Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1976

Thesis Director

Shirley B. Moore

Abstract

It has been shown that there is a tendency to ascribe different stereotyped sex-roles to men and women (Breecher, 1969; Broverman, Vogel, Braverman, Clarkson, & Rosenkrantz, 1972; Chafetz, 1974; Bem, 1974) and that these sex-roles were previously thought to be the ideal of mental health for both (Braverman, et al., Chesler, 1971). Recent investigation shows that this is not necessarily the case. It was found that a high degree of sex-role typing is not only personally limiting, but also correlated with high anxiety, low self-esteem, and lower overall intelligence (Gray, 1957; Maccoby, 1966; Fasteau, 1974). Bem (1974) has developed the Bem Sex Role Inventory, an instrument that differentiates between sex-role types. She classifies these types as masculine, feminine, androgynous and undifferentiated. Bem demonstrated that masculine and feminine sex-typed individuals avoid cross-sex behaviors while androgynous individuals do not, therefore, androgynous individuals are able to engage in whatever behavior they desired or was most effective for a particular situation regardless of its stereotype as masculine or feminine. In developing the Personal Orientation Inventory Shostrom (1966) used the theories of Perls (1951), Maslow (1961), and Rogers (1966) concerning fully functioning or self-actualizing individuals. Such individuals are described as utilizing and developing all of their unique potentialities without yielding to social influences, or meeting the expectations of others.

It was hypothesized that androgynous individuals as measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory would tend to score higher on the Time Competency and Inner-directed scales on the Personal Orientation Inventory than sex-typed individuals.

Three hundred undergraduate students from Eastern Illinois University were given the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Personal Orientation Inventory. They were classified into the appropriate sex-role categories of masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated according to their endorsements of factors on the Bem Inventory. The raw scores were then obtained from the time competence and inner-directed scales on the Personal Orientation Inventory. A Chi square analysis was used to determine the degree of sex-role stereotyping in the population. A two factor analysis of variance for unequal cell sizes, and the Dunnett Test for multiple comparisons (Keppler, 1973) were used to analyze the data.

The results of the Chi square analysis showed a significant degree of sex-role stereotyping (p<.001). The hypothesis investigated was only partially substantiated. Androgynous individuals scored significantly higher on the inner-directed scale than did the feminine and undifferentiated subjects (p<.01 and p<.01 respectively). There was no significant difference found between the androgynous and masculine subject's scores on the inner-directed scale.

There were no significant differences between androgynous and non androgynous subject's scores on the time competence scale.

A significant difference between male and female subject's scores were found on both the time competence scale (p<.006) and the inner-directed scale (p<.014) with the female subjects scoring consistently higher. No significant differences were found between the androgynous and masculine subjects on the inner-directed scale, and the androgynous and non androgynous subjects on the time competence scale. The tendency for androgynous subjects to score higher than non androgynous subjects on both scales was apparent.

Download

Share

COinS