Date of Award

1981

Publication Type

Doctoral Thesis

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Psychology

Keywords

Psychology, Clinical.

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The present study contrasted two measures of psychological androgyny, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, in terms of experimental subjects' bipolar ratings of four gestures (pointing, touching, standing over, and invading another's personal space). This perceptual task partially replicated a study conducted by N. Henley in 1977 dealing with the communication (through nonverbal behavior) of power differences between the sexes. This study examined whether an individual's classification on either androgyny measure was related to the latter's submissiveness-dominance and asexuality-sexuality ratings of photographic slides depicting members of a dyad enacting various combinations of the gestures targeted for study (see above). It also examined the relationship of one's score on a sex-role attitudes questionnaire (Attitudes Toward Feminism Scale) to her/his perceptual ratings and androgyny classification. The present study thus afforded an opportunity to determine whether Henley's research findings could be replicated and to contrast two popular measures of androgyny in terms of behavior previously found to differentiate the sexes. Eighty female and 50 male University of Windsor undergraduate students participated in this project. Statistical analyses of their responses revealed that Henley's findings were, in large measure, replicated. Subjects generally rated the targeted gestures as dominance gestures and gave them significantly higher dominance ratings when combined in a model's pose. Both sexes gave gestures enacted by a man higher dominance ratings than those by a woman and they gave gestures by a woman to a man higher sexuality ratings than gestures by a man to a woman. Sex of subject was not a distinguishing variable in these results nor was androgyny classification nor subjects' classification on the Attitudes Toward Feminism Scale. Correlations among the above three "subject" variables were also examined and differences between subjects' classifications on the two androgyny scales were discussed.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1981 .S654. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-08, Section: B, page: 3443. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1981.

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