Male and female images in a case of frigidity (discussion)

Abstract

The case of Anna presented by Professor Giliberti is discussed from an interpersonal perspective. Attention is given to Anna's real experiences of hypocrisy, social inadequacy, hatred and blame projection. Paranoid aspects are emphasized and seen as connected with a disparity between appearance and reality in the communicative pattern of the family.     

Comments on female homosexuality

The author explores to what extent the first gender-identical love between mother and daughter shapes female self representation and becomes influential for later homosexual relations among women. Literary examples and case vignettes illustrate the connection.     

Sex-role identity and male and female homosexuality

The incidences of sex-role outcome within homosexual and heterosexual male and female young adult samples were compared using a fourfold typology (both masculine and feminine, masculine, feminine, neither masculine nor feminine). Sex-role identity disparities between the female groups were more clear-cut; the most striking difference was the high incidence of masculinity (60%) within the homosexual female group. No significant differences for males were found, although a trend was noted toward higher incidence of femininity and lower incidence of masculinity in homosexuals. The second purpose of the study was to search for possible developmental antecedents to heterosexual deficit in unselected college samples. The same key pattern of psychometric indices was identified for males and females. Low heterosexuality and the closest approximation to the modal sex-role identity among homosexuals of their sex were found in females primarily identified with masculine fathers and low in role consistency and in males primarily identified with feminine mothers and low in role consistency.     

Male responses to female competence

This study investigated the conditions under which a male would denigrate a female because of her competence. Sixty-four male subjects either cooperated or competed on anagram tasks with high/low competence male or female co-workers in the presence of a male or a female experimenter. Subsequently, these subjects evaluated their co-workers. No evidence was found to support the notion that males rejected a female partner because of her competence. In fact, some measures revealed that competent females were valued over their male counterparts in the cooperative conditions. Unexpectedly, sex of the experimenter interacted significantly with sex of the co-worker to determine the subject's responses to his partner's competence on two of the dependent measures. The discrepancies between these findings and earlier research findings are addressed. The implications for females in a mixed-sex work context are discussed.     

Attitudes toward male and female homosexuality and sex-role stereotypes in Israeli and American students

Although the legal and psychiatric status of homosexuals has drastically changed, public prejudice about homosexuality has not disappeared. Former studies have developed the idea that homophobia is closely related to conservatism in sex-role polarization. The present research investigated sex differences in attitudes toward male and female homosexuality and sex-role polarization in a cross-cultural perspective, comparing young, educated Israelis and Americans. One-hundred seventy students participated in the study, completing a sex-role survey, an attitude toward homosexuality questionnaire, and a social desirability scale. The results indicated that Israelis were more homophobic and more conservative in their sex-role polarization than Americans. Men were more homophobic and more generally conservative in sex-role orientation than women. A positive relationship was found between sex-role polarization and rejection of homosexuality within each of the samples. The results could not be attributed to social desirability. The significance of these findings is discussed in the context of sex differences and differences between Israeli and American cultures.The research reported here was conducted for an M.A. thesis of the second author under the supervision of the first author (in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree in psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem).     

Male acceptance of female career roles

Forty-two male university students rated five written female role statements matched with video taped females on an 11-point probability of marriage scale. A significant main effect for work roles revealed the order of preference to be Immediate Nurturer, Delayed Nurturer, Homemaker, Integrator, and Career Primary — confirming the expected preference of these middle-class college males for women who combine traditional family goals with some degree of career involvement. There was also an interaction between work roles, female physical attractiveness, and male self-esteem, which revealed an inability of low self-esteem males to tolerate the very attractive career-oriented female.     

Male and female responses to ambiguous instructor behaviors

Sexual harassment is widely prevalent within academic environments. Yet, many implicit harassing behaviors bear resemblance to instructor immediacy behaviors (i.e., behaviors intended to reduce relational distance). Since females are largely the targets of sexual harassment, it was proposed that they would rate immediacy behaviors to be less appropriate and would experience less comfort with these behaviors than their male counterparts. Three-hundred-fifty-four students (approximately 70% of whom were European-American) were asked to rate 19 ambiguous instructor behaviors for appropriateness. Participants were also asked to indicate how personally comfortable they would be with the described behaviors. Results indicated males rated 12 of 19 behaviors to be significantly more appropriate than females and indicated significantly greater comfort with 14 of 19 behaviors.The author would like to thank Dr. Paul Mongeau, Dr. Joseph Walther, and Jan Toth for assistance with this article. He would also like to thank the department chairs and instructors at DePaul University for their assistance in data collection.     

Chastity and the (Male) Philosophers

ABSTRACT Although sexual continence is no longer considered a necessary condition of the philosophical life, various spiritual traditions favour the development of a form of 'concentration' (samadhi) of the person which they claim to depend on such continence, and of which a perceived outcome is a natural state of 'chastity'. Such 'concentration'is insisted upon on the grounds that it is the condition under which the real nature of things is disclosed to the practitioner. Since philosophers are concerned to discover the real nature of things the implication might be thought to be that sexual continence should come back into favour and philosophers become spiritual practitioners. However, a distinction is made between ejaculatory and non-ejaculatory sexual activity and the suggestion made that despite the dominant tradition in the West, the relevant forms of concentration may develop under a regime of non-ejaculation rather than of continence understood as abstinence. This is the context of a discussion of the state of male sexuality and its dedication to the practice of ejaculation, which is seen as a constraint upon the energy available for action and upon the formation of the energy on which the disclosure of reality is said to depend. Male judgments about the plausibility of such claims are themselves contingent upon the state of male sexuality and its dedication to the practice of ejaculation .     

Male and female nurturing: Perceptions of style and competence

College men and women evaluated male and female characters in five stories about babysitters. The characters: (1) refused to babysit, (2) babysat with minimal caretaking activities, (3) babysat with an active play style, (4) babysat with a quiet play style, or (5) babysat with a combined style. The refuser was considered most masculine but was consistently devalued. The quiet play, the active play, and combined caretakers were evaluated most positively. Evaluations of babysitters were more dependent on the behaviors they engaged in than on their gender. Nurturing men and women were both valued.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, August 1985.     

A comparison of positive and negative (aversive) conditioning in the treatment of homosexuality

A variety of techniques based upon learning theory were applied in the treatment of a male homosexual patient. The experimental results point to the overwhelming importance of aversive techniques for the treatment of this condition when compared with non-aversive techniques. The discussion draws attention to the inappropriateness of the medical concepts of cure and relapse in behavioural manipulations involved in behaviour therapy.