Cultural differences in gender role attitudes between Chinese and American students

A total of 665 Chinese college students in Taiwan and Caucasian college students in eastern North Carolina were administered several sex role attitude scales developed by Spence et al. (1978, 1980). The scales were translated into Chinese for Chinese subjects. Results indicated cultural differences in attitudes toward Marital Roles, Expressivity, Social Interaction, and Preference for males. In both cultures, females were found to be significantly more liberal, as shown in Attitudes Toward Women, Marital Roles, and Social Interaction. These results are consistent with previous research. Cultural differences were also as expected, with Chinese holding more conservative views.An earlier version of this paper was presented in part at the 63rd Annual Convention of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, Massachusetts, April 3, 1992.     

Aggressive behavioral characteristics,hormones, and sexual orientation in men and women

Aggressive behavioral characteristics were assessed in groups of men and women by a self-report instrument, the Aggression Inventory, in which adult males reported more physical and verbal aggression than did females. Furthermore, males had higher scores on measures of impulsiveness and lack of frustration tolerance than did females, while women were more likely to avoid confrontation. In a second study, groups of male and female homosexuals and heterosexuals completed this Aggression Inventory after having blood samples taken to assay resting levels of testosterone (T) and estradiol (E). Groups of subjects within each gender were closely matched in terms of age, education, and vocational interests. Women were matched for the same time in their menstrual cycle (early follicular phase). Among men, homosexuals were indistinguishable from heterosexuals on all measures of aggression. Lesbians did not differ from heterosexual women on any aggression subscale except physical aggression, in which the homosexual women had lower scores. T and E were positively correlated with several indices of aggressive behavioral characteristics in men but were negatively correlated with those same measures in women.     

AGE AND GENDER DIMENSIONS OF FRIENDSHIP

Since stereotypes about appropriate social behavior appear to influence questionnaires and other self-reported data concerning friendship, an in-depth interview format was used to explore gender and age differences in friendship patterns. Thirty-one subjects were interviewed: five young males, six young females, fivemidlife males, five midlife females, five older males, and five older females. As in our previous questionnaire studies, groups described friendship in superficially similar ways. However, in the taped interviews, large gender differences appeared that followed conceptually along instrumental/expressive dimensions. Women at all ages were more expressive in their friendships, showing higher levels of empathy and altruism than men. Age differences also appeared, with men developing increased concern and thoughtfulness in friendship with greater age, and women showing more tolerance and less confrontation of their friends with greater age.     

Gender,Social Roles,and Mental Health: An Epidemiological Perspective

The social roles men and women occupy may account for gender differences in rates of psychiatric disorder. Women are thought to have poorer experiences within any given role (role strain theory), have more conflicts among their different roles (role-configuration theory), or have fewer role opportunities available to them (role accumulation hypothesis) compared to men. These theories are examined in a community sample (n = 4,745, 52% females and 48% males; Caucasian [84.2%], Hispanics [10.0%], African Americans [3.8%], Native American [1.4%], Asian [0.6%], and Pacific Islander [0.1%]). No gender differences in the overall rate of DSM, psychiatric disorders were found; however, differences were found for specific disorders. Although multiple roles were generally found to be associated with lower rates of disorders for both men and women, some role combinations were associated with a higher rate of disorders. The possibility that roles may be associated with both stressors and protective factors is discussed.     

SEXIST DISCRIMINATION MAY ACCOUNT FOR WELL-KNOWN GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMS

It was hypothesized that women may have more depressive, anxious, and somatic symptoms than men because they experience a deleterious stressor that men do not: sexist treatment. A total of 255 students (180 females, 75 males) at a state university completed an anonymous questionnaire containing measures of these symptoms. Women were found to exhibit significantly greater symptoms than men on all of them. Further, women who experienced frequent sexism had significantly more symptoms than men on all symptom measures, whereas women who experienced little sexism did not differ from men on any symptom measure. These findings suggest that gender-specific stressors not only play a role in psychiatric symptoms among women but may account for well-known gender differences in those symptoms as well.     

A comparison of adult males' and females' interactions with girls and boys

The verbal interactions of adult males and females with trained girl and boy confederates were compared in an unstructured and an immediately following structured situation. Women did not respond differently based on the child's gender in either situation, while men spoke more and used longer mean length of utterances with the boys than with the girls in the unstructured situation. In the structured situation males did not respond differently to girls and boys, speaking more to both than did females. Correlations between the number of words spoken in female-child pairs were higher, suggesting a greater reciprocity of interaction, than for male-child pairs in both situations. The results are seen as reflecting the outcome of differential sex-role socialization for men and women, especially with respect to children, with females socialized to relate with others and men to need to dominate others.     

