Androgyny

• sandra bem

  argued that:

  rigid sex roles are detrimental to mental health

  it is psychologically healthy to avoid fixed sex-role stereotypes

  androgynous hypothesis - androgyny is a positive and desirable condition

  men and women should be free to adopt masculine and feminine type behaviours to suit their personality
• explanations for androgyny

  olds (1981) believed that androgyny is a higher developmental stage reached only by some
• bem sex role inventory (BSRI)

  created to measure androgyny. developed by asking 100 American undergraduates (1974) which personality traits they thought were desirable for men or women

  20 masc, 20 fem, 20 gender-neutral: self report measure, rating themselves on a 7 point Likert scale,

  test revised in 1977 to create 4 categories of person: masculine, feminine, androgynous, undifferentiated.
• ao3 - support of BSRI

  bem (1974) used the BSRI to measure androgyny, finding 34% M and 27% F to be androgynous

  flaherty and dusek (1980) found androgynous individuals have a higher degree of self-esteem and a better sense of emotional well-being
• ao3 - BSRI lacks external validity

  developed by asking 100 American undergraduates in 1974 - culture and time could lower the external validity
• ao3 - BSRI lacks temporal validity

  hoffman and borders (2001) asked a group of 400 undergraduates to rate the items of BSRI as masc or fem. results were only 2 terms were still endorsed as masc or fem - all others failed to reach the 75% agreement level
• ao3 - BSRI reductionist

  over-simplifies gender types by reducing masc and fem down to single scores

  may also be masculine bias in Western cultures, where independence and competitiveness are highly valued