This article provides an integrated critical review of the literature on internalized heterosexism/internalized homophobia (IH), its measurement, and its psychosocial correlates. It describes the psychometric properties of six published measures used to operationalize the construct of IH. It also critically reviews empirical studies on correlates…

According to previous research, achieving women display nontraditional personality traits and are influenced by affiliative motives. To examine the needs exhibited by professional women who have made significant achievements, 23 career women (physicians, attorneys, veterinarians, business women, politicians, and artists) completed the Edwards…

Research on gender stereotypes has contrasted males with females, describing males by competency traits and females by traits which denote warmth or emotionality. However, it has become clear that these traits do not satisfactorily describe all members of either sex, since not all men possess only masculine characteristics and not all women…

A sample of 180 students was given the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. Nonscience females were more often classified as feminine, while more females in science were classified as androgenous. No difference was found in the number of biological and physical science majors classified as feminine. (MNS)

The expression of children's concepts of sex-roles was explored by examining changes in the masculinity and femininity of human figure drawings of males and females. A total of 106 sixth-grade students participated in two Draw-a-Person sessions. In the drawing task, persons to be drawn were either specified in terms of gender or unspecified as to…

Despite recent research showing men capable of nurturing behavior, most men remain reluctant to care for children. Some researchers have suggested that men are fearful of nurturing as a result of traditional sex role socialization while others have suggested an increased role of external factors in explaining the lack of men in child care (pay,…

The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) has come under much criticism relating to the interpretation of the masculinity and femininity scales upon which its four sex role types are based. To investigate the masculinity-femininity construct using the BSRI under standard self-description instructions and under self-description instructions in one of two…

Shostrom (1971) has identified a type of marriage in which self-actualizing couples do not simply accept their socially defined roles, but instead develop personality traits and values that are consistent with their own psychological health and that of the couple relationship. Antill (1983) found evidence for the importance of high scores in…

Theorists have proposed very different patterns of adult age changes in masculine and feminine personality attributes; while some have predicted an increase in cross-sex typed individuals among older adults, others have predicted an increase in androgynous individuals. A study was conducted to further investigate adult age differences in levels of…

Examines the development of feminine and masculine patterns of sexual identity in boyhood and the relation between these patterns and later sexual orientation. (Author/RWB)

The role of adolescent sexual behavior in educational attainment has been overlooked. Homosexual and heterosexual men were interviewed to test for a correlation between adolescent sexual activeness and educational attainment, as well as any link between childhood masculine sex roles and early sexual activity. Approximately 1,000 volunteers,…

Four hundred undergraduates were asked to describe their construals of male and female stereotypes. Results support the notion that people's perceptions of maleness are more stereotypically framed than their perceptions of femaleness, suggesting that more draconian notions of gender appropriateness are applied to males than to females in our…

Androgyny research has been hampered by a dependency upon traditional masculine and feminine sex roles for definition. Bakan's (1966) concept of agency and communion, which parallels masculinity and femininity, refers to behavioral competencies, involving a style or manner of interacting with the environment devoid of gender designations and…

A study examined S.L. Bem's Gender Schema Theory as it relates to communicator style. It was hypothesized that (1) speakers using a "powerless" speech style would be perceived less positively than would "powerful" speakers, and (2) sex-typed subjects, that is, those who adhere to a traditional sex role schema, would perceive…