Sex and gender. Sex-role stereotypes. Androgyny.

• Sex is the biological differences between males (XY) and females (XX), assigned from birth due to the inheritance of chromosomes
• Gender refers to the psychological distinction between masculine and feminine personality traits, which may not match a person's biological sex
• Gender dysphoria is the distress and feeling of being trapped in the 'wrong body' when there is a mismatch between biological sex and gender
• Sex role stereotypes are a set of expectations of appropriate male and female behaviors shared by a culture
• Examples of sex role stereotypes:

  • Men are more competitive than women, who are cooperative
  • Men are stronger than women who are weak
  • Men are more independent than women who are dependent on them
  • Women are more nurturing than men
• Sex-role expectations are taught through socialization of norms regarding appropriate gender behavior, such as toys, careers, and parenting roles
• Androgyny is having a high and balanced mixture of both masculine (competitive) and feminine (caring) personality traits
• Undifferentiated is low on both masculine and feminine traits, while sex-typed is when gender and sex match, and cross-sex-typed is when gender and sex don’t match
• Sandra Bem (1974) developed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) as a measure of androgyny, where participants rate themselves on a 7-point scale on 60 characteristics/traits
• The BSRI measures 20 masculine traits, 20 feminine traits, and 20 neutral traits, scoring individuals on two dimensions: masculinity-femininity and androgynous-undifferentiated
• Bem argued that androgynous people are more psychologically healthy, with higher self-esteem and better relationships, as having a mix of masculine and feminine traits enables adaptability and excel in various situations
• Bem added an undifferentiated type in 1981 to include people with few masculine or feminine traits
• • By measuring 561 male and 365 female students using the BRSI questionnaire Bem found that feminine and masculine personality traits are grouped with most males sex typed as masculine and female sex types as feminine.
  • 34% of males and 27% of females were classified as androgynous.
  • This suggests Masculine and feminine personality traits are distinct and there is a high proportion of individuals who have a high and balanced level of both masculine and feminine traits
• The BSRI has shown a high test-retest reliability, when tested again participants tend to get the same score. This consistency over time in results suggests the BRSI is an accurate measure of gender and gender identity is stable.
• • Bem’s criteria, created over 40 years ago may no longer match the current understanding of gender, this is due to changes in social change/roles. Feminine traits included in the BSRI are “childlike” and “gullible”, meaning the BSRI may lack temporal validity.
• • Similarly, the items in the BRSI were decided based on surveys of what American students in the 1970’s considered to be desirable traits for each gender. However, other cultures might have different ideas about which traits are masculine and feminine and so the BRSI might not be valid when applied outside of America.
• The BRSI score may oversimplify an individuals gender identity as it focuses solely on personality traits and reduces gender to a single number. For example, Golombok and Fivush (1994) argue that gender identity also includes things like interests and abilities.