The comparability of masculine and feminine gender schemas for male and female college students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychological gender equivalence of biological males and females in sex-type groups. The question was investigated by surveying 300 students at a small, private, liberal arts college in the Piedmont area of North Carolina. The groups included 160 females and 140 males between the ages of 18 and 24. The survey was administered during regular class sessions, and the subjects were from predominantly middle-and upper-middle-class families. The students were administered a modified form on the Bern Sex Role Inventory consisting of 60 personality characteristics, 20 considered masculine items, 20 considered feminine items, and 20 considered neutral items. The subjects were instructed to respond on a 7-point Likert scale to the characteristics. The modified version provided two additional columns after each item for additional responses. Respondents were instructed to indicate 1) how items best describe themselves, 2) how items best describe members of their own sex, and 3) how items best describe members of the opposite sex. Using the median-split method of scoring, the subjects were placed in either the Masculine, Feminine, Androgynous, or Undifferentiated Sex-type group