Sex steroids and human behavior: implications for developmental psychopathology

In a variety of mammalian species, prenatal androgens organize brain structures and functions that are later activated by steroid hormones in postnatal life. In humans, studies of individuals with typical and atypical development suggest that sex differences in reproductive and nonreproductive behavior derive in part from similar prenatal and postnatal steroid effects on brain development. This paper provides a summary of research investigating hormonal influences on human behavior and describes how sex differences in the prevalences and natural histories of developmental psychopathologies may be consistent with these steroid effects. An association between patterns of sexual differentiation and specific forms of psychopathology suggests novel avenues for assessing the effects of sex steroids on brain structure and function, which may in turn improve our understanding of typical and atypical development in women and men.     

Sex role development and teenage fertility-related behavior

Data from a 1975 survey of 369 females and 325 males aged 16-17 were analyzed to shed light on the relationship between the maturity of adolescent women and their sexual behavior and contraceptive practice. A straightforward decision-making process was found among males, but more complicated influences exist for females. When the data were submitted to regression and chi-squared analyses, it was found that whereas sexually active adolescents had more liberal sexual attitudes than virgins, their sex role attitudes were more stereotypical than virgins. Then the 2 groups were subdivided into virgins who did not intend to have premarital intercourse (20%); virgins who planned or considered premarital intercourse (40%); adolescents who experienced intercourse prior to age 16 (20%); and those who experienced intercourse after age 16 (20%). It was found that the virgins who did not intend to have premarital intercourse held the most stereotypical sex role attitudes, followed by sexually active women, and that virgins planning or considering intercourse held the least stereotypical views of all. It is suggested that this occurred because these adolescents were more mature and had resolved sexual identity problems earlier without resorting to intercourse. Birth control use was found to be more effective among the adolescents who experienced intercourse after age 16. Further studies are underway to test the hypotheses that the more mature a woman is when she experiences intercourse, the more likely it is that her development will be enhanced and that her contraceptive behavior will be effective.     

Perceptions of assertive behavior: Sex combination,role appropriateness,and message type

Eighty-four male and 84 female subjects, divided into high, moderate, and low groups on the basis of sex-role stereotyping, watched videotapes of two-person interactions where positive and negative assertive messages were sent by male and female actors to male and female receivers. Subjects rated the level of assertion and the social acceptability of each message. Results indicated that while all messages were rated as relatively assertive, negative messages were perceived as more assertive and less socially acceptable than positive ones. Subjects also rated male senders as more assertive than female senders when the message type was role inappropriate for the subjects but rated female senders as relatively more assertive when the message type was role appropriate for them. Messages from female senders were rated as more socially acceptable than messages from male senders. Finally, messages to male receivers were rated as more acceptable than messages to females, especially by male subjects when the sender was male. Thus, both sex-role stereotypes and situational expectations appear to influence perceptions of level of assertion, and more assertive messages are perceived as less socially appropriate.     

Sex role flexibility and prosocial behavior among preschool children

The relationship between sex role flexibility and prosocial behavior among preschool children was investigated. Subjects included 16 boys and 18 girls, ranging in age from 36 to 60 months, from intact families of the upper middle class. A nonhierarchical multiple regression analysis was undertaken to determine the contributions of the predictor variables of sex, age, IQ, and sex role flexibility, as well as their interactions with prosocial behavior (criterion variable). Results indicated that while the overall regression model was not significant, the variable of Sex × Sex Role Flexibility did contribute significantly to the model. Inspection of the correlation coefficients associated with this variable revealed that while sex role flexibility and prosocial behavior among boys were significantly and positively related, among girls no significant relationship was found.     

Orienting-reflex behavior and clinical psychopathology

The effects of diagnosis, sex, age and medication on the orienting-reflex behavior of 263 psychiatric patients and 58 normal subjects were studied. Significant differences between the normal and patient groups and within the patient groups in different diagnostic categories were found. In the patient populations, further variations by types of medication received were found, whereas sex and age did not affect the orienting reflex. On the basis of frequency of response only normal subjects and patients could be distinguished, whereas amplitude analysis revealed a continuum in which the highest responses were given by normal subjects and the lowest by patients with chronic organic brain damage. In all subgroups the amplitudes of the responses of patients receiving antidepressant medication were higher than those of patients receiving antipsychotic medication.     

