The terms sex roles and gender roles often are used interchangeably to denote a repertoire of emotions, attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions that are commonly associated more with one sex than with the other. Individuals are deemed to adopt a gender role self-concept, which is the amount of gender stereotypical traits and behaviors that persons use to describe themselves and to influence their dispositions. These traits reflect expectations a society holds toward men and women (see Eagly et al. 2000). The classic conceptualizations of the male gender role associates it with instrumental/agentic behaviors and traits that reflect independence, assertiveness, and dominance; the female gender role has been associated with expressive behaviors and traits that reflect sensitivity to others and communality (Bem 1974). The conceptualization also includes androgynous traits, which are mixtures of traditional male and female gender roles (Bem 1974).
The development of gender role self-concepts...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 155–162.
Bem, S. L. (1981). Gender schema theory: A cognitive account for sex typing. Psychological Review, 88, 354–364.
Eagly, A., Wood, W., & Diekman, A. B. (2000). Social role theory of sex differences and similarities: A current appraisal. In T. Eckes & H. M. Trautner (Eds.), The developmental social psychology of gender (pp. 123–174). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hannover, B. (2000). Development of the self in gendered contexts. In T. Eckes & H. M. Trautner (Eds.), The developmental social psychology of gender (pp. 177–206). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Martin, C. L., Ruble, D. N., & Szkryablo, J. (2002). Cognitive theories of early gender development. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 903–933.
Priess, H. A., Lindberg, S. M., & Hyde, J. S. (2009). Adolescent gender-role identity and mental health: Gender intensification revisited. Child Development, 80, 1531–1544.
Ruble, D. N., & Martin, C. L. (1998). Gender development. In W. Damon & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 933–1016). New York: Wiley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this entry
Cite this entry
Levesque, R.J.R. (2011). Sex Roles and Gender Roles. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_602
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_602
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1694-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1695-2
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science