Robert F. Strahan

Feminine and Masculine Dimensions of the Typical, Desirable, and Ideal Woman and Man.

A sample of 432 college men and women used the items of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) to describe either a typical, desirable, or ideal man or woman. Although both sexes endorsed a relatively more androgynous ideal and desirable description in comparison to the typical description, traditional views of a man and a woman appear to be alive and well. The greatest divergence between the sexes occurred in regard to the degree that masculine characteristics should ideally characterize a woman. Although males and females agreed in their masculinity ratings of the ideal man, females described the ideal woman to be as masculine as their ideal man, whereas males described her as significantly less masculine than their ideal man. The pattern of findings obtained from Bems Androgyny score is contrasted with that obtained from its component Masculinity and Femininity scale scores. On the basis of these contrasts, recommendations are made for using the component scores as separate variables.

Measures of Consistency for Holland-Type Codes.

Abstract “Consistency” in Hollands theory refers to the extent to which more closely related scale types are found together in codes of the Self-Directed Search sort. This paper describes two new measures of consistency. One is based on the hexagonal model and is for use with 3-point codes. The other is based on conditional probabilities and is for use with 2-point codes.

Underestimating Correlation from Scatterplots.

Eighty subjects estimated the correlation coeffi cient, r, for each of 13 computer-printed scatter plots. Making judgments were 46 students in a graduate-level statistics course and 34 faculty and graduate students in a department of psychology. The actual correlation values ranged from .010 to .995, with 200 observations in each scatterplot and with the order of scatterplot presentation ran domized. As predicted, subjects underestimated the degree of actual correlation. Also as predicted, but with substantial moderation by a method-of-presen tation factor, this underestimation was most pro nounced in the middle of the correlational range—between the 0 and 1 extremes. Though per ception of correlation was shown not to be veridical (i.e., in terms of r), little support was given one al ternative view—its being in terms of r 2.

Regarding some short forms of the marlowe-crowne social desirability scale

A program of Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale research is described, focusing on the distinction between positively keyed and negatively keyed items. Balanced short forms exist for the measurement of an overall social desirability construct, but evidence suggests the use as well of separate subscales. These subscales are seen to correlate differentially with the substantive personality variable neuroticism, with content-free measures of semantic style, and with self-peer agreement. A simple procedure for the concomitant measurement of possible tendency to acquiesce is also described.

PERSONALITY STRUCTURE OF ELDERLY DRIVERS

This paper reports the factor structure of a 37-item personality questionnaire intended to be predictive of driving performance in elderly persons. Subjects were 191 persons 63 years of age or older, about half of whom also were given perceptual/cognitive tasks and drove on a closed driving course. Although the personality questionnaire did not predict driving skill, the factor structure of the questionnaire is of interest. Of several factor analyses, the most satisfactory was a 2-factor solution. We interpreted the approximately orthogonal factors as measuring what we labeled Competence and Emotionality.

Dealing with ties in Holland-type consistency measures

Abstract This article describes adaptations of Strahans (1987) methods for calculating consistency indexes when ties are obtained in Holland-type codes.

Assessing Magnitude of Effect from Rank-Order Correlation Coefficients.

While Spearmans rho (ri) and Kendalls tau (t) are equally powerful rank-order correlation coefficients under conditions of normality, they have quite different metrics. When applied to the same data set, t typically is smaller in absolute value, often no more than two-thirds the size of r,. Although these facts are duly stated in a number of works on nonparametric statistics, they are omitted in many other, less detailed presentations. Given increasing concern with the degree to which a statistical effect existsrather than just whether an effect is present at all—this difference in correlational metric appears to need emphasis.

MORE ON SCORING ANDROGYNY AS A SINGLE CONTINUOUS VARIABLE

Blackmans (1982) interpretation of Strahan (1981) is considered incorrect. The position is reiterated that no single index appears able to represent comprehensively the androgyny construct.

Connotations of psychology experiment titles

Fifty-nine undergraduate psychology student volunteers rated three psychological studies, referred to only by title, on six semantic differential dimensions. The titles were “Dream Study,” “Experiment in Attitudes,” and “Visual Perception.” The semantic differential scales were important/trivial, unscientific/scientific, experimental/clinical, boring/interesting, humanistic/behavioristic, and easy to do/difficult to do. For all scales but humanistic/behavioristic, overall tests of title differences were significant, and posterior comparisons showed nine significant differences among titles. Subjects do make connotative distinctions among psychology experiment titles, a facter of potential relevance in assessing the influence of the volunteer subject on the outcome of psychological research.