Dimensions and correlates of third through eighth graders' sex-role self-concepts

The sex-role self-concepts of 238 third- through eighth-grade children were assessed by means of a modified Bem Sex Role Inventory. Most children's sex-role self-concepts were congruent with their biological sex, although a large portion of the sample was categorized as having androgynous self-concepts (33.98% of males and 31.11% of females). The frequency of cross-sex-role self-concepts was very low. The stability of children's sex-role self-concepts was evidenced by nonsignificant developmental trends in the percentage of children classified as masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated. The relationship between children's sex-role self-concept and general self-concept, occupational stereotyping, frequency of TV watching, and a variety of parent-rated behaviors was also explored. While some developmental trends and sex differences occurred, sex-role self-concept was nonsignificantly related to these variables. Results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of the sex-role self-concept, particularly androgyny, as a developmental construct.The authors would like to thank the children and parents of St. Helen's Grammar School for their cooperation, and Karen Hyde, Jeff Wilbert, and Jill Tschopp for their help in data collection and analysis.     

Sex-role attitudes of working-class women in Bogota,Colombia 1977

This study examines the sex-role attitudes of 204 working-class women in Bogota, Colombia, and compares their attitudes to recent findings for women in the United States. Historical evidence from Europe and the United States, as well as contemporary evidence from Latin America, provides insight into the ways in which women's work and family commitments can be fully integrated. On the basis of these examples, it is hypothesized that working-class Colombian women will have seemingly inconsistent sex-role attitudes, more inconsistent than those of North American women. The Colombian women studied had highly egalitarian attitudes with regard to women's labor market rights and less egalitarian attitudes with regard to women's family roles. It is further hypothesized that education and wage level will be important factors influencing the sex-role attitudes of working-class Colombian women. A multiple regression analysis confirmed that these factors are successful predictors of sex-role attitudes involving women's family roles. It is proposed that education and wage level reflect an emphasis on individualistic values rather than traditional family values, and thus support more egalitarian attitudes about family roles.The data collection and initial analysis of results for this study were funded by a Rockefeller-Ford Population Policy Grant in 1976–1977. These stages were completed at the Corporacion Centro Regional de Poblacion in Bogota, Colombia, with the assistance of Elsa Gomez and Elena Prada. Further analysis was supported by a State University of New York, University Awards Committee Grant to the author in the summer of 1978. Michael Goode, Norman Goodman, Eugene Weinstein, and an anonymous reviewer all contributed to the final version of this article.     

The relationship of sex-role orientation to self-perceived health status in middle-aged males

The purpose of this study was to determine how sex-role orientation was related to self-perceived health status among a group of middle-aged males. A nonprobability sample of 237 male volunteers between the ages of 40 and 59, of whom 88.7% were engaged in professional occupations, completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and two separate measures employed to assess self-perceived health status. As predicted, the results indicated that on both measures of self-perceived health status, the middle-aged men with a traditional male sex-role orientation or those in the masculine classification reported lower self-perceived levels of health than did males considered to be androgynous. In this sample of professional middle-aged males, an androgynous sex-role orientation was, therefore, associated with higher levels of self-perceived health than was a traditional male sex-role orientation. Finally, an unhypothesized finding was that the men in the undifferentiated category also evidenced lower levels of self-perceived health than males who were androgynous.This research was part of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Maryland, College Park.     

Sex-role stereotypes: Self-reports of behavior

The present study represents a self-reported behavioral approach to the study of sex differences and sex-role stereotypes. One hundred forty-eight undergraduate women and men responded anonymously in group testing sessions to two questionnaires. The first questionnaire asked them to report their own involvement in 45 masculine and feminine sex-typed behaviors; the second questionnaire asked for their perceptions of the involvement of men and women in the same behaviors. Major findings included (a) sex differences in reported ability, enjoyment, performance, and opportunity which mirrored traditional sex-role stereotypes and indicated greater competence at stereotypic behaviors (the majority of differences significant at p<.001); (b) perceptions of men and women's behavior also consistent with sex-role stereotypes; and (c) sex differences in the perceived appropriateness of behaviors (p<.05) which indicate greater sex-typing in men's (as compared with women's) perceptions of both sexes. The study focuses on the self-reported behavioral bases of gender-specific stereotypes and how these behaviors are influenced by aspects of the social environment (such as reinforcement contingencies) and by aspects of the the person (such as simple learning and performance deficits), and suggests ways in which sex differences might be changed to provide increased behavioral options for women and men.Portions of this research were supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant #5 RO1 MH06613-4. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Drs. David Sanuders, Socrates Rapagna, William Hodges, and Gene Glass for their design, data analytic, and editorial assistance.     

