Measurement of Gender (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

The Bem Sex Role Inventory

• Measurement of gender is conducted using the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) scale developed by Sandra Bem

• According to Bem, people who are psychologically roughly equal parts masculine and feminine (androgynous) are better able to adjust to a variety of settings and contexts than either a very masculine woman or a very feminine man

• Bem used her university students to assist in choosing the 20 most feminine, 20 most masculine, and 20 gender-neutral traits to make up the BSRI

• Respondents rate themselves for each item on the BSRI on a scale of 1-7

• Participants receive a score for masculinity and femininity, and the androgyny score can be defined as scoring high in both masculine and feminine items

• The test was revised in 1977 to create four categories of persons:

  • Masculine: high masculinity, low femininity

  • Feminine: low masculinity, high femininity

  • Androgynous: high masculinity, high femininity

  • Undifferentiated: low masculinity, low femininity

An extract from the BSRI (adapted from Bem, 1974)

Evaluation of the BSRI

Strengths

• The BSRI has good validity as it was developed by asking 50 male and 50 female judges to rate 200 traits in terms of how desirable they were for men and women, with the highest scorers being included on the BSRI

  • When piloted with over 100 students, the results corresponded with the participants' description of their gender identity, showing high validity

• The BSRI inventory has good test-retest reliability over four weeks with correlations ranging from +.76 to +.94 (Bem, 1981)

  • A shorter form of the scale with 30 items had a strong correlation of +.90 with the original, as the shorter version removed less socially desirable terms (e.g., childlike), thus improving the internal reliability of the test

Weaknesses

• Having people rate themselves on a questionnaire requires knowledge of their behaviour and personality, which they might not have

  • It is subjective to rate one's gender-specific characteristics on a scale of 1 to 7 on a questionnaire, as gender is a hypothetical construct that is far more open to interpretation than biological sex

• The BSRI inventory may lack temporal and cultural validity  as it was created from data generated by USA university students in the 1970s about what they perceived as desirable characteristics in men and women

  • These may no longer be relevant today as they are outdated and applicable only to individualist cultures

Link to Issues & Debates:

Bem's BSRI and her assumptions of what makes a healthy gender identity are culturally biased and should not be imposed on other cultures.  More research into gender identity in non-Western cultures would need to be conducted to know what the ideal gender identity would be in these cultures.