Abstract
In this article, a “control” model is applied to an analysis of four sex-role stereotypes (traditional males and females; liberated males and females) in which optimal psychological health is assumed to be a balance of active-positive and passive-positive control skills. These stereotypes are then compared and contrasted with respondents' views of psychologically healthy males and females. The study generated descriptive profiles of these sex-role stereotypes in terms of their perceived tendencies toward active/passive, negative/positive control from a group of 270 well-educated individuals primarily in the health and helping professions. Results of the study indicated that traditional males were seen as characterized primarily by active control; and traditional females were characterized primarily by yielding or passive control. The psychologically healthy male, on the other hand, was characterized by approximately equal proportions of active and yielding control; further, he was seen significantly more positively than the traditional male. The psychologically healthy female resembled the psychologically healthy male, but was characterized by a considerably greater degree of active control. Profiles of liberated males and females were intermediate between the traditional and healthy profiles. Liberated females tended to be viewed as very similar to traditional males in terms of their perceived endorsements of active and passive control; however, they were seen more positively than traditional males and females, but less positively than psychologically healthy males and females. The liberated male most closely resembled psychologically healthy profiles, and in particular, like the psychologically healthy male, was described as having a balance of active and passive control.
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Shapiro, J., Shapiro, D.H. A “control” model of psychological health: Relation to “traditional” and “liberated” sex-role stereotypes (investigation and extension of a construct). Sex Roles 12, 433–447 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287607
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287607