Androgyny and the BSRI

• Androgyny


  Displaying a balance of masculine and feminine characteristics in one’s personality.
• What appearance would someone who is androgynous have?


  An appearance of someone who cannot be clearly identified as a man or woman.

  E.g a man/woman who is competitive and aggressive at work but a caring and sensitive parent.
• How did Bem contribute to androgyny?

  • Bem developed a method for measuring androgyny.
  • She suggested that high androgyny is associated with psychological wellbeing.
  • Individuals who are both masculine and feminine in roughly equal measure are better equipped to adapt to a range of situations, whereas non-androgynous people would find this difficult due to a narrow range of traits.
• BSRI

  The Bem sex role Inventory
• What is the BSRI?

  The first systematic attempt to measure androgyny using a rating scale of 60 traits to produce scores across 2 dimensions (Masculinity-femininity and androgynous-undifferentiated).

  • 20 characteristics considered to be masculine
  • 20 characteristics that are considered to be feminine
  • 20 characteristics that are considered to be neutral
  • Respondents rate themselves on a seven-point rating scale for each item.
• What classification would a high masculine and low feminine score result in?

  Masculine
• What classification would a high feminine, low masculine score result in?

  Feminine
• What classification would a high masculine and high feminine score result in?

  Androgynous
• What classification would a low feminine and low masculine score result in?

  Undifferentiated
• Bem used quantitative methods, why is this a limitation?

  • Bem’s numerical approach has been useful for research purposes. e.g quantifying androgyny in a research study.
  • However, Spence argues that there is more to gender than a set of behaviours typical of one gender or the other, so qualitative methods offer a better way of analysing gender.
  • Therefore, this suggests that both quantitive and qualitative approaches need to be paired together for studying different aspects of androgyny.
• How is the BSRI a valid way of measuring androgyny?

  • The scale was developed by asking 50 male and 50 female judges to rate 200 traits in terms of how much the traits represented maleness and femaleness. The traits that score highest in each category became the 20 masculine and 20 feminine traits on the scale.
  • The BSRI was piloted on over 1000 students and the results broadly corresponded with the participants own description of their gender identity.
  • Therefore this suggests that the BSRI has high internal validity. I.e it is measuring what it is supposed to.
• Why does the BSRI have cultural and historical bias?

  • The BSRI was developed over 40 years ago and the scale was devised using people from the United States.
  • Behaviours that were typical and acceptable in relation to gender have changed significantly since then. Bem’s scale is made up of stereotypical ideas of masculinity and femininity which may now be outdated. The use of American participants is an issue as notions of femaleness and maleness in the US may not be shared across all cultures and societies.
  • This suggests that the BSRI may lack temporal validity and generalisability.
• Why has Bem‘s suggestion ‘people who are androgynous are more psychologically healthy’ been challenged?

  • Adam’s and Sherer argued that people who develop a greater proportion of masculine traits are better adjusted to society as these more highly valued in individualistic cultures.
  • In contrast to what Bem suggested, people who are more competitive and aggressive for instance will thrive more as work as these behaviours are more likely to be reinforced.
  • Bem’s research has not considered the social and cultural context in which is was developed.