Qualitative Aspects of Beliefs About Men and Women

Abstract

IN A PREVIOUS paper (3) we demonstrated that among college students at the Umversity of California both men and women esteem men significantly more highly than women In the present report we make a qualitative examination of the characteristics which men and women ascribe to themselves and to each other What are the characteristics that men and women attribute to the two sexes ? How do traits ascribed to men or women "m general" compare with those applied by men and women to themselves as mdividuals'' Can the charactenstics ascribed to the two sexes be grouped m any way that IS rational and that makes good psychological sense when compared with other information about sex differences "^ These are the kinds of questions in which we are interested SUBJECTS All 5's were members of large introductory psychology dasses at the University of California The analysis reported in section IA below IS based on the same 50 men and 50 women who were 5's for the first report Section IB is based on 50 men and 50 women enrolled in the same courses m a different semester Section II is based on 100 men and 100 women enrolled m the same courses in yet a third semester.

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