Development of Conceptions of Masculinity and Femininity, 1976

This study explored children's and adolescents' concepts of masculinity and femininity from a cognitive developmental perspective. The following three hypotheses were examined: (1) there are age-related changes in the mode of conceptualizing male and female differences, proceeding from biological through societal to psychological ascriptions; (2) both personally descriptive and socially prescriptive sex role judgments can be distinguished; and (3) sex role development proceeds beyond the level of conformity to socially accepted stereotypes to an attempt to construct ideal standards consistent with principles of equality and freedom. Participants were 67 children and adolescents ranging in age from six to 18 years. Five males and five females at two-year intervals (i.e., grades 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11) were randomly sampled from the files of a suburban school system. The 18-year olds were first-year students from a highly selective college. The open-ended, individual interviews were designed to examine beliefs about men and women along four general dimensions: competence, power, nurturance, and activity level. The content and style of the questions were adapted to suit the vocabulary and the experiences of different age groups. The items included both direct questions on these dimensions as well as questions framed within the social context of work, family, and interpersonal relationships. Each subject was probed about the basis on which sex role judgments were made, as well as on the need or desirability to conform to masculine and feminine stereotypes. Measures of moral judgment and social conventional reasoning were also given. The Murray Research Archive holds data from both the sex role interview, and the moral judgment interview