Comprehending envy

The authors reviewed the psychological research on envy. The authors examined definitional challenges associated with studying envy, such as the important distinction between envy proper (which contains hostile feelings) and benign envy (which is free of hostile feelings). The authors concluded that envy is reasonably defined as an unpleasant, often painful emotion characterized by feelings of inferiority, hostility, and resentment caused by an awareness of a desired attribute enjoyed by another person or group of persons. The authors examined questions such as why people envy, why envy contains hostile feelings, and why it has a tendency to transmute itself. Finally, the authors considered the role of envy in helping understand other research domains and discussed ways in which people cope with the emotion.     

The More You Have, the More You Do: The Relationship Between Wife's Employment, Sex-Role Attitudes, and Household Behavior

This study explores the relationship between wife's employment, sex-role traditionalism, and the reported division of household tasks and decisions. Data were collected from three samples of currently married women between the ages of 18 and 49 in Los Angeles County. Sex-role traditionalism was positively related to wives' relative performance of feminine tasks, but generally unrelated to masculine task performance and decision-making between spouses. Employed or professional women took primary responsibility for relatively fewer feminine tasks than did nonemployed or nonprofessional women. The findings suggest that despite differences among women in sex-role traditionalism and employment status, most women say that they and their spouses divide tasks in a traditional sex-role fashion.     

Relationship between sex-role attitudes and personality traits and the revised sex-role behavior scale

Two hundred college men and women completed self-report measures of sex-role traits (Personal Attributes Questionnaire), attitudes (Attitudes Toward Women Scale), and behavior (Sex-Role Behavior Scale). Intercorrelations among the three measures were examined to test two competing theoretical perspectives which dominate sex-role research today. The social learning point-of-view of Janet Spence and her colleagues asserts a general independence of sex-role personality traits, attitudes, and behaviors. The cognitive-developmental theory of Sandra Bem asserts that sex-role phenomena are fairly closely interrelated, at least for sex-typed individuals whose gender schemas cause them to adhere closely to traditional sex-role norms in their self-concepts and behavior. Findings of moderate relationships between masculine, feminine, and sex-specific personality traits, and the corresponding interest/behavior scales of the Sex-Role Behavior Scale, and between sex-role attitudes and behaviors lend partial support to both perspectives.     

When beauty isn't talent: The influence of physical attractiveness,attitudes toward women,and competence on impression formation

The present study investigated the effect of attitudes toward women, physical attractiveness, and competence on impression formation of women. Male and female undergraduates read a competent or incompetent essay allegedly written by a physically attractive or unattractive female and responded to questions about the essay and its writer. Subjects were classified as traditionals, moderates, or liberals on the basis of their scores on the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Female subjects' impressions were affected by the competence of the stimulus person and by their sex-role attitudes, but were not influenced by the physical attractiveness of the writer. Males, however, were influenced by all three variables. Evidence was found for a reversal of the physical attractiveness stereotype for liberal males with reference to incompetent women. The implications of these findings for physical attractiveness research are discussed.The authors wish to express their appreciation to Walter Stephan, Judith Langlois, Janet Spence, and Richard Archer for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Thanks are also due to Richard Roberson for assistance in data collection.     

