Dimensions of Gender Stereotypes: Positive Personality, Cognitive, Physical, and Negative Personality

Background:

Dynamic stereotypes characterize social groups that are thought to have changed from the attributes they manifested in the past and even to continue to change in the future. According to social role theory’s assumption that the role behavior of group members shapes their stereotype, groups should have dynamic stereotypes to the extent that their typical social roles are perceived to change over time. Applied to men and women, this theory makes two predictions about perceived change: (a) perceivers should think that sex differences are eroding because of increasing similarity of the roles of men and women and (b) the female stereotype should be particularly dynamic because of greater change in the roles of women than of men. Typical assessment of stereotypes is to present a target individual (i.e the average man) and ask participants to rate the likelihood that this target individuals possesses each trait on a 7-point scale, ranging from very unlikely to very likely.  is to prisis Typical assessment

Psychometrics:

The four sub scales produced by averaging responses across the items had high internal consistency, as assessed by alphas, for the first and second experiments, respectively: .85 and .81 for masculine personality, .92 and .89 for masculine cognitive, .88 and .81 for masculine physical, .93 and .92 for feminine personality, .84 and .84 for feminine cognitive, and .88 and .86 for feminine physical. For full psychometric description see article:   For full Diekman, A. B., & Eagly, A. H. (2000). Stereotypes as dynamic constructs: Women and men of the past, present, and future. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1171-1188.

Author of Tool:

Diekman, A. B., & Eagly, A. H

Key references:

Primary use / Purpose:

Assesses dimensions of gender stereotypes

 

Dimensions of Gender Stereotypes: Positive Personality, Cognitive, Physical, and Negative Personality

Diekman & Eagly (2000)

 

Masculine							Feminine
Personality	Cognitive	Physical	Negative personality		Personality	Cognitive	Physical	Negative personality
competitive	good with numbers	rugged	egotistical		affectionate	imaginative	cute	spineless c
daring	analytical	muscular	hostile		sympathetic	intuitive	gorgeous	gullible c
adventurous	good at problem solving	physically strong	cynical		gentle	artistic	beautiful	servile c
aggressive	quantitatively skilled	burly	arrogant		sensitive	creative	pretty	subordinates self to others c
courageousa	good at reasoninga	physically vigorousa	boastful		supportivea	expressivea	petitea	whiny d
dominanta	mathematicala	brawnya	greedy		kinda	tastefula	sexya	complaining d
unexcitableb			dictatorial		nurturingb			nagging d
stands up under pressureb			unprincipled		warmb			fussy d

Note. Items were presented in Diekman & Eagly (2000); drawn from factor-analysis by Cejka & Eagly (1999) and the EPAQ (Spence & Helmreich, 1978). Alphas for all versions of the scales can be found in Diekman & Eagly (2000). Typical assessment of stereotypes is to present a target individual (e.g., the average man) and ask participants to rate the likelihood that this target individuals possesses each trait on a 7-point scale, ranging from very unlikely to very likely.

 

Unmarked personality, cognitive, and physical items formed the 4-item scales.

^a These items were added to form 6-item scales.

^b These items were added to form 8-item scales.

^c These items comprise the unmitigated communion subscale of negative femininity (Spence, Helmreich, & Holahan, 1979; see Diekman, Goodfriend, & Goodwin, 2004, for alphas).

^d These items comprise the passive aggression subscale of negative femininity (Spence, Helmreich, & Holahan, 1979; see Diekman, Goodfriend, & Goodwin, 2004, for alphas).