Adult sex typing of children's toys

A primary focus of this study was to determine whether adults use traditional sex-type standards when choosing toys for boys or girls. I also investigated whether an adult's sex or gender role influences this decision. College students were shown pictures of 74 toys, and were asked to indicate whether they would buy each toy for a boy or girl. Traditional sex-type ratings were found. In addition, male subjects sex-typed toys to a greater extent than female subjects. Subjects' gender role was unrelated to sex-type ratings. Subjects also judged whether each toy provided educational value, required activity, and encouraged cooperation. Toys rated as requiring activity were not considered educational, but many toys considered educational were also rated as encouraging cooperation. In addition, toys considered masculine were rated as requiring more activity than feminine toys.The author thanks Fran Rosati, Dawn Pillitteri, and Karen Molison for their help with data scoring.     

The development of sex typing: Themes from recent research

A conceptual framework for organizing the constructs and content areas included in research on sex typing is presented in this review of recent research on the development of sex typing. Two major themes are discussed. First, sex-typed play activities and interests emerge clearly in the first few years of life. Both play activities and peer preferences are sex typed earlier and more definitely than are personality traits and social behaviors such as aggression or dependency. It is suggested that researchers have underemphasized the importance of interests, activities, and peer associations while overemphasizing personality attributes as the core of sex typing. The second theme is that cognitions and concepts about sex typing are important in the acquisition of gender typing, but they are not sufficient by themselves for understanding the process by which sex-typed behavior is acquired. Children's sex-role concepts are sometimes related to their behavioral preferences, but other factors are also important influences on behavior.     

The influence of gender labels on the sex typing of imaginary occupations

Social scientists have been concerned not only with gender stratification within the occupational labor force but with young peoples' recognition and aspiration toward same-gender careers. In this paper we investigate how gender labels influence individuals' evaluational sex typing of occupations. Four gender-marked booklets were constructed such that six imaginary occupations within the story were performed by persons labeled as women, men, both men and women, or individuals. College, high-school, and fifth-and third-grade students were asked to evaluate whether a gender-marked occupation was a position for women, men, or both sexes and possible for girls and boys. Students were also asked to indicate which occupations they preferred. Not only were the occupations classified in relation to the gender labels, but occupational gender barriers were perceived. In essence, males were restricted from engaging in female-labeled jobs and females were restricted from engaging in male-labeled jobs. However, career aspirations     

An experimental test of the effects of gender constancy on sex typing

This study provides an experimental test of the hypothesis that level of gender constancy understanding affects children’s sex typing. Preschool-age children (N = 62, mean age = 47 months) were randomly assigned to experimental lessons that taught that biological traits (including gender) are either fixed (pro-constancy condition) or mutable (anti-constancy condition). Posttests revealed that the lessons were effective; children in the pro-constancy condition showed higher gender constancy and appearance–reality distinction scores than did children in the anti-constancy condition. Sex typing did not, however, differ between treatment conditions at immediate and 3-month posttesting.     

Role relevant sex typing and opportunity in agentic and communal domains1

The hypothesis associating psychological androgyny with greater personal adjustment has recently been contradicted in several studies in which masculine individuals, regardless of gender, generally appeared to be better adjusted than either androgynous or feminine persons. In the present research, five studies involving 363 subjects tested the hypothesis that such data may reflect a culture that values and differentially rewards agentic (masculine) characteristics and competencies in both men and women while taking communal (feminine) characteristics somewhat for granted. Subjects evaluating candidates for agentic roles preferred masculine candidates (regardless of gender). Masculine and androgynous persons were preferred for a communal role, while feminine persons were almost never chosen for either agentic or communal roles.     

