues in judging masculinity-femininity in males and females. These results are related to broader questions concerning the relation between expressive behavior and personality.     

Insecure Attachment,Gender Roles,and Interpersonal Dependency in the Basque Country

Gender, gender role, and attachment style were used to predict emotional and instrumental dependency in a Basque student sample (N = 602). Psychometrically sound Spanish adaptations of English–language measures of dependency and attachment were created. As predicted, women were more emotionally and instrumentally dependent than men, but the sex differences were mediated by psychological masculinity and femininity. The anxious attachment dimension was correlated with emotional and instrumental dependency, the preoccupied rating with emotional dependency, and the avoidant attachment dimension and fearful rating with instrumental dependency. When the two attachment dimensions and the two gender–role variables were combined to predict dependency, emotional dependency was a function of anxious attachment and femininity; instrumental dependency was a function of anxious and avoidant attachment and low masculinity. Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

Early adolescent age and gender differences in patterns of emotional self-disclosure to parents and friends

This study explored adolescent age and gender differences in patterns of emotional self-disclosure to parents and friends. The sample consisted of 174 junior high school students between the ages of 12 and 15. Results revealed that females exhibited greater emotional self-disclosure to parents and peers than did males, and that emotional self-disclosure to friends was greatest among older adolescents. In addition, while younger adolescents preferred to disclose information about their emotional state to parents, older adolescents chose friends. Exploratory hierarchical regression analyses revealed that emotional disclosure to parents was most strongly associated with adolescent perceptions of the openness of family communication, family cohesion, and satisfaction with family relationships. Emotional disclosure to friends was associated with adolescent self-esteem in the peer context and identity development. The results are discussed in terms of the complementary socializing processes that may operate within the contexts of family and friends.     

Desirable and undesirable masculine and feminine traits in relation to students' dieting tendencies and body image dissatisfaction

Previous research showing greater femininity among overweight persons used measures of masculinity and femininity which have been criticized for conceptual and psychometric reasons. The present study used the Spence-Helmreich measures to examine the interrelationships among socially desirable and socially undesirable instrumental (masculine) and expressive (feminine) traits, body weight, and other attributes of cognitive concern about dieting and weight-related appearance. While body weight was unrelated to these measures of psychological masculinity and femininity, sex differences were found in the relationship of masculinity and femininity to dieting tendencies. dissatisfaction with physical appearance, and achievement motivation in these samples of college undergraduates.     

The effects of sex and sex-role concept on self-disclosure

Socialization into traditional sex-role concepts has been offered as an explanation of sex differences in self-disclosure. The present experiment tested a derivation of this hypothesis: Androgynous males would self-disclose more intimately than sex-typed males. A 2×2×2×2 factorial design was used with sex of subject, sex-role concept of subject, sex of target person, and disclosure level of target person as the independent variables. The results failed to demonstrate an overall difference between androgynous and sex-typed males, while significant sex differences and a strong reciprocity effect were obtained. With both male and female subjects, androgynous subjects did disclose more than sex-typed subjects when the target person had exhibited high disclosure. The findings are discussed in terms of two hypotheses: (1) compliance to a social norm regarding male disclosure to strangers; (2) flexibility of the disclosing behavior of androgynous subjects.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., March 1978. The authors are indebted to two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions concerning this article.