Androgyny

• Androgyny

  having a balance of male and female characteristics

  not someone who behaves oppositely to their biological sex
• BSRI - created by Sandra Bem in 1974

  Bem challenged traditiona binary and adde androgynous to the masculine and feminine identities
• the BSRI contained 60 questions

  if your scored highly masculine and highly feminine you were categorised as androgynous

  respondents had to rate themselves on a 7 point rating scale for each question

  are you interested in historical wars, do you like bubble baths
• a strength is it gathers qualitative date

  this means its objective and easy to analyse so researchers are easily able to identify patterns

  however, some argue there is more to gender than stereotypical behaviours to qualitative methods may be better to analyse gender
• a limitation is people may not b aware of their degree of masculinity or femininity

  asking people to rate themself on a questionnaire relies on people having an understanding of their personality and behaviour

  gender is a coil construct and the scoring system is subjective so BSRI may not be an objective measure of gender
• a strength is the method was valid and reliable at the time

  the scale was developed by asking 50 male and females to rate how masculine or feminine 200 traits were

  those that scored highest were used

  it was piloted with 1000 students and the results corresponded with the participants gender identity, the same was found in a follow up study demonstrating test- retest reliability
• a limitaion is it lacks temporal validity and generalisability

  created in 1974 and since this time our understanding of masculinity and femininity has changed significantly

  Behaviours that are regarded as typical and acceptable of males and females have changed since the test was created

  It was also designed in America, so some of the questions may not have applied to other cultures