The relationship of maternal beliefs about sex typing to maternal and young children's behavior

Possible links between maternal beliefs about children's sex-typed behavior and familial characteristics, mothers' interactions with their young children, and children's cognitive functioning were explored. One hundred and thirty-two mothers and their two-year-olds were seen; familial social class, birth order, and child gender were selection-criterion variables. Sex-typed beliefs were assessed by asking mothers to rate a number of qualities and interests as to whether or not each was more likely to occur in or be characteristic of boys or of girls, or was equally likely to be characteristic of boys and girls. Mothers rated qualities for two different age periods—toddlerhood and middle childhood. Mothers and toddlers were observed in a free play setting for 20 min. Responsivity and type of behavior emitted were assessed. The Bayley Scale of Infant Intelligence was given at 24 months. The findings were as follows: First, gender and social class were related to maternal beliefs about sex-typed characteristics. Second, maternal sex-typed beliefs were negatively related to active toy play and distal interaction, with this relationship significant for daughters but not sons. Third, daughters of low sex-typed mothers were more responsive and more likely to seek comfort than daughters of high sex-typed mothers. Fourth, daughters of mothers who had strong sex-typed beliefs had lower IQ scores at 24 months than did daughters of mothers with beliefs less strong; this relationship was not found for sons. Research on cross-sex behavior and enhanced cognitive functioning was reviewed as it relates to these findings.     

Academic achievement and attributions among college students: Effects of gender and sex typing

Attribution questionnaires were completed by 137 students in an introductory economics course immediately preceding the first exam in their class and immediately after their exams were returned. Results indicate that males and females used attributions differently, although not as a function of perceived outcome. In contrast, sex-typing groups varied their attribution as a function of perceived outcome. Self-esteem is proposed as a possible mediating variable. It was concluded that sex typing in relation to perceived successful and unsuccessful performance is an important variable in attributional research.     

Sex and the working mother: adolescent sexuality, sex role typing and family background

The relationship between family background, sexual behavior, and sex role typing was examined in 44 female and 47 male 15- to 17-year-old subjects at a New England preparatory school using verbal recall, self-report, and background information. Mother's profession was the best correlate of adolescent sexual behavior. The Spence Personal Attributes scale was correlated with sexual behavior in females and the Essay Recall measure was correlated with sexual behavior for males. Theoretical reasons for these relations are discussed.     

Gender identity and adjustment: understanding the impact of individual and normative differences in sex typing

The relationship among gender identity, sex typing, and adjustment has attracted the attention of social and developmental psychologists for many years. However, they have explored this issue with different assumptions and different approaches. Generally the approaches differ regarding whether sex typing is considered adaptive versus maladaptive, measured as an individual or normative difference, and whether gender identity is regarded as a unidimensional or multidimensional construct. In this chapter, we consider both perspectives and suggest that the developmental timing and degree of sex typing, as well as the multidimensionality of gender identity, be considered when examining their relationship to adjustment.     

Consistencies in sex differences on the Cognitive Abilities Test across countries,grades, test forms,and cohorts

Background Strand, Deary, and Smith (2006) reported an analysis of sex differences on the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) for over 320,000 UK students 11–12 years old. Although mean differences were small, males were overrepresented at the upper and lower extremes of the score distributions on the quantitative and non‐verbal batteries and at the lower extreme of the verbal battery. Aims We investigate whether these results were unique to the UK or whether they would be seen in other countries, at other grades, cohorts, or forms of the test. Sample The sample consisted of three nationally representative cohorts of US students in grades 3 through 11 (total N = 318,599) for the 1984, 1992, and 2000 standardizations of the US version of the CAT. Methods We replicated and extended the Strand et al. (2006) results by comparing the proportions of males and females at each score level across countries (UK vs. US), grades (3–11), and cohorts/test forms (Forms 4, 5, and 6 standardized in 1984, 1992, and 2000, respectively). Results The results showed an astonishing consistency in sex differences across countries, grades, cohorts, and test forms. Conclusions Implications for the current debate about sex differences in quantitative reasoning abilities are discussed.     

