Role Variation as a Determinant of Attributed Masculinity and Femininity

Summary

One-hundred twenty-seven men and women college students attributed items from a sex-role stereotype questionnaire to one of six hypothetical stimulus persons who varied as a function of gender and role designation (adult, undergraduate, graduate student). Results hypothesized from previous studies of sex-role stereotypes and theoretical conceptions of the attribution process and social learning influences on personality were obtained: the adult stimuli yielded predictable sex-role stereotypy; the undergraduate stimuli produced no differential attributions; and the graduate student stimuli generated greater masculine attributions for the female. The results were interpreted in terms of the significance of situationally specific stimuli as determinants of attributions about men and women.