Gender Differences in Perceptions of How Others Are Affected by Self-Disclosure of Achievement

Three experiments were conducted at two east coast Universities with primarily Caucasian students participating. In experiment one, college students disclosed that they scored in the 91st percentile or in the top half on an intelligence-related test to a female student who had scored either in the 42nd percentile (low-achieving) or the 92nd percentile (high-achieving) on the same test. Women who disclosed modestly (top half) judged that the low-achieving other felt better than women who disclosed immodestly (91st percentile). Also, women who disclosed modestly judged that the other liked them more than women who disclosed immodestly. These effects did not occur with men. In experiment two, college students disclosed that they scored in the 91st percentile or in the top half on an intelligence-related test to either a male or a female student who had scored in the 42nd percentile on the same test. Women who disclosed modestly judged that a female peer liked them more and felt more intelligent and confident than did women who disclosed immodestly. In contrast, men who disclosed immodestly judged that a female peer liked them more than did men who disclosed modestly. Regardless of the peer's gender, women judged that peers felt worse about themselves, were less happy and more upset when subjects had disclosed immodestly. In contrast, men judged that the peer felt better about himself or herself, was happier and less upset when the subjects had disclosed immodestly. In Experiment 3, male and female participants rated the intelligence-related test as equally difficult and rated doing well on them as equally important. Participants also indicated that doing well was equally important to males and females. Thus, ego-involvement is ruled out as an alternative explanation. These findings support the interpretation of previous research that women may choose to disclose modestly in an effort to be better liked or to protect the other's feelings.     

Sex role self schema and psychological adjustment in coupled homosexual and heterosexual men and women

This study examined the relation between dimensions of sex role self schema (assessed by four factor scores of the Bem Sex Role Inventory: Instrumentality, Expressiveness, Autonomy, and Masculinity-Femininity) and psychological adjustment (assessed by the Symptom Checklist-90-R) in 366 homosexuals (230 males and 136 females) and 241 heterosexuals (124 males and 117 females). All subjects were in a cohabitating relationship. Homosexuals and heterosexuals did not differ in psychological adjustment, but men were found to be more distressed by paranoid symptoms than women. Dimensions of sex role self schema varied by an interaction between gender and sexual orientation. Gender differences on Instrumentality, Expressiveness, and Masculinity-Femininity were more pronounced for heterosexuals than for homosexuals. Further, homosexual women were more Instrumental than heterosexual women, while homosexual and heterosexual men were equivalent; homosexual men were more Expressive than heterosexual men, while homosexual and heterosexual women were equivalent; and the discrepancy between homosexual and heterosexual women's Masculinity-Femininity score was greater than that between homosexual and heterosexual men. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that only education and the Autonomy dimension of sex role self scheme were the best nonredundant predictors of psychological adjustment, although the relations were weak. Findings are discussed in terms of current theory and research on sex role self schemas.     

Gender differences in the perception of women in magazine advertising

Male and female college students (N=137) rated 10 control and 10 target magazine advertisements for appeal and for the perceived sexism displayed in the ads. Males did not differ in their ratings of target and control ad appeal. Females rated target ads as less appealing than control ads, and gave target ads lower appeal ratings than did males. Females also rated target ads as more sexist than did males, although both sexes rated target ads as more sexist than control ads. All subjects also completed the Attitudes Toward Women Scale, on which females displayed more liberal attitudes than males.     

Attributions About Rape: Effects of Rapist Force, Observer Sex and Sex Role Attitudes

The present study investigated subjects' perceptions of a hypothetical rape situation as a function of the amount of force used in the rape, sex of subject, and subjects' attitudes toward feminism. Two hundred thirty-two subjects (118 females, 114 males) were randomly assigned by sex to one of three force conditions. Consistent with expectation, subjects expressed greater certainty that a rape had actually occurred with increased force on the part of the assailant ( p <.001). A second hypothesis received partial support: Increasing force led to stronger attributions of rape on the part of traditional women, whereas liberal women tended to see the incident as rape at all force levels. A similar relationship did not emerge for men, however. As predicted, profeminist subjects implicated societal factors as causal in rape to a greater extent than did nonfeminists. Contrary to prediction, however, pro- and nonfeminists were not found to differ from each other in the degree of blame attributed to either the victim or the assailant. The findings support the general notion that one's gender and sex-role attitudes as well as the degree of force used by a rape assailant affect one's evaluation of this situation and the manner in which one attributes cause. Implications for rape prevention and victim reaction are discussed.     

