Implicit theories in enduring relationships: Psychological gender differences in perceptions of one's mate

This study examined implicit theories in ongoing, enduring relationships in order to elucidate the cognitive outcomes of marital communication. A random, urban sample of 207 married couples assessed how the dimensions of instrumentality and expressivity applied to their mates. Predictions of how mates would weight these two dimensions were based on Sandra Bem's gender schema theory. This theory posits that individuals characterized primarily by masculine or feminine attributes are more likely to process social information on the basis of sex‐linked associations than individuals who combine masculinity and femininity. Consequently, we expected that (1) sex‐typed spouses would weight the dimension congruent with the mate's sex more heavily, and (2) androgynous and undifferentiated spouses would weight instrumentality and expressivity about equally. The findings indicated that the sex‐reversed spouses weighted most heavily the dimension congruent with the partner's sex. Interestingly, all mates, except the feminine husbands, placed more emphasis on instrumentality than on expressivity in the implicit theory held for the spouse.

Notes

Ms. Fitzpatrick is Associate Professor of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53706; Ms. Indvik is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin, Madison. The authors would like to thank Patricia Best and Professor Robert Doolittle of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee for their invaluable assistance in the coordination of the data collection.