Sex stereotypes and implicit personality theory. I. A personality description approach to the assessment of sex stereotypes

It was proposed that sex stereotypes be phrased in terms of the person perception construct, “implicit personality theory,” as the structured sets of inferential relations that link personal attributes to the social categories female and male. The utility of this formulation was assessed by having 31 college students use a set of 66 personality traits to describe other people. A measure of trait co-occurrence was derived from these data and was used as input to Kruskal's multidimensional scaling program. A two-dimensional configuration was interpreted in terms of two orthogonal properties, Social Desirability and Potency. An Indirect Female-Male property (based on the proportion of times each trait was used to describe a male) was strongly related to the configuration and was closely aligned with the Potency vector. Thus, stereotypes of females and males were associated with the Potency dimension of person perception, with females seen as “soft” and males as “hard.” The directly rated sex property Male-Female was also located near the Potency vector, but was not strongly related to the configuration. This lack of fit may have been due to social desirability responding. The results support the utility of formulating sex stereotypes in terms of implicit personality theory and suggest the need to distinguish direct and indirect assessments of stereotypes.     

Unique stereotypes for Holland's personality types,testing the traits attributed to men and women in Holland's typology

The researchers used experimental and control groups to compare the rankings of selected stereotypes by 67 male and 124 female college freshmen for the occupational representatives of Holland's six personality and occupational types. The stereotypes were found to be reliable and valid, single stereotype lists were concluded to be adequate for males and females, and unique stereotypes were found for each occupational type. Suggestions for future research were offered.     

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.     

Teachers' Gender Stereotypes in South Africa: A Case Study

The study investigated Teachers' gender stereotypes in the Eastern Province of South Africa. Participants were 65 Junior Secondary school teachers (females= 40 and males = 25) who assembled together at a seminar organized by the Department of Education. They completed a ten-statement questionnaire on gender stereotypes that would apply to school boys and girls. Data were analysed by means for differences in proportions endorsing stereotypes in relation to school activities. Gender stereotypes were apparent in the pattern of activities endorsed for males and females.     

Assessment of male and female behaviour in the employment interview

Personality assessment has a great impact on the outcomes of the selection interview. Women are perceived to have personality characteristics which are different from men. It is doubtful whether these sex stereotyped personality characteristics are based on real differences in verbal and nonverbal behaviour between men and women. Previous studies have shown the influence of sex stereotypes on interview-outcomes. In this study, the relationship between verbal and nonverbal behaviour of male and female applicants and their personality assessment has been investigated. Results show that males and females are assessed stereotypically based on their sex, but also based on their behaviour. For females, a feminine or masculine assessment is of special importance for her chance of selection. The less feminine is a woman's assessment the more likely she is to be accepted as an eligible candidate by the selection board. These accepted women show ‘female’ behaviour as well as ‘male’ behaviour.     

Boys don't cry: Cognitive load and priming increase stereotypic sex differences in emotion memory

The results of three experiments provide evidence that the relative accessibility of stereotypes about sex difference influences people's memory of very recent emotions. Being under high rather than low cognitive load caused females compared with males to recall experiencing more intense emotional reactions to saddening stimuli (Experiments 1 and 2), and relatively less intense reactions to angering stimuli (Experiment 2). Being directly primed with stereotypes about sex differences and being under high cognitive load both caused females to recall more intense reactions to saddening stimuli compared with females who were neither primed with stereotypes nor under cognitive load (Experiment 3). These results imply that the relative accessibility of stereotypes influences memories of emotion in a manner similar to stereotypes' influence on social perception. Implications of these findings for theories of emotion memory and for self-perpetuating stereotypes about emotional sex differences are discussed.     

Sex, sex-role identification, and awareness of sex-role stereotypes

An experiment was run to determine if androgynous people have transcended traditional sex roles or merely incorporated both sex roles into their repertoire. Masculine sex-typed, feminine sex-typed, and androgynous people listed as many masculine and feminine stereotypes as they could think of in a time-limited task. Highly sex-typed individuals showed more awareness of their own sex's attributes than the other sex's stereotypes. Androgynous people showed greater awareness of both sexes' attributes as compared with sex-typed people, indicating support for the incorporation hypothesis rather than the transcendance hypothesis. However, the stereotypes androgynous people listed were somewhat less evaluative in tone compared with those of sex-typed people, Overall, subjects listed more stereotypes of females than males, and female stereotypes were more negative than male stereotypes.     

