| Abstract: | In a conceptual replication and extension of a study by S. L. Bem and E. Lenney (1976), 90 male and 118 female college students rated their comfort in and preference for performing several series of masculine, feminine, and neutral activities. Correlations between ratings and scores on the masculinity (instrumentality) and femininity (expressiveness) scales of the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) of J. T. Spence and R. L. Helmreich (1978) tended to be theoretically reasonable in sign but in each sex were low in magnitude and only occasionally significant. Classification of Ss into 4 PAQ groups (androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated) on their joint masculinity and femininity scores revealed that androgynous and masculine Ss of both sexes had higher comfort ratings, independent of type of task, than did feminine and undifferentiated Ss, suggesting the importance of instrumentality and expressiveness per se. For forced-choice preference ratings, significant differences were found only in males, masculine Ss having a stronger preference for sex-typed tasks than those in other categorical groups. The PAQ variable, however, accounted for only a small percentage of the variance. The data support the Spence-Helmreich hypotheses that the PAQ and similar instruments are largely measures of instrumental and expressive personality traits rather than sex roles and that these personality dimensions are only minimally related to many sex role behaviors. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
