1000 students completed the BSRI- the results correlated with the participant’s description of their own gender identity. This was later repeated and a similar result was found.
Contradictory evidence
Researchers have argued that people are more psychologically healthy if they display masculine traits as these are more highly valued in Western society
Cultural and historical bias
BSRI developed 50 years ago- lacks temporal validity.
Was developed in the USA- culturally biased.
Other ways of measuring gender
Gender identity is too complex to be reduced to a single score. Other researchers suggest that broader issues should be considered e.g a person’s interests, work roles and perception of their abilities.
Methodological issues with questionnaire
Participants' interpretation of the meaning of the words and the meaning of each end of the 7-point scale may differ.
May also suffer from social desirability bias, demand characteristics.