Gender stereotypes are not accurate: A replication of Martin (1987) using diagnostic vs. self-report and behavioral criteria

Women and men (58 females and 42 males) reported whether they possess each of several stereotypic and neutral traits (self-report criterion) and recorded the percentage of each gender they believed display each trait (diagnostic). Observations of subjects (57 males and 49 females) discussing controversial topics yielded the behavioral criterion. (Approximately 81% of the total sample was European-American, 8% African-American, 2% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and the remainder of “other” ethnicity.) Gender differences were larger and more inaccurate in stereotypes (diagnostic) than in “reality” (self-report criterion), but behavioral criterion results were mixed. Difficulties in specifying criteria for “actual differences,” including behavioral criteria, and recent work related to C. L. Martin's [(1987) “A Ratio Measure of Gender Stereotyping,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 52, pp. 489–499] paradigm (and results) are considered. Implications of results for the importance of replication and for research on accuracy of stereotypes are also discussed.     

Henry the Nurse is a Doctor Too: Implicitly Examining Children’s Gender Stereotypes for Male and Female Occupational Roles

Eagly’s social role theory (Eagly and Steffen 1984) was tested examining children’s gender role stereotypes via implicit information processing and memory measures. We explored whether children’s occupational stereotypes were less restrictive for females who engaged in counterstereotypic occupations (Mary-Doctor) compared to males who engaged in counterstereotypic occupations (Henry-Nurse). Fifty-seven American eight- and nine-year-olds from a southwestern city were orally presented with stereotypic male and female names paired with masculine and feminine occupations and asked to create sentences using the name-occupation pairs. We conducted analyses of the created sentences as well as tested children’s memories for the various pairings. Consistent with social role theory, the findings revealed that children’s gender role stereotypes were more restrictive for males, than for females.     

Stereotypes about children with traditional and nontraditional gender roles

Two studies were done to assess different aspects of gender stereotypes about traditional and nontraditional girls and boys. In Study 1, 81 undergraduates (57 females, 24 males; 88% Caucasian, 12% Asian) rated the typicality and desirability of 25 personality traits and behaviors for boys and girls. Analyses showed that this sample believed that typical girls and boys differ on 24 out of the 25 behaviors and traits. There were fewer differences when they rated the desirability of the characteristics for each sex. In Study 2, 154 undergraduates (97 females, 57 males, 82% Caucasian, 18% Asian) estimated the percentage of occurrence of 26 traits and behaviors in traditional and nontraditional girls and boys (i.e., tomboys and sissies). These estimates were used to determine two aspects of stereotypes: the characteristics that are perceived to occur most often in a group and the characteristics that are particularly distinctive for a group. Again, stereotypes of girls and boys were found to be extensive. Percentage estimates, however, illustrated that stereotypes are probabilistic in that many boys and girls are believed to have both masculine and feminine characteristics. Stereotypes of nontraditional children were compared to stereotypes of traditional children. Analyses showed that tomboys were stereotyped similarly to traditional boys but sissies were not stereotyped similarly to traditional girls. Instead, the sissy stereotype was found to be very narrow. The advantage of using a variety of assessments methods is discussed.     

Studying Stereotype Accuracy from an Integrative Social‐Personality Perspective

This article proposes an integrative framework for understanding the accuracy and inaccuracy of stereotypes. Specifically, we highlight research issues and traditions from social and personality psychology that do not often intersect, but which can be mutually informative. Within this framework, the social psychologist's interest in the accuracy of group stereotypes is conceptually much like a personality psychologist's interest in the accuracy with which perceivers can identify types of individuals, for example extraverts. Both fields make use, implicitly or explicitly, of personal attributes and behaviors (cues) in assessing accuracy of beliefs about group or individual traits. By using Brunswik's lens model perspective in combination with concepts from signal detection theory, judgments of stereotypes can be discovered to be accurate or inaccurate depending on how perceivers judge or use the cues. In drawing on research traditions and theoretical frameworks from both social and personality psychology, researchers can go beyond an all‐or‐nothing stance regarding stereotype accuracy to achieve a more nuanced understanding of when, how, and to what extent stereotypes are accurate.     

Body movements of male and female speakers and their influence on perceptions of personality

Men and women score differently on some personality traits and people’s behavior reflects who they are. Therefore, males and females could be expected to express themselves differently on a behavioral level. To test this idea we turned the public performances of speakers (20 female and 20 male) into stick figure movies. Students of the University of Vienna (n = 150) rated these movies on scales measuring the Big Five personality traits. The participants experienced difficulties in ascribing the correct sex to the stick figures. Nevertheless, stick figures representing male speakers received higher ratings for extraversion and emotional stability than stick figure animations of female speakers. In addition, gender stereotypes seemed to influence the participants’ ratings. Agreeableness, for instance, was preferably classified as female trait. In conclusion, our results suggest that body motion conveys social information, that men and women present themselves differently, and that people’s judgments are influenced by gender stereotypes.     

