Descriptive and prescriptive features of gender stereotyping. Relationships among its components

Abstract

This paper explores the relation between gender stereotyping in traits and roles and sociodemographic variables, as well as the relation between the descriptive and prescriptive characteristics of such traits and roles. In Study 1, a representative national sample of 1255 participants was used. The results showed that trait stereotyping did not vary among participants, whereas role stereotyping did vary as a function of gender (women stereotyped less) age (young people stereotyped less) and educational level (people with a high level stereotyped less). The relation between trait stereotyping (descriptive) and role stereotyping (prescriptive) is very low. Study 2 was carried out to verify mainly the relation between the prescriptive and descriptive aspects of a single component: traits. The participants were 96 professional women. In this study, a weak relation was found between the descriptive and the prescriptive aspects of trait stereotyping, and a strong relation between the prescriptive aspects of traits and roles. These results are coherent with the assumption that the descriptive and prescriptive aspects of gender stereotyping are independent. In both studies, correlations were observed indicating that people who tend to stereotype in instrumental traits also maintain more stereotyped beliefs about the prescriptive trait and role aspects.

He is a Stud, She is a Slut! A Meta-Analysis on the Continued Existence of Sexual Double Standards

“…This finding is in line with the idea that people can have knowledge of collectively shared stereotypes with regard to SDS or personal stereotypical expectations about the sexual behavior of men and women, although they do not apply these stereotypes personally when evaluating other people's sexual behavior (Milhausen & Herold, 2001;Signorella et al, 1993). It has been argued that knowledge of collective stereotypes is strong, stable, and does not depend on one's experience with other people, but on culturally shared and generalized social beliefs (López-Sáez & Lisbona, 2009). Indeed, research in children as well as adults showed that content of collective gender stereotypes has not changed over time, whereas gender attitudes did become more egalitarian (e.g., Ruble, 1983;Signorella et al, 1993).…”

Young and Older Adults' Gender Stereotype in Multitasking

“…There was no such age difference with regard to the perceived belief of groups. These findings are consistent with previous literature (e.g., López-Sáez and Lisbona, 2009 ) that reports reduced discrepancies between the components of stereotyping as one's own cognitive structure and the perception of characteristics attributed by all (or most) individuals of a collective with increased age.…”

“…As a result, public contexts early in life may set the stage for the automatic activation and application of stereotypes (e.g., gender stereotypes) later in life. This processing mechanism is demonstrated by the finding that young people stereotype less than older people (López-Sáez and Lisbona, 2009 ). This development of stereotyping may be also reflected in the development of the discrepancy between one's own cognitive information processing structure in form of schemata (personal belief) and the perception of attributed characteristics by members of a collective (perceived belief of groups, Macrae et al, 1996 ).…”

Análisis de los estereotipos de género actuales

“…Los estudios que recientemente han analizado la influencia concreta de diferentes variables socioculturales y sociodemográficas (ej., Castillo-Mayén y Montes-Berges, 2007; Diekman y Diekman et al, 2005;García-Retamero et al, 2009;López-Sáez y Lisbona, 2009;RochaSánchez y Díaz-Loving, 2005;Wilde y Diekman, 2005), indican, por ejemplo, que el tamaño poblacional incide sobre la aplicación de los estereotipos tradicionales (García-Retamero et al, 2009), o que la edad, sexo y nivel educativo influyen sobre la vigencia de la dimensión prescriptiva de los estereotipos de género, pero no sobre la dimensión descriptiva (Ló-pez-Sáez y Lisbona, 2009).…”