Psychological Androgyny

SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL

ADJUSTMENT
 For Bem, psychological androgyny
means taking on whichever quality
best fitted the situation – whether it
was masculine or feminine. It is more
adaptive than stereotyped gender
identities.
Androgynous individuals have been found
to have:
higher self-esteem
Higher levels of identity achievement
 more flexibility in dating and love
relationships
Androgynous gender role orientation
is more beneficial to children.
 Families with one or
more androgynous
parent have been
found to be highest
on scores of parental
warmth and support.
These androgynous
parents are found to
be highly
encouraging
regarding
achievement and
developing a sense
of self worth in sons
and daughters
(Sedney, 1987)
The
androgynic
group scored
significantly
higher than
the
stereotypic
group with
regards to
creativity.
Androgynous
individuals are
more flexible,

 possessing both
masculine and
feminine traits
Self-concept is well
developed in androgynous
individuals.
Androgynous
individuals have
pleasant interpersonal
emotions.
They are also more
enthusiastic,creative and
sensitive.
They are more animated in
aspects of their:

personality,
interests,
appearance &
behavior.
 BEHAVIORAL ADJUSTMENT

Androgynes behave
instrumentally.
Androgynes are more
expressive.
Well adaptive & flexible
behavior.
Androgynes play their parts in an
effective manner,by blending the
best of masculine & feminine
traits.
Have high levels of
understanding.
Criticisms
 Woodhill and Samuels (2003)
 Bem's ideal world would be one where everyone can
live up to their potential without being tied to
gender expectations. They argue that there must be
negative traits to androgyny, because it is a
combination of masculinity and femininity and all
their positives and negatives. Androgynous people
are sensitive to both masculine and feminine cues
and as such may respond to a wider range of
positive or negative stimuli than traditional people.
A negatively androgynous person would have a
bigger repertoire of undesirable behaviors from
which to choose a response. A negatively
androgynous person may, for example, react in an
undesirable feminine way in one situation and in an
undesirable masculine way in another situation
Such negative behaviours may override any of the
positive benefits proposed for the androgynous
person
Nevid and Rathus (2005) one challenge to
androgyny is the belief that masculinity, not
androgyny, accounts for greater self-esteem. They
believe that the relationship between psychological
androgyny and self-esteem in both men and
women is not based on the combination of
masculine and feminine traits, but rather on the
presence of masculine traits.
Meta analyses (Bassoff & Glass, 1982,
Whitney, 1983) have found a high
correlation between masculinity and
psychological adjustment.
Some feminist writers believe that since
androgyny is the possession of both
masculine and feminine personality traits,
there is an implied gender-role stereotype.
Feminists would like to see these
stereotypes dissolved and people be
treated as individuals, not as stereotypes.
THANK YOU…….