66 Chapter 2
Ashmore, R. D. (1990). Sex, gender, and the
individual. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.),Hand-
book of personality: Theory and research
(pp. 486–526). New York: Guilford Press.
Bakan, D. (1966).The duality of human
existence. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
Pollack, W. S. (1998).Real boys: Rescuing
our sons from the myths of boyhood. New
York: Random House.
Spence, J. T., & Sawin, L. L. (1985).
Images of masculinity and femininity:
A reconceptualization. In V. E. O’Leary,
R. K. Unger, and B. S. Wallston (Eds.),
Women, gender, and social psychology
(pp. 35–66). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Suggested Reading
Key Terms
Androgyny—Displaying both masculine
and feminine traits.
Cross-sex-typed—Exhibiting gender-role
characteristics that correspond with the
other sex.
Gender-role strain—Tension that develops
when the expectations that accompany one’s
gender role have negative consequences
for the individual.
Self-fulfilling prophecy—When
people’s beliefs influence their actions
toward a target in a way such that
the target comes to confirm their
beliefs.
Self-role discrepancy theory—The strain
that arises when we fail to live up to the
gender role society has constructed.
Sex-typed—Exhibiting the gender-role
characteristics that correspond with our sex.
Social constructionists—People who
believe that masculinity and femininity are
categories constructed by society and that
each society may have a different definition
of masculinity and femininity.
Socialized dysfunctional characteristics
theory—Inherently dysfunctional personality
characteristics that are fundamental to the
gender roles instilled by society.
Unmitigated agency—Personality
orientation characterized by a focus on the
self to the exclusion of others.
Unmitigated communion—Personality
orientation characterized by a focus on
others to the exclusion of the self.
in an experiment influenced your
behavior.
- Describe the greatest difficulty
you believe researchers face when
studying gender. What is the best
precaution to take against this
difficulty? - What are some of the weaknesses
and strengths of the instruments
that have been used to measure
masculinity and femininity?
- Discuss the concepts of agency,
communion, unmitigated agency,
and unmitigated communion. How
would you expect these constructs to
be related to one another? - What are some areas of gender-role
strain for men and women today?
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