The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Methods and History of Gender Research 55

TABLE 2.5 PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES QUESTIONNAIRE

Masculinity (M+) Femininity (F+) Masculinity–Femininity (M/F)

Independent Emotional Aggressive

Active Able to devote self to others Dominant

Competitive Gentle Excitable in major crisis

Can make decisions Helpful to others Worldly (vs. home-oriented)

Never gives up Kind Indifferent to others’ approval

Self-confident Aware of others’ feelings Feelings not easily hurt

Feels superior Understanding of others Never cries

Stands up well under pressure Warm in relations to others Little need for security

Source: Spence, Helmreich, and Stapp (1974).

Extension of Personal Attributes Questionnaire

Unmitigated Agency (M–)

Arrogant Dictatorial

Boastful Cynical

Egotistical Looks out for self

Greedy Hostile

Source: Spence, Helmreich, and Holahan (1979).

instrumental or agentic orientation, and the

items on the femininity scales were thought

to reflect an expressive or communal orienta-

tion. Scores on the masculinity and feminin-

ity scales are generally uncorrelated, reflecting

the fact that they are two independent dimen-

sions. When these scales were developed, con-

sistent sex differences appeared. Men scored

higher than women on the masculinity scales,

and women scored higher than men on the

femininity scales. But the scales were devel-

oped 35 years ago. Do sex differences still

appear today? People still have different views

of what is desirable in a woman and in a man,

although the differences are stronger among

some subgroups of Americans (e.g., European

American men in the Northeast and Afri-

can American men in the South) than others

(e.g., European American woman in the

Northeast; Konrad & Harris, 2002). Sex dif-

ferences in masculinity and femininity scores

have appeared from the 1970s to the late 1990s

(Lueptow, Garovich-Szabo, & Lueptow, 2001;

Spence & Buckner, 2000). However, women’s

masculinity scores have increased over time,

which has reduced the size of that sex differ-

ence (Spence & Buckner, 2000). People view

masculine characteristics as more desirable in

women today than they did in 1972 (Auster &

Ohm, 2000). People’s views of what is desirable

in men have not changed. These findings

reflect the greater changes in the female than

the male gender role over the past several

decades. There has been more encouragement

for women to become agentic than for men to

become communal.

Because reports of femininity and

masculinity could be influenced by demand

characteristics, implicit measures of mascu-

linity and femininity have been developed,

the most popular of which is the Implicit

Association Test (IAT; Greenwald & Farn-

ham, 2000). The IAT is based on reaction

times. Individuals see a series of agentic and

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