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This research examined gender-role flexibility across a variety of stressful events, and tested two proposed hypotheses that explicate the processes underlying gender-role flexibility. Theknowing-more hypothesisposits that androgynous individuals have a broad coping repertoire. Theknowing-how hypothesisposits that androgynous individuals know how to cope according to changing situational characteristics. The coping responses of Chinese university students were assessed in both real-life (Study 1) and hypothetical (Study 2) stressful situations. Results revealed that androgynous participants, who were less depressed than others, were characterized by (a) cognitive astuteness in distinguishing among situational characteristics and (b) deployment of strategies that fit specific situational demands. Results supported theknowing-how hypothesisonly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of gender attributes, masculinity and femininity, has comprised a major research program in twentieth-century psychology. Historical examination reveals that this research program has produced not cumulative discovery but a pattern of repetition and reification. Researchers have repeatedly attempted to ensure the reality of masculinity and femininity, and have even introduced methodological techniques that privilege their observational statements on that reality. Similar patterns have occurred in the case of androgyny research, despite expectations that the androgyny construct would remedy the shortcomings of masculinity and femininity concepts. When analyzed in historical context, these gender concepts are found to share ethnopsychological origins-roots in social practices and prescriptions. Contextual analysis also provides telling details about researchers normative interests. If we choose to terminate such fruitless ventures and to generate novel understandings of the social world, then we must undertake critical self-appraisal and adopt a new metatheoretical grounding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purposes of the present investigation are to examine theoretical issues in androgyny theory by testing the effect of participation in the Outward Bound program on measures of masculinity (M) and femininity (F) Bipolar conceptualizations of MF posit that an increase in either M or F must lead to a decrease in the other, whereas androgyny theory posits M and F to be independent constructs Consistent with a priori predictions based on the nature of the Outward Bound program, participation substantially enhanced M and had a small positive effect on F The results were reasonably consistent for male and female participants, for single-sex and mixed-sex groups, and across responses to three different MF measures Results support the androgyny interpretation of MF and demonstrate the effectiveness of the Outward Bound program in changing MF The results contradict the bipolar perspective that an increase in M must be accompanied by a decrease in F [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the relation of androgyny to psychosocial development in the context of Erikson's life-span theory of personality. Sam- pies of male and female college students and adults completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Inventory of Psychosocial Development. The highest scores on psychosocial development were obtained by individuals with an androgynous orientation, followed by those with masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated orientations, in that order. Particular aspects of psychosocial development were differentially associated with masculinity and femininity, in accordance with the agentic or communal quality of successful resolutions of particular developmental crises. Overall, these results support the view that the simultaneous endorsement of both masculine and feminine qualities represents an added adaptive capacity. These findings applied equally to both sexes and both age groups studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothesis associating psychological androgyny with greater personal adjustment has recently been contradicted in several studies in which masculine individuals, regardless of gender, generally appeared to be better adjusted than either androgynous or feminine persons. In the present research, five studies involving 363 subjects tested the hypothesis that such data may reflect a culture that values and differentially rewards agentic (masculine) characteristics and competencies in both men and women while taking communal (feminine) characteristics somewhat for granted. Subjects evaluating candidates for agentic roles preferred masculine candidates (regardless of gender). Masculine and androgynous persons were preferred for a communal role, while feminine persons were almost never chosen for either agentic or communal roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ninety-five undergraduates served as subjects in an experiment where they could administer electric shock to an opponent and receive the same from an opponent. The independent variables were subject's sex, subject's sex role identification (as measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory), opponent's sex, as well as degree of provocation from the opponent. Aggression was defined as level of shock chosen by the subject for the opponent. The results indicated that masculine subjects facing a male opponent were more aggressive than individuals of other sex role identifications whether or not they were provoked. It was also found that masculine males were more aggressive than other males or anyof the females. Furthermore, opponent's sex influenced the males' aggressiveness but had no effect on the degree of aggression in females. Finally, aggression increased in all subjects following increases in provocation. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for pyschological androgyny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]