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Relationship between sex-role attitudes and personality traits and the revised sex-role behavior scale

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Abstract

Two hundred college men and women completed self-report measures of sex-role traits (Personal Attributes Questionnaire), attitudes (Attitudes Toward Women Scale), and behavior (Sex-Role Behavior Scale). Intercorrelations among the three measures were examined to test two competing theoretical perspectives which dominate sex-role research today. The social learning point-of-view of Janet Spence and her colleagues asserts a general independence of sex-role personality traits, attitudes, and behaviors. The cognitive-developmental theory of Sandra Bem asserts that sex-role phenomena are fairly closely interrelated, at least for sex-typed individuals whose gender schemas cause them to adhere closely to traditional sex-role norms in their self-concepts and behavior. Findings of moderate relationships between masculine, feminine, and sex-specific personality traits, and the corresponding interest/behavior scales of the Sex-Role Behavior Scale, and between sex-role attitudes and behaviors lend partial support to both perspectives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Missouri—St. Louis, 63121, St. Louis, Missouri

    Jacob L. Orlofsky, Ralph S. Cohen & Mark W. Ramsden

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  1. Jacob L. Orlofsky
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  2. Ralph S. Cohen
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  3. Mark W. Ramsden
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Orlofsky, J.L., Cohen, R.S. & Ramsden, M.W. Relationship between sex-role attitudes and personality traits and the revised sex-role behavior scale. Sex Roles 12, 377–391 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287603

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