Psychological gender, hand preferences, and sex differences in book-carrying styles

Individuals with stronger sex-role identities may be expected to show greater conformity to sex-typed behaviors. Proceeding from this assumption, the sex-role status and sex of students using different styles of carrying books were compared. This study also examined whether over-all hand preference or age were related to carrying styles or sex-role status. Subjects completed a questionnaire comprised of the 24-item Personal Attributes Questionnaire of Spence and Helmreich, a 6-item scale of hand preference and a self-rating of sex-role identity. Afterwards, each subject's carrying style was covertly observed and recorded. Most subjects carried their materials in a sex-typical way or in book bags (for which no sex-typed carrying styles were discovered). As in previous studies, men in this study scored higher than women on masculinity and androgyny and lower on femininity. Hand preference was not related to sex-role status. Carrying style was not significantly correlated with any of the predictor variables for men, perhaps because almost no variance in carrying style was observed among them. Women who used masculine carrying styles tended to be older, have greater instrumentality, and a more masculine identity.     

Envy and Its Consequences: Why It Is Useful to Distinguish between Benign and Malicious Envy

Envy is the pain that arises from the good fortune of others. Recent research identified two subtypes of envy, benign and malicious envy. Malicious envy is the envy subtype with action tendencies aimed to pull down the envied person from their superior position. Benign envy is also a frustrating experience, but activates action tendencies aimed at improving oneself. This article provides an overview of the empirical support for making this distinction in envy subtypes. It then discusses the benefits of a subtype approach to envy, with the main advantages of distinguishing benign and malicious envy being that it (a) provides researchers with the language to be clear in how they conceptualize envy and (b) allows novel predictions. A next section provides a response to some criticism on making this distinction. Finally, I conclude with a section on how envy in general, and benign and malicious envy in particular, could be measured.     

A comparison of two sex-role androgyny measures in a study of sex-role identity for incarcerated delinquent and nondelinquent females

A sample of 100 incarcerated delinquent females and 100 nondelinquent female matched for age and socioeconomic status were compared on three aspects of sex-role identity. The Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the PRF ANDRO scale were used to assess sex-role androgyny; the Traditional Family Ideology scale was used to assess sex-role attitudes; and several questions concerning heterosexual relationships were asked. Correspondence between the two androgyny measures was moderate at the interval level of measurement and poor at the nominal level. Repeat offenders were significantly higher than first-time offenders and nondelinquents on the BSRI masculine scale; a significantly higher percentage of repeat offenders were classified as androgynous by the BSRI. No differences were observed using the PRF ANDRO scales. Heterosexual relationships were more important in the lives of delinquent females on both friendship and helping dimensions.     

An analysis of factors affecting traditional family expectations and perceptions of ideal fertility

This study examines: 1) the conditions giving rise to variation in sex-role orientation and the perceived cost of having children; and 2) the role these variables play as mechanisms linking antecedent variables to perceptions of ideal fertility. Data are drawn from a metropolitan area (Oklahoma City) sampling of 401 adults. Antecedent variables of sex, employment status, age, education, exposure to metropolitan living, and religious traditionalism--though correlated with ideal fertility--have no direct effects on that variable. Rather, the effects of these variables on fertility are mediated through sex-role orientation and the perceived cost of having children. The study confirms that there is a great deal of variation in the perception of a woman's place in comtemporary society and much of this variation is predictable. Education and exposure to metropolitan living both have influences which result in more egalitarian sex-role orientations, while traditional beliefs reinforce traditional sex-role orientations. Younger people also are more likely than older ones to be egalitarian. On the average, women are less traditional in their sex-role orientations than men and employed women are less traditional than unemployed women. Thus, the 2 strongest predictors of sex-role orientation are age and education. Sex role orientation and the perceived cost of having children both exert strong influences on the number of children thought to be ideal.     

Envy divides the two faces of narcissism

In this article, we test psychodynamic assumptions about envy and narcissism by examining malicious envy in the context of narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability. In Study 1, students (N = 192) and community adults (N = 161) completed trait measures of narcissism, envy, and schadenfreude. In Study 2 (N = 121), participants relived an episode of envy, and cognitive‐affective components of envy were examined in the context of both self‐ and informant reports of their envy and narcissism. In Study 3 (N = 69), narcissism was linked to reports of envy covertly induced in the laboratory. Vulnerable narcissism was strongly and consistently related to dispositional envy and schadenfreude (Studies 1–2), as well as to all cognitive‐affective components of envy (Study 2). Furthermore, it facilitated envy and schadenfreude toward a high‐status peer (Study 3). Grandiose narcissism was slightly negatively related to dispositional envy (Studies 1–2), and it did not predict informant reports of envy or cognitive‐affective components of the emotion (Study 2). Finally, it did not exacerbate envy, hostility, or resentment toward a high‐status peer (Study 3). The results suggest envy is a central emotion in the lives of those with narcissistic vulnerability and imply that envy should be reconsidered as a symptom accompanying grandiose features in the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder.     

