Sex Differences and Androgyny in Fantasy Content

Abstract

Fantasy stories were composed by 153 undergraduates (93 females, 60 males) who also responded to the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The fantasy stories were collected by group administration of a Thematic Apperception Test. The stories were content analyzed along 17 imagery categories. Males and females differed significantly in ten of these categories. The results indicate a substantial continuity of sex differences in fantasy content between earlier decades and the mid 1970s. However, women had relatively more imagery of a self-assertive, pleasurable, and Careerist nature than had been found in earlier studies. The fantasies of sex-typed persons were more situation-bound and more sexual than those of androgynous persons. Sex-typed persons appear to experience limitations in fantasy production which parallel their limitations in overt behavior.