Relation of sex and gender role to love,sexual attitudes,and self-esteem

One theory of love (J. A. Lee, The Colors of Love: An Exploration of the Ways of Loving, Don Mills, Ontario: New Press, 1973) assumes at least six different attitudinal orientations toward love. Based on Lee's approach, recent research (e.g., C. Hendrick & S. Hendrick, “A Theory and Method of Love,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986, 50, pp. 392–402) has found consistent sex differences in love attitudes. Other research has found comparable sex differences in sexual permissiveness and other sexual attitudes. The present study explored the possibility that gender role orientation might be related to differences in love and sexual attitudes. A sample of 286 college students completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), Love Attitudes Scale, Sexual Attitudes Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Correlational analyses revealed many significant associations among love and sexual attitudes, self-esteem, and masculinity and femininity. Subjects were also classified according to gender role as androgynous, masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated, according to BSRI scores. Analyses of variance showed effects for both sex of subjects and gender role orientation on several of the dependent measures. The pattern of the results suggested that sex-stereotyped couples may have difficulties in romantic relationships because of the discrepancies in their love and sexual attitudes. An argument was made in support of the recent trend toward a multidimensional concept of gender role orientation.     

Self-esteem, attitude similarity, and attraction

Subjects evaluated three stimulus persons on several rating scales who were either 10%, 50%, or 90% similar to themselves in attitudes Subjects were divided into low, moderate, and high self-esteem groups on the basis of an earlier Q sort The results showed a strong positive relation between perceived similarity and positive attribution for each of the dependent variables, including liking, sophisticated, intelligent, sincere, happy, and a social distance scale A negative relation was obtained for two undesirable traits, arrogant and cynical Self-esteem interacted with similarity on several of the measures The difference between self-esteem groups was largely restricted to highly dissimilar stimulus persons Moderate esteem subjects were more favorable toward dissimilar persons than either of the other two groups, and the high and low groups tended to resemble each other more than either group resembled the moderate esteem group These results were discussed in terms of the relation between self-esteem and adjustment, and in terms of McGuire's (1968) theory that predicts a nonmonotonic relation between self-esteem and attitudes.     

Ingroup Versus Outgroup Perceptions of the Characteristics of High-Risk Youth: Negative Stereotyping1

Adolescents tend to categorize themselves and their peers into discrete ingroups and outgroups. A comparison of ingroup versus outgroup perceptions of the characteristics of high-risk youth was investigated. Based on current stereotype research, we examined the perspective that outgroup members would hold a more extreme stereotype of high-risk youth compared to the perceptions of ingroup members. A total of 955 7th- and 10th-grade southern California adolescents completed a questionnaire regarding the characteristics of their own peer group and a high-risk group. Support was obtained for an extremity of judgement effect. Outgroup youth perceived that their high-risk peers engaged in fewer school and nonschool low-risk activities, more high-risk activities, and greater drug use than did ingroup members. Outgroup members also held perceptions of high-risk youth as less likely to hold a white-collar job than did the ingroup members. The perceptions that adolescents have of these groups may play major roles in their own social behavior. The implications of these results for future tobacco use prevention programs are considered.     

Testing for independence between pairs of autocorrelated binomial data sequences

A problem arises in analyzing the existence of interdependence between the behavioral sequences of two individuals: tests involving a statistic such as chi-square assume independent observations within each behavioral sequence, a condition which may not exist in actual practice. Using Monte Carlo simulations of binomial data sequences, we found that the use of a chi-square test frequently results in unacceptable Type I error rates when the data sequences are autocorrelated. We compared these results to those from two other methods designed specifically for testing for intersequence independence in the presence of intrasequence autocorrelation. The first method directly tests the intersequence correlation using an approximation of the variance of the intersequence correlation estimated from the sample autocorrelations. The second method uses tables of critical values of the intersequence correlation computed by Nakamuraet al. (J. Am. Stat. Assoc., 1976,71, 214–222). Although these methods were originally designed for normally distributed data, we found that both methods produced much better results than the uncorrected chi-square test when applied to binomial autocorrelated sequences. The superior method appears to be the variance approximation method, which resulted in Type I error rates that were generally less than or equal to 5% when the level of significance was set at .05.     

The Association of Group Self-Identification and Adolescent Drug Use in Three Samples Varying in Risk1

This study provides a cross-sectional analysis of the relations between group self-identification and adolescent drug use in 3 samples of youth: comprehensive high-school, continuation high-school, and runaway/street youth. Youth identified with discrete groups in all 3 samples, and similar general groups were formed. In most comparisons, a high-risk group showed greater levels of drug use than did other groups. This is the first study to demonstrate that group self-identification (a) is a generalizable construct across different types of adolescent samples, (b) is related to use of drugs other than tobacco, and (c) remains a significant correlate of drug use controlling for its relations with demographic variables and several other psychosocial variables.     

Relationship infidelity: A loss perspective

Abstract

A particularly poignant type of loss may be experienced by persons involved in intimate relationships in which a partner is sexually or emotionally unfaithful. As a means of exploring women's and men's perceptions about and personal experiences of unfaithfulness, approximately 140 participants completed a lengthy questionnaire relevant to close relationships. As expected, participants perceived selected gender differences in reasons for and reactions to a partner's infidelity. Based on personal reports about relationship infidelities, it appears that extrarelationship involvement is a complex issue that may result in substantial losses for relationship partners.