Bem Sex Role Inventory
The Bem Sex Role Inventory is a widely used measure of masculinity and femininity, developed by psychologist Sandra Bem. It assesses an individual's gender role orientation by measuring their identification with stereotypically masculine and feminine traits. The inventory consists of 60 items and provides scores for masculinity, femininity, and androgyny, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of gender identity.
4 Key excerpts on "Bem Sex Role Inventory"
eBook - ePub- (Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
...In such an instance, an examination of gender might help the client and therapist better understand the current predicament and the client’s resistance to traditional talk therapy. Though extreme presentations of gender can impact individuals’ clinical presentation in a negative way, gender role behaviors can also be beneficial. Some qualities associated with masculinity, such as autonomy, can actually help promote psychological adjustment (Adams & Sherer, 1982). Recognition of positive traits from both gender roles might help clinicians identify and emphasize these traits in their clients. Assessment of Masculinity and Femininity Two of the most widely used assessments for measuring masculinity and femininity are the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1981b) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ; Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1974). The BRSI assesses masculinity and femininity on a continuum in an attempt to also capture the construct of androgyny. Individuals are scored on the degree to which they identify with both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgynous individuals have scores that reflect both the average masculine and the average feminine individuals. Therefore, androgyny is not the absence of gender, but the balance of masculine and feminine characteristics. The characteristics that define masculinity and femininity in the BSRI are based on personality traits that define current gender roles and are perceived as socially acceptable for members of each sex. These characteristics are rated on a unipolar 7‐pt Likert scale (1 = almost never true to 7 = almost always true). Items on the femininity scale include being affectionate, conscientious, and helpful. Items on the masculinity scale include being self‐reliant, independent, and assertive. The BSRI is considered reliable; the femininity scale has a coefficient alpha of.78, while the masculinity scale has a coefficient alpha of.87...
eBook - ePub- Virginia E. O'Leary, Rhoda K. Unger, Barbara S. Wallston, Virginia E. O'Leary, Rhoda K. Unger, Barbara S. Wallston(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Psychology Press(Publisher)
...In the wake of demonstrations with both instruments that correlations between the two gender-related scales were close to zero in both sexes, many investigators explicitly renounced the bipolar conception of masculinity-femininity and accepted a dualistic conception of these theoretical constructs in its place. This rapid switch in allegiance appears to have been based more on the attractive ideological package in which the dualistic conception was wrapped than on the persuasiveness of the empirical data (beyond those provided by the BSRI and PAQ). Furthermore, renunciation of the unidimensional bipolar model in favor of the bidimensional one has turned out to be more apparent than real. In her theorizing, Bern (1974, 1977, 1981b) has not only stated that scores on the BSRI and other similar instruments operationally define the two independent self-concepts, masculinity and femininity, but has simultaneously implied that scores on the two scales are measures of a unidimensional construct that many investigators label sex-role orientation or identification. In her most recent theory, Bern (1981b) equates this orientation with “gender schema.” Thus, individuals classified as sex-typed on the BSRI or PAQ (men high in their “masculinity” scores and low in their “femininity” scores, and women with the reverse pattern) have been assumed to be strong in gender-role identification and highly gender schematic in their processing of information; as such, sex-typed individuals presumably develop and manifest only the characteristics associated with their own sex, as well as viewing others through the lens of gender...
eBook - ePub- Abbie Goldberg(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Others have questioned the entire project of studying gender difference by pointing to meta-analyses that reveal that men and women are far more similar than they are different, and to the evidence that there are no psychological areas in which men and women are entirely different. There has been very little questioning, however, of the underlying assumption that gender is binary. This is exemplified by the way in which psychologists—and other researchers—ubiquitously ask participants whether they are a man or a woman on the demographics questions that are commonly included in surveys and experimental studies. Perhaps the first psychologist to conceptualize gender in a different way was Sandra Bem, who published work in this area from the 1970s through to the 1990s. Her Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) was groundbreaking, as it was a validated instrument that included separate measures of masculinity and femininity, rather than following the prevailing view that masculinity and femininity were polar opposites on the same scale. On the BSRI, people were able to score as “sex-typed” (high on gender traits commonly associated with their birth-assigned sex and low on those of the “other sex”), but they could also score in a sex-reversed way (the opposite of this), or they could score high or low on both masculinity and femininity simultaneously. Employing this inventory to collect data from people in the United States, Bem was able to challenge the popular view in the late 1960s and early 1970s that people were psychologically healthier when they conformed to the psychological characteristics most associated with their gender...
eBook - ePub- Glenn C. Gamst, Christopher T. H. Liang, Aghop Der-Karabetian(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...This current chapter is the eighth. Like Smiler and Epstein, we do not purport to provide an exhaustive review of all measures. Instead, we summarize the development, contents, and psychometric properties of 41 measures. We selected measures for which a researcher has demonstrated, in at least one study, the instrument’s psychometric properties—inclusive of some evidence for factorial validity. For the purposes of this chapter, the body of gender-related research and measures is grouped into the following domains: Gender Traits and Gender Role Ideology; Psychological Costs of Gender Role Conformity; Gender Prejudice and Sexism; Identity Development; Parental Attitudes and Gender Role Socialization; and Gender Identity. 8.4 GENDER TRAITS AND GENDER ROLE IDEOLOGY A major area of gender-related research, as indicated by the 15 measures produced, has been the study of gendered personality traits or gender role ideology. The study of psychological traits of men and women has been fairly prominent in the study of gender. Before the introduction of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974), personality traits were argued to be either male or female. Bem’s work on androgyny played a major role in shifting the field from a dichotomous and unidimensional view of masculinity and femininity to one in which each was seen as a unique construct whereby men and women could be high or low in one or both. From this, the study of gender evolved to further contextualize the personality characteristics noted in men and women. Specifically, scholars began to frame gender as a set of behaviors and characteristics learned in the context of powerful socializing agents (e.g., parents, teachers, media). Social constructionists furthered this line of thinking by suggesting that these behaviors are not immutable but constructed based on a culture’s values and tradition...
