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Androgyny - Coggle Diagram
Androgyny
- Sandra Bem (1974) challenged this concept, suggesting more than just 2 gender types
- she added androgynous to the masculine and feminine identities
- we also have feminine males (metrosexuals) and masculine females (ladettes) - this is not androgyny as its not a balance of the 2 genders
- Bem suggested androgyny is associated with psychological well-being:
- those who are psychologically both masculine & feminine in equal measures are better equipped to adapt to a range of situations, e.g., assertive and competitive at work but affectionate and caring with children
- non-androgynous people would find this difficult as they have less traits to draw on
- also androgynous people aren't supressing themselves just to fit in with sex-role stereotypes
EVALUATION
quantitative approach
- P: androgyny is measured quantitatively
- E: Bem's numerical approach is useful for research purposes when necessary. e.g., to quantify a DV in a research study. but Spence (1984) argued there's more to gender than set of behaviours typical of one gender or the other, so qualitative methods offer better way of analysing gender. one compromise it to combine different scales, e.g. the personal attribute questionnaire (PAQ) adds another dimension to Bems' masculinity-femininity dimension.
- E: strength - suggests both quantitative together with qualitative approaches may be more useful for studying different aspects of androgyny.
valid and reliable
- P: at time BSRI was developed it was seen as valid & reliable way of measuring androgyny.
- E: scale was developed by asking 50 male & 50 female to rate 200 traits on how much the traits represented 'maleness' to 'femaleness'. traits which scored highest in each category became the 20 masculine, 20 feminine on the scale. when piloted, result of BSRI broadly matched with the ppts own reported sense of gender identity, demonstrating validity. follow-up study of small sample of same student was done month later and produced similar scores, demonstrating test-retest reliability
- E: strength - gives us reason to believe test was both valid & reliable
counterpoint
- P: BSRI was developed over 40 yrs ago & behaviour regarded as 'typical' & 'acceptable' in relation to gender has changed significantly since then.
- E: Bem's scale is made up of stereotypical ideas of masculine & feminine which may be outdated. also, scale was devised using people all from US. notions of maleness & femaleness in this country may not be shared across all cultures & societies
- E: weakness - suggests BSRI may lack temporal validity & generalisability.
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- androgyny = individuals who display equal levels of masculine and feminine traits/characteristics
- not just about looks, also about behaviour
- in everyday language = to have the appearance of someone who cannot clearly be identified as male or female (fashion)
- in psychological terms = a flexible gender role - displaying a valance between both masculine and feminine traits, attitudes and behaviours
- historically only 2 genders identify:
- manly men, e.g., rugby player
- Girly girls, e.g. internet stars
- Bem devised an inventory for measuring gender
- BSRI = Bem Sex Role Inventory
- this was the first systematic attempt to measure androgyny using a rating scale of 60 traits (20 masculine, 20 feminine, 20 neutral) to produce scores across 2 dimensions
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- androgynous-undifferentiated
- answers were collected using a 7 point rating scale. examples of items on the BSRI:
Masculine items e.g.'s= aggressive, assertive, self-reliant, strong personality.
Female items, e.g.'s= cheerful, shy, tender, warm
Neutral items e.g.'s= adaptable, jealous, tactful. truthful
- masculinity and femininity are independent traits
- they are not inevitably linked to sex
- a person can score high or low on both regardless of sex
- Bem found that more people were androgynous than at the extremes
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