Alan F. Friedman

Androgyny and Other Measures of Masculinity-Femininity.

Berns measures of Masculinity (M), Femininity (F), and the absolute value of her androgyny measure were analyzed by the principal-components method with the Masculinity-Femininity scales from .the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the California Psychological Inventory, the Omnibus Personality Inventory, and the Need for Heterosexuality scale of the Adjective Check List. Separate analyses for males and females yielded the same three orthogonal components for each sex (a) masculinity-femininity, (b) hetcrosexuality, and (c) androgyny. The three Masculinity-Femininity scales contributed to the first component. Heterosexuality and Berns M and F scales contributed to the second.. Androgyny and M (for the males) and F (for the females) contributed to the third. The results support Berns statements about androgyny and show that sex role traits are organized similarly for males and females.

COMPARISON OF FACTORS FROM THE BEM SEX-ROLE INVENTORY FOR MALE AND FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENTS

The 40 sex-typed items of the Bern Sex-role Inventory were analyzed by the principal components method for samples of 169 male and 206 female undergraduates. The Bern Sex-role Inventory assumes psychological masculinity (M) and femininity (F) as independent, unipolar dimensions of personality which can be measured using pools of items treated as homogeneous. The two analyses were compared with each other and with theoretical orthogonal factors of masculinity and femininity. The results indicated that the two sets of items measure the same constructs for males and females and show agreement with theoretical factors. In addition, the masculine items defined three small factors (rather than one) for each sex and eight feminine items showed poor agreement with the femininity factor. Suggestions for improving the inventory were presented.

Validity of Psychoticism Scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire

A study was conducted to investigate the validity of the Psychoticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and to test a criticism stating that the scale is overloaded with paranoid items. The questionnaire was administered to 31 hospitalized psychiatric patients and 20 normal aids. A planned comparison between the scores of normals and psychotics was significant but that between the 10 paranoid and 21 nonparanoid schizophrenics was not. This is consistent with the validity of the Psychoticism scale and suggests that it is probably not overloaded with paranoid content.

A Curvilinear Relationship between Extraversion and Performance for Adult Retardates

A curvilinear relationship between extraversion and performance on an operant task for retarded adults was hypothesized. Following previous research with subjects with disturbed cognitive processes, the curve was hypothesized to be opposite from the usual Yerkes-Dodson relationship. The Eysenck-Withers Personality Inventory Extraversion scale was orally administered to 20 adult retardates. These subjects were then required to push a button on either the left or right side for M&M candies. The side that was reinforced changed five times. The number of errors made after the changes indicated the quality of performance. A significant curvilinear relationship between extraversion and errors was found, with moderately introverted subjects making more errors than either extremely introverted or extraverted subjects.