Children's meta‐perceptions and meta‐accuracy of acceptance and rejection by same‐sex and other‐sex peers

The goals of this study were to examine children's meta‐perceptions and meta‐accuracy of acceptance and rejection in the peer group, the degree to which these perceptions vary by perceiver sex and sex of the reference group, and the association between these perceptions and children's actual functioning in the peer group. Participants were 644 fourth‐grade children. Meta‐perceptions and meta‐accuracy were derived from sociometric nominations of actual and perceived acceptance and rejection. Children more accurately perceived how they were seen by same‐sex peers than how they were seen by other‐sex peers. They also perceived more rejection than acceptance from other‐sex peers. Meta‐accuracy for rejection was low regardless of the sex of the reference group. Sex of the reference group significantly moderated the association between meta‐perceptions and meta‐accuracy of acceptance and rejection and children's actual peer relationships. These findings indicate the importance of examining these relatively understudied social cognitions in research with children and the importance of taking the sex of the reference group into account in future peer relations studies using peer nomination methods.     

Heightened male aggression toward sexualized women following romantic rejection: The mediating role of sex goal activation

Research from a variety of disciplines suggests a positive relationship between Western cultural sexualization and women's likelihood of suffering harm. In the current experiment, 157 young men were romantically rejected by a sexualized or non‐sexualized woman then given the opportunity to blast the woman with loud bursts of white noise. We tested whether the activation of sexual goals in men would mediate the relationship between sexualization and aggressive behavior after romantic rejection. We also tested whether behaving aggressively toward a woman after romantic rejection would increase men's feelings of sexual dominance. Results showed that interacting with a sexualized woman increased men's sex goals. Heightened sex goal activation, in turn, predicted increased aggression after romantic rejection. This result remained significant despite controlling for the effects of trait aggressiveness and negative affect. The findings suggest that heightened sex goal activation may lead men to perpetrate aggression against sexualized women who reject them.

     

Stress experienced by women doctoral students,need for support,and occupational sex typing: An interactional view

The present study was concerned with emotional stress experienced by women doctoral students as an interactive function of type of department and personal need for support. Subjects were women registered as doctoral students at a large state university in the fall semester of 1975. Of the total, 86 were from female minority departments, 177 from egalitarian departments, and 114 from female majority departments. Stress from time pressures, marital pressures, and overall stress were all found to be interactive functions of need for support and type of department. The female minority group showed the strongest relationship between need for support and each of the three significant stress variables. Implications of these findings for women in graduate school are discussed.This study was supported in part by a grant from Division 9 of the American Psychological Association and by the Measurement and Evaluation Center at the University of Texas at Austin. It was based on a dissertation, under the direction of H. Paul Kelley, submitted in partial fulfillment of the doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin. The author wishes to thank Lucia Gilbert and Charles Holahan for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

Motor imagery in typing: effects of typing style and action familiarity

The influences of typing style and action familiarity on executed and imagined typing were investigated. A group of touch typists and a group of hunt-and-peck typists were asked to imagine and execute typing texts of different lengths in two different styles: with ten fingers (familiar for touch typists, unfamiliar for hunt-and-peck typists) and with two fingers (unfamiliar for touch typists, familiar for hunt-and-peck typists). The imagination (but not the execution) of familiar and unfamiliar typing was correlated in both groups, indicating that participants used skill knowledge from the familiar action to imagine the unfamiliar action. Only when touch typists imagined familiar typing accurate motor imagery was observed (similar durations of and positive correlations between imagination and execution). When touch typists imagined unfamiliar typing, the average imagination durations resembled the execution durations, but correlations indicated individual differences in the processes of imagination and execution. Hunt-and-peck typists showed shorter imagination than execution durations with both familiar and unfamiliar typing, indicating that in both styles they did not imagine all details of typing. Also, they did not imagine some details specifically related to unfamiliar typing (reflected in particularly high percentages of absolute error). However, correlations indicated that individual difficulties in executing the unfamiliar action were reflected in the imagination durations. In conclusion, skill knowledge from familiar actions is used to imagine unfamiliar actions. Familiarity with actions promotes accurate motor imagery, but only if stable internal action representations have been acquired, and not if action control relies on online, step-by-step control. However, stable internal action representations of familiar actions may be detrimental for imagery of unfamiliar actions.