Gender differences in eating behavior and body weight regulation

Gender differences in food intake and selection first appear in adolescence. Men consume more calories than women, and the sexes have different eating styles, which indicate that women have been socialized to eat in a more feminine manner. Women experience more food-related conflict than men do, in that they like fattening foods but perceive that they should not eat them. Pressures to be thin are present in early adolescence, as noted by dieting behavior starting in very young girls. Women experience more dissatisfaction with their body weight and shape than men do. Sociocultural and psychological factors may be important in the etiology of eating disorders, which are much more prevalent in females than in males. Thus, further studies of gender differences in eating behavior will be important for understanding the etiology of eating and body-weight disorders and for designing gender-appropriate treatments.     

Sex and menstrual cycle differences in the habituation and spontaneous recovery of the electrodermal orienting reaction

Sex and menstrual cycle differences have been widely observed in electrodermal activity. The aim of this study was to investigate these differences in the electrodermal orienting reaction employing a habituation-spontaneous recovery procedure. According to previous research it was predicted that men and preovulatory women should show higher electrodermal responses, higher skin conductance levels, and slower habituation rates. Thirty-two subjects (16 males and 16 females) were presented with two series of tones, 10 in the first series and eight in the second, with a 4-min rest period between the two series. Half of the subjects received the same 5-sec tone (80 dB, 1000 Hz) in each presentation while the other half received 80-dB, 5-sec tones which varied randomly in frequency (100, 500, 1000 Hz). Women were divided into two groups; preovulatory (n = 7) and postovulatory (n = 8) according to their answers to a retrospective questionnaire. The mean response amplitude was higher in the group of males, who habituated later than females. Postovulatory women showed lower orienting reactions in the first series, and habituated faster than did preovulatory women in the two series. There were neither significant differences between males and females, nor between preovulatory and postovulatory women in tonic conductance levels. These results support the existence of greater electrodermal reactivity in males and in preovulatory women.     

Women in advertisements in medical journals

To determine the images of women in picture advertisements, a stratified random sample of 32 medical journals, representing approximately 12% of medical journals published in the United States that are directed toward physicians in clinical practice, was subjected to content analysis. The sample consists of 209 different ads. The subjects of the ads included men, women, and children representing a variety of ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups. Notable, however, was the preponderance of Caucasian males pictured as physicians and the absence of women and people of color in this role. Women are pictured as 68.1% of consumers and men as 31.9%, a significant difference. Statistically significant differences also occur in the images of men and women as consumers. Most of the workers are men (68.2%), another significant difference. When women depicted are workers, they are secretaries and waitresses. Portrayals of women in medical advertisements continue to be stereotyped and outdated.     

The Effects of Sex,Status, and Ability on Helping Behavior1

Protests against affirmative action articulate the concern that qualified white males will be subordinated to less qualified women and minorities. To examine the possibility that the reversal of traditional status relationships rather than competence inequity underlies resistance to affiimative action, a study was conducted in which subjects interacted with a male or female who was introduced as their supervisor or subordinate and as either higher or lower in ability than themselves. The results indicate that status, not ability, influences the frequency of helping women, whereas ability, not status, primarily influences helping behavior toward men. Specifically. female subordinates were helped more than females supervisors, regardless of ability, while high-ability males elicited more help than low-ability males, independent of status. Subsequent ratings revealed that although subjects acknowledged the greater competence of high-ability males, they did not evaluate high-ability females as more competent than themselves.     

The impact of ethnicity,nationality, counseling orientation,and mental health standards on stereotypic beliefs about women: A pilot study