Self-esteem,self-concept,and the life goals and sex-role attitudes of college students1

Questionnaires that assessed self-esteem, self-concept, educational goals, career goals, preferred and expected career commitment, and sex-role attitudes were completed by 884 male and female undergraduates representing two racial groups and two age groups. Men and women did not differ significantly in terms of self-esteem, but the men described themselves as more attractive than did the women in their age group. For the 18–25-year-old white women, an intelligent, unconventional, and/or nonreligious self-concept predicts nontraditional goals and feminist attitudes, and the interaction between self-esteem and socioeconomic status influences educational goals and sex-role attitudes. For the 18–25-year-old white men, a physically strong and intelligent self-concept predicts higher educational goals and traditional career goals, and lower self-described strength and religiousness and greater intelligence predict more feminist attitudes. Physical self-concept is unrelated to goals or attitudes for the female samples. Self-concept is less strongly predictive of goals and attitudes for the black women and the older men and women. Possible reasons for the sample differences and implications for related research are discussed.     

Traditionality of choice and sex-role identification as moderators of the congruence of occupational choice in college women

This study examined the relationship of traditionality of occupational preferences and sex-role orientation to personality-occupational environment congruence in college women. Three-letter Holland personality codes were obtained for each of 184 college women based on same-sex normative scores from the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and on scores from the ACT Unisex Interest Inventory (UNIACT). Subjects' occupational preferences were classified as traditional, moderately traditional, or nontraditional based on the percentages of women in the occupation. Scores on the Bern Sex Role Inventory were used to classify subjects into one of four sex-role categories. Results indicated a strong association between congruence and traditionality of choice; women whose choices were in nontraditional career fields were significantly more likely to be making choices congruent with their personality type than were women choosing traditional career fields. Further, while sex-role orientation was not significantly related to either congruence or traditionality, masculine-typed women were most likely to make nontraditional and congruent career choices, while the majority of feminine-typed, androgynous, and undifferentiated women stated preferences for traditional career fields. Implications for the applicability of Holland's congruence postulate to women's vocational behavior are discussed.     

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.     

Response bias in sex-role attitude measurement

The widespread use of survey research by social scientists as a means for generating data has prompted an examination of the interview situation for sources of bias. Two potential aspects of the interview have been of particular interest to analysts — dissimilarities between interviewers and subjects on key sociopersonal variables and the nature of the subject matter of the interview. This study examines the impact of sex differences between interviewers and subjects on responses to a sensitive subject-matter area — sex-role orientations — in a telephone interview situation.The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of members of an introductory research methods class at LSU during spring 1980 for their help in gathering the data upon which this article is based.     

Sex-role orientation and psychological well-being: Two meta-analyses

Research on the relationship between sex-role orientation and psychological well-being has been guided by one of three models. The traditional congruence model holds that psychological well-being will be fostered only when one's sex-role orientation is congruent with one's gender; the androgyny model proposes that well-being will be maximized when one's sex-role orientation incorporates a high degree of both masculinity and femininity regardless of one's gender; the masculinity model posits that well-being is a function of the extent to which one has a masculine sex-role orientation. The adequacy of these three models was tested by means of a meta-analysis of 32 studies of the relationship between sex-role orientation and depression and general adjustment. The results of the meta-analysis provided the best support for the masculinity model, with masculinity having a moderately strong relationship to both high adjustment and lack of depression and with femininity having only a small relationship to adjustment and no relationship to depression. No support was found for the congruence model.The author would like to express his appreciation to Sanford Golin and Paul Sweeney for their helpful comments on early drafts of this article.