Research has shown that females gaze more than males while speaking and listening regardless of the sex of their partner. To determine if these differences are due to biological sex or sex role, 24 dyads, in which subjects were matched on sex and sex role, conversed for 10 minutes while patterns of speech and gaze were recorded by two judges.…

Much of the sex role research published in the late seventies was concerned with measuring masculinity and femininity, based on stereotyped trait ratings using tests like the Bem Sex Role Inventory or the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. In response to the need for a wider variety of measures, the Activities Inventory (AI), a checklist of…

Tests the ability of 43 children, ranging in age from 20 months to 40 months, to discriminate between pictures of boys and girls and male and female adults. Compares children who passed this gender-task with those who failed it on three behaviors most often categorized as sex-typed: toy choice, aggression, and peer playmate selection. (HOD)

Explores the differences between boys and girls (5- and 7-year-olds) in their use of two kinds of strategies with interpersonal conflict: (1) active persuasion and negotiation, and (2) mitigation without disrupting social harmony between the interactors. (HOD)

Observed play of 52 toddlers with a set of socially stereotyped masculine, feminine, and neutral toys in a day care setting over 14 months to (1) determine the age at which toddlers consistently exhibit sex-stereotyped toy choices in a natural setting and (2) investigate relation of parents' expectations and the children's own knowledge of gender…

Examines the reactions of children in grades 3-4, 7-8, and 11-12 to boys and girls whose behavior was either masculine-stereotyped or feminine-stereotyped along the dimensions of steadiness/excitability, adventurousness/timidity, and rudeness/politeness. (Author/HOD)

Describes two measures of gender salience, one assessing the use of the gender dimension in classifying new information and the other assessing its use in making affiliation choices. The developmental course of gender salience from age three to age seven and the relation between salience and sex-role development were examined. (HOD)

Intended to help classroom teachers, students, or researchers fathom or simply explore the impact of sex roles in human communication, these 47 annotated citations cover a variety of sources written in a range of disciplines. Sources, which are arranged alphabetically by author, include books and journals in communication, psychology, linguistics,…

Studies of sex roles and their relationship to behavioral and personality variables have abounded since Bem published her original theory of androgyny (1974). To examine different kinds of sex roles, 256 college students (191 females, 65 males), with a median age of 18.4 years, completed the Activities Inventory. The Inventory is based on…

Examines research which suggests that children's developing knowledge about traditional gender roles has a substantial influence on how children process information pertaining to gender. Evidence also shows that as children attain gender constancy, their behaviors become especially responsive to gender-related information. (Author/RWB)

Androgyny research has been hampered by a dependency upon traditional masculine and feminine sex roles for definition. Bakan's (1966) concept of agency and communion, which parallels masculinity and femininity, refers to behavioral competencies, involving a style or manner of interacting with the environment devoid of gender designations and…

To derive a descriptive profile of communication role patterns and to determine whether these patterns were gender dependent, a Gender Communication Scale was developed by selecting scale items from other instruments that best discriminated reports of role behavior. The scale was then administered to 91 male and 148 female undergraduate students.…

Type A behavior is an epidemiological construct whose major features are aggressiveness, hostility, a sense of time urgency, and competitiveness; these features are considered measures of coronary-prone behavior in men and women. To determine a possible relationship between sex role orientation, parenting behavior, and Type A behavior, college…

A study examined S.L. Bem's Gender Schema Theory as it relates to communicator style. It was hypothesized that (1) speakers using a "powerless" speech style would be perceived less positively than would "powerful" speakers, and (2) sex-typed subjects, that is, those who adhere to a traditional sex role schema, would perceive…

Videotape recordings and transcriptions of sequences of drama sessions in 10 elementary classrooms were analyzed to explore the utility of an anthropological perspective in assessing the nature of children's participation in improvisational drama project activities. Approximately 270 children and their teachers received seven and one half hours of…