People vary in the extent to which they hold stereotypic beliefs about women. The recently developed Beliefs About Women Scale (BAWS) was used in five investigations to examine the following aspects of people's stereotypic beliefs about women: (Study I) the impact of ethnicity (Hispanics and Anglos) on women's endorsement of traditional beliefs about women; (Study II) the impact of national culture (Mexico and the United States) on women's responses to the BAWS; (Study III) the extent to which U.S. women define women's and men's mental health in terms of stereotypic beliefs about women; (Study IV) the extent to which preferences for counseling orientation influence the beliefs about women attributed to mentally healthy women and men; and (Study V) the impact of national culture (Mexico and the United States) on the beliefs about women ascribed to mentally healthy women and men. The results indicated that (a) U.S. Anglo females disagreed more strongly with traditional beliefs about women than did U.S. Hispanic females; (b) U.S. women expressed greater agreement with traditional stereotypes about women's interpersonal abilities and greater disagreement with traditional stereotypes about women's personal competencies than did women from Mexico; (c) the beliefs about women held by U.S. psychology trainees, and the beliefs about women that they attributed to mentally healthy females, were more nontraditional than those that they attributed to mentally healthy males; (d) particular counseling preferences were associated with the stereotypic beliefs about women that female counseling trainees imputed to mentally healthy males and females; and (e) similarities and differences exist on the beliefs about women that female psychology trainees from the United States and Mexico ascribe to mentally healthy females and males. The discussion focuses on mentally healthy beliefs about women, and the implications of these findings for the delivery of mental health services to women and men from various cultures.     

Measuring Perceptions of Gender Roles: The IAWS for Pakistanis and U.S. Immigrant Populations

A new scale called the Islamic Attitudes Toward Women Scale (IAWS) was developed and administered to a sample of 195 Pakistani adults and to a sample of 140 Muslim immigrants in the United States. In support of the construct validation of the scale, it was found to significantly differentiate between liberal and conservative Muslims in Pakistan, and in both samples, men held more conservative attitudes than women. For both women and men, more liberal scores on the IAWS were correlated with less accepting beliefs about marital violence toward women. In the U.S. immigrant sample, those who had been in the United States longer had less conservative attitudes.     

Forgiveness, Empathy and Gender—A Malaysian Perspective

Recent theorising has suggested that in non-Western collectivist contexts, the need for social harmony may play a greater role than empathy in motivating forgiveness, and that women may be more impacted than men by this cultural value. In this study, a sample of 233 Malaysian undergraduate students, 100 males and 133 females, recruited from four English-mediated universities completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory-12 (TRIM-12) to assess dimensions of empathy and forgiveness. Women exhibited greater empathic concern than men, but not greater perspective-taking. Men were less forgiving in terms of revenge-seeking behaviour, but men and women did not differ in avoidance of transgressors. The relationships between empathic concern and both facets of forgiveness were similar for men and women, as was the relationship between empathic concern and avoidance. However, the relationship between perspective-taking and avoidance was stronger among men than women. We found little support for the prediction that in this collectivist cultural context, perspective-taking would play a greater role than empathic concern in forgiveness. Further research is recommended to explore empathy and forgiveness in non-Western populations, with a need to take into account cultural factors.     

Gender Differences in Persuasive Communication and Attribution of Success and Failure

This study examined the impact of gender on persuasive communication, considering the gender of both speaker and listener, and comparing the self-expectations and evaluations of the speakers before and after their communicative exchanges. Findings revealed that females expressed less confidence than males concerning their ability to communicate their arguments persuasively, even though trained communication raters indicated that both genders performed equally well. Subjects varied in their expressed self-confidence, however, depending upon whether they were addressing their arguments to a male or a female. In addition, males rated their communicative “performances” more positively than did females. In attributing their perceived success to various factors, men were more likely to acknowledge their natural communication ability than were women, while women were more inclined than men to point to their effort as the cause of their success. Finally, male and female subjects differed from each other in the way they argued, with males being more inclined to present criterion-based arguments and women more likely to invent their own. Again, both genders tended to use different types of arguments, depending upon the gender of the listener. Several issues raised by the study, especially the gender differences in argument type and the apparent gender-based audience assumptions, warrant further study.     

Gender differences in responses to depressed mood in a college sample

Two studies tested the hypothesis that women are more likely than men to focus on themselves and their mood when in a depressed mood, and that this leads them to experience longer periods of depressed mood. In both studies subjects were predominantly Caucasian college students. In our first study, a laboratory study, females chose to engage in an emotion-related task significantly more often than did males, even when this lead them to focus on an existing sad mood. In the second study, a prospective naturalistic study, females were more likely than males to evince an emotion-focused ruminative style of coping with their moods. A ruminative response style at Time 1 was a significant predictor of depression scores at Time 2, even after initial levels of depressed mood were taken into account. Furthermore, once rumination levels were controlled for, gender was no longer a potent predictor of depression outcome. The implications of these response styles for treatment are discussed.We thank Brandi Battistoni, Kim Bergquist, Rachel Carr, Lisa Lougee, and especially Ariel Lang for their invaluable help in data collection. We also thank Chuck Olson, Jannay Morrow, and Rose McDermott for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.