The role of emotion reactivity and gender in the relationship between psychopathology and self-injurious behavior

The goal of the present study was to examine emotion reactivity, a broad construct that consists of an individual’s sensitivity, intensity, and persistence of emotional reactions, as a mediator of the relationship between two types of psychopathology (depression symptoms and borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms) and history of self-injurious behavior (non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicide attempts (SA)). We also examined gender as a potential moderator of this relationship. Participants (N = 1914) completed measures of emotion reactivity, psychopathology, and self-injurious behavior. Results using a series of mediated path analyses indicated that emotion reactivity mediated the relationship between (1) depressive symptoms and NSSI in females only, (2) depressive symptoms and SA in females only, and (3) probable BPD diagnosis and NSSI in both genders. Emotion reactivity did not mediate the relationship between probable BPD diagnosis and SA in either gender. Our findings suggest that emotion reactivity is a possible pathway through which depression and self-injurious behavior relate, especially in women. We temper these findings, however, within the context of relatively modest observed effects.     

Suicidal and criminal behavior among female offenders: the role of abuse and psychopathology

Childhood abuse is relatively prevalent among women and is an important risk factor for both criminal behavior and suicide-related behavior (SRB). Based on a sample of 266 female offenders, we address one theoretical and one practical issue. First, from a theoretical perspective, we assess whether internalizing (depression and anxiety) and externalizing (substance abuse and antisocial behavior) psychopathology mediate the relation between abuse on the one hand, and SRB or criminal behavior, on the other. Results indicate that externalizing problems mediate the relation between childhood abuse and both lifetime SRB (fully) and lifetime criminality (partially). Second, at a practical level, results indicate that a subscale of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) that assesses lifetime criminal behavior adds incremental utility to postdicting SRB, beyond the variance accounted for by self-report measures of abuse and externalizing problems. However, none of the measures-including the PCL-R-predicted future recidivism.     

Sex role orientation and power motivation as expressed in female sharing behavior

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of power motivation and sex role orientation on sharing behavior in females. One hundred and thirty female college students were administered the dominance scale from the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, the AS Reaction Study, and the Bern Sex Role Inventory. Scores from the three scales were used to screen subjects according to their level of power motivation and sex role orientation. On the basis of the screening procedure, 40 female subjects were placed in one of four experimental conditions resulting from a factorial combination of power (high or low) and sex role orientation (androgynous or traditional). Then a behavioral measure (i.e. feedback in variation of the Mastermind game) of sharing was recorded. The results showed that sex role orientation affected the frequency of sharing behavior in the power game. However, power motivation per se, as measured by the personality inventories, failed to influence sharing behavior. These results compare favorably with previous findings which have indicated that females exhibit sex role bias in the expression of power motivation.     

Process,mechanism, and explanation related to externalizing behavior in developmental psychopathology

Advances in conceptualization and statistical modeling, on the one hand, and enhanced appreciation of transactional pathways, gene–environment correlations and interactions, and moderator and mediator variables, on the other, have heightened awareness of the need to consider factors and processes that explain the development and maintenance of psychopathology. With a focus on attentional problems, impulsivity, and disruptive behavior patterns, I address the kinds of conceptual approaches most likely to lead to advances regarding explanatory models in the field. Findings from my own research program on processes and mechanisms reveal both promise and limitations. Progress will emanate from use of genetically informative designs, blends of variable and person-centered research, explicit testing of developmental processes, systematic approaches to moderation and mediation, exploitation of natural experiments, and the conduct of prevention and intervention trials designed to accentuate explanation as well as outcome. In all, breakthroughs will occur only with advances in translational research—linking basic and applied science—and with the further development of transactional, systemic approaches to explanation.     

Sex role correlates of stress-prone type a behavior in college students

This study considered the direct and interactive relationships between three sex role variables and Type A/Type B behavior in college students of both sexes. As predicted, Type A college women were more masculine than Type B controls; Type A females were not less feminine, however, as had been expected. No relationship was found between masculine or feminine sex role behavior and Type A status in college men, consistent with the results of an earlier study. Both male and female Type As revealed weaker gender schemas than Type B controls. Analysis of the conjoint variation of all three sex role components revealed no relationships for either Type A or Type B men. Type A women presented an unusual asynchrony between these components in light of the expected positive relation between stereotyped sex role identity (femininity) and sensitivity to stereotyped differences between women and men (strong gender-schematic processing). Nontraditional female Type As, who were more masculine than feminine, demonstrated strong gender schemas. Traditional female Type As, more feminine than masculine, displayed weak gender schemas. Type B women did not display these unusual sex role linkages.     

