Gender-Role Attitudes 101Key Terms
Backlash effect—The penalty that is
imposed on people for counterstereotypical
behavior.
Benevolent discrimination—Providing
more help to women than men with the
notion that women are less competent than
men and are in need of men’s help.
Benevolent sexism—Positive feelings
toward women coupled with the notion that
women are less competent than men and are
in need of men’s help.
Category-based expectancies—Assumptions
about individuals based on characteristics of
general categories to which they belong.
Correspondent inference theory—Idea that
people are more likely to make dispositional
attributions for behavior that is unique or
extreme rather than normative.
Egalitarian gender ideology—Maintains
that power is distributed equally between
men and women and that men and women
identify equally with the same spheres.
Gender ideologies—Attitudes toward men’s
and women’s roles.
Gender-role stereotypes—Features that
individuals assign to men and women in
their society; features not assigned due to
one’s biological sex, but due to the social
roles men and women hold.Homophobia—A negative attitude toward
homosexuals.
Hostile sexism—Feelings of hostility toward
women reflected by negative assumptions
about women.
Self-fulfilling prophecy—Situation in which
expectations influence behavior toward
someone so that the person behaves in a way
to confirm our expectations.
Sexism—Feeling toward people based on
their sex alone.
Shifting standard—Idea that there is one
standard for defining the behavior of one
group, but another standard for defining the
behavior of another group.
Target-based expectancies—Perceptions of
a person based on individual information
about that person.
Traditional gender ideology—Maintains
that men’s sphere is work and women’s
sphere is home.
Transitional gender ideology—Maintains
that it is acceptable for women and men to
identify with the same spheres, but women
should devote proportionately more time
to matters at home and men should devote
proportionately more time to work.
Transphobia—Negative attitude toward
transgendered people.M03_HELG0185_04_SE_C03.indd 101 6/21/11 12:22 PM