Separating Implicit Gender Stereotypes regarding Math and Language: Implicit Ability Stereotypes are Self-serving for Boys and Men, but not for Girls and Women

We investigated implicit gender stereotypes related to math and language separately, using Go/No-go Association Tasks. Samples were grade 9 adolescents (N?=?187) and university students (N?=?189) in Germany. Research questions concerned the existence of and gender differences in implicit stereotypes. While typical explicit-stereotyping findings were replicated, implicit math-male stereotypes were found in male, but not in female participants. Females revealed strong language-female stereotypes, whereas males showed language-male counterstereotypes. Thus, females?? implicit math-gender stereotypes were the only ones that did not link own gender to the respective academic domain in a self-serving way. Further, females?? stronger stereotypes were related to lower and males?? to higher scores on constructs related to math ability, corroborating implicit stereotypes?? importance.     

“Operant” and “respondent” measures of dispositions: Sex differences in the degree of independence between needs, values, and traits

This study examined McClelland's (1981) hypothesis that operant and respondent personality measures generally assess independent domains of psychological thought. The conceptual basis for the measurement of needs and values is explored, through reference to unconscious and conscious levels of thought. It is questioned as to whether the relationship between needs, values, and traits is generally an independent one, and reference is made to the contribution of development and to different learning environments. An operant measure of needs and respondent measures of values and traits were administered to 203 male and female undergraduate students. Findings for males, but not females, supported McClelland's hypothesis. Results showed that for women, there was a significant relationship between needs and values, and between needs and traits, and that the relationship varied for particular personality variables and for particular age groups of women. Findings are discussed generally in terms of cognitive, affect, and information processing theories.     

The Aye of the Beholder: Susceptibility to Sexism and Beautyism in the Evaluation of Managerial Applicants1

Sex-typed college students (16 males and 16 females) and androgynous college students (16 males and 16 females) evaluated the resumes of fictitious applicants for a managerial position described as requiring interpersonal competencies. The applicant's physical attractiveness, qualifications, and sex were systematically varied in the resumes. Five-way analyses of variance were performed on the hiring decisions about the applicants and the perceived attractiveness, masculinity, femininity, and social desirability of the applicants. Hiring preferences were shown for attractive over unattractive applicants, for wellqualified over less qualified applicants, and among these preferred groups, males were favored over females. The subject's sex-role orientation predictably moderated the effect of the applicant's attractiveness but not the effect of the applicant's sex. Sex-typed subjects committed “beautyism” more than androgynous subjects did. The applicants' sex, qualifications, and attractiveness affected how they were perceived in terms of sex-role attributes as well as sex-irrelevant, socially desirable traits. Theoretical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Sex-role self-perceptions and sex-role stereotypes

827 undergraduate students, 549 males and 278 females, responded to a set of 18 questions relating to individual self-perceptions. A second group of 35 males and 29 females responded to the questions in terms of population sex-role stereotypes for both sexes. It was hypothesized that the sexes would demonstrate convergence in self-perceptions when compared with their sex-role stereotypes. The results tended to support the hypothesis, with females demonstrating a greater deviation from the traditional sex-role stereotypes than males. The possible relationship to much publicized social movements was noted.     

The importance of inner and outer body parts attitudes in the self-concept of late adolescents

The differential roles of inner and outer body parts attitudes in predicting the self-concepts of late adolescents (107 female and 72 male undergraduates) were assessed in order to test derivations from Erikson's notions (1964) about sex differences in the import of inner and out body “space” for personality. To assess knowledge about inner body space, subjects drew and labeled their internal body parts within an asexual frontal outline figure. Affect associated with internal and external body parts was assessed by rating 36 body characteristics in terms of their importance in making subjects attractive, effective people. Subjects responded also to a short self-concept scale. Females demonstrated greater knowledge of their inner body and attached generally higher levels of importance to their internal (and external) body parts than did males. However, completely opposite to the tested Eriksonian notions, inner body parts attitudes predicted self-concepts for males, but not for females. Moreover, more external than internal body parts were significant predictors of females' self-concepts, and the former parts accounted for more variance in self-concept than the latter ones. The results are interpreted to speak against theories which attempt to dichotomize the source of sex differences in personality development into either biologically or societally based contributions.     

Academic achievement: An examination of Holland's congruency,consistency, and differentiation predictions

This investigation tested three predictions derived from Holland's (1973) theory of vocational development regarding academic achievement. Groups of 392 male and 424 female entering college freshmen were typed using the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and were categorized in terms of congruency, consistency, and differentiation. Freshmen with congruent college major choices or with definite majors but indefinite Holland orientations enjoyed greater academic success than students who specified incongruent choices or no definite major choice. Students with personality codes of high or low consistency outperformed students with moderately consistent codes. Freshmen males with differentiated personal orientations achieved higher grade point averages than males having nondifferentiated personality profiles. For females, differentiation was not significant. In all sex comparisons female trends paralleled male trends and females generally outperformed males. Implications for vocational development and counseling were discussed in the context of Holland's theory.