Sex,sex role,and psychomotor reminiscence

Effects of sex and sex role on psychomotor reminiscence and task proficiency were investigated in samples of masculine males, masculine females, feminine males, and feminine females, as defined by the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Sex contributed significantly to the variance of reminiscence and to the slopes of prerest practice gains, as others have found. Sex role contributed virtually nothing to the variance of reminiscence, but feminine subjects of both sexes reached generally higher levels of performance than masculine subjects. Sex and sex role effects were orthogonal at all points of comparison.     

Sex of leader,leader behavior,and subordinate satisfaction

A 2×2×2 factorial design was employed to examine the influence of instructed leadership style, sex of leader, and sex of followers on leader behavior, subordinate satisfaction, and productivity in a simple task. In general, male and female leaders were equally able and equally willing to display autocratic and democratic leadership styles if so instructed. Similarly, leader sex did not have a significant influence on subordinate satisfaction or productivity either by itself or in interaction with leadership style or follower sex.     

The role of psychopathology and gender in respiratory self-regulation

A group of 12 male and 12 female psychiatric patients were recruited among an anxiety-disordered population, and their performance on a respiratory modulation test was compared with that of a matched non-patient sample. Inferior performance was expected in the patient group, and males were expected to show better respiratory modulation than females. Results supported the conclusion that females were less able than males in modulating respiratory muscle behaviour according to requested patterns, and female psychiatric patients showed a relative lack of flexibility in the thorax or abdomen regions or in both trunk levels.     

Sex differences in dominance behavior

The effect of the status characteristic of sex on dominance behavior was investigated as a function of a challenger's sex and in relation to one's sex-role orientation. Dyads composed of a student and a confederate recorded individual preferences, then joint decisions, for the more attractive picture of 20 pairs of pictures. The number of challenges a student sustained each time a disagreement occurred regarding the more attractive picture of a pair was recorded. Males withstood significantly more challenges against their preferences than females did (p<.006). However, no differences were found as a function of the sex of one's partner; nor did the Attitudes toward Women Scale (AWS) prove to be a good predictor of dominance. Results were discussed in terms of predictions made by the theory of status characteristics.This report is based on a master's thesis written by the first author under the sponsorship of the second and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MA degree at the Graduate School of the University of Alabama. Portions were presented as part of of the paper session Compliance-Conformity/Altruism-Helping Behavior at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, March 1976.The authors would like to express their appreciation those who served as confederates in this study: Jim Dodds, Rochelle Hanan, Eunice Fogarty, and Rex Hall.     

Sex differences in nonverbal behavior

A variety of nonverbal behaviors was coded from videotapes of 88 dyadic conversations. The 44 male and 44 female subjects were paired so that each participated in one conversation with a stranger of the same sex and one conversation with a stranger of the opposite sex. It was found that sex of subject, but not sex of partner, had a significant effect on many of the nonverbal behaviors displayed during the conversations. Subjects' scores on the behavioral measures were correlated with their scores on several personality measures and on a post-conversation questionnaire. Sex differences in these correlations were used to generate hypotheses linking specific behavioral differences between the sexes to more general differences between the masculine and feminine interpersonal styles.This study was supported in part by NSF grant GS-3033, awarded to Starkey Duncan, University of Chicago; by NSF grant GS-3127, awarded to Donald Fiske, University of Chicago; by a grant awarded to Starkey Duncan and Donald Fiske by the Social Science Divisional Research Committee of the University of Chicago; and by a University of Chicago Humanities Fellowship awarded to the author. The author is grateful to Starkey Duncan and Donald Fiske for the extensive assistance they provided with this study. The author also wishes to express her appreciation to Jeanine Carlson, George Niederehe, Bruno Repp, Thomas Shanks, and Cathy Stepanek, who assisted in coding the videotaped data and in the statistical analysis. This article is based on the author's doctoral dissertation (Beekman, 1973), which may be consulted for further details.Previous drafts of this article have been circulated under the author's former name, Susan J. Beekman.     

Imaginary audience behavior in older adolescent females

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent of imaginary audience behavior in older adolescent females to ascertain if such behavior continues beyond the years of early and middle adolescence. Subjects were 112 freshman females enrolled in a midwestern university during their first semester. Results indicated that college freshman displayed a greater degree of imaginary audience behavior than did younger adolescents when compared to scores reported by Elkind and Bowen (1979). Findings support the view that later adolescents' entry into new social environments results in greater protection of the self, a return to previous behaviors, and an increase in egocentrism as evidence in less willingness to reveal oneself to an audience.