Sex Differences in Psychological Rigidity

Feinman, Saul; Rogers, James D.

doi:10.2466/pms.1974.39.3.1337

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Women incorporated new and conflicting information to a greater extent than men did (although statistical significance varied among the four openness measures). That women were more open to modifying existing impressions is consistent with findings from other areas; for example, women have been found to be less attitudinally rigid (Feinman & Rogers, 1974) and more tolerant of ambiguity (Feinman & Rogers, 1974;Vollhardt, 1990). If women are more open to acknowledging discrepant information about others, and modifying their perceptions accordingly, they may be relatively more adept at responding to changing interpersonal environments and relationships.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Openness in processing social information among attachment types

Green-Hennessy

Reis

1998

Personal Relationships

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Previous empirical and theoretical work suggests differences among attachment types with regard to their openness in perceiving and organizing social information. To examine these hypothesized differences, participants were given two sets of information characterizing the same target person, one set depicting an insecurely attached person, the other portraying a securely attached person. Proposed differences in openness to incorporating new information, differentiation in cognitive representations of others, and recall were assessed. As hypothesized, avoidant individuals were less open to new information than were secure subjects, and they differentiated their representations less than did both secure and anxious‐ambivalent individuals. Moreover, as expected, there were no significant differences between secure and anxious‐ambivalent individuals on the dimensions of openness and differentiation. However, avoidant individuals did not evidence poorer recall of the stimulus material. Theoretical and clinical implications of avoidant individuals’relatively more rigid, simplistic models of others are explored.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Openness in processing social information among attachment types

Green-Hennessy

Reis

1998

Personal Relationships

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“…Compared to men in our culture, women are generally considered to be more compliant, yielding, and passive-in short, less rigid (Feinman & Rogers, 1974;Michaelson & Aaland, 1976). Further, married women, in general, are said to be culturally scripted to submit to their husbands' desires, to expect the latter to be somewhat more knowledgeable concerning affairs of the world, and to be willing therefore to follow their husbands' wishes (Laws & Schwartz, 1977).…”

Section: Please Scroll Down For Articlementioning

confidence: 97%

The commencement of bisexual activity in swinging married women over age thirty

Dixon¹

1984

The Journal of Sex Research

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The commencement of bisexual behavior and the ontogenesis of a bisexual orientation was studied in order to aid in the better understanding of how sexual behavior patterns begin and change. The investigation was conducted through in-depth interviews held in California, Oregon, and Washington with the first 50 female volunteers gathered from a variety of sources who met the study requirements. Those requirements were that each subject, at the time of her first sexual contact with another female, (a) was married; (b) was at least 30 years of age; (c) was engaged in swinging; (d) was enjoying sex with males; and (e) had no history, prior to age 30, of a sexual attraction to females. "Multi-female" and "multi-male" sexual activity are terms introduced to remove the ambiguity and mislabeling which results from defining sexual activity between all persons of the same sex as necessarily homosexual. Subjects typically revealed a high incidence of early and continuing autosexual and heterosexual activity and current high frequencies of sexual activity with each sex. Influences facilitating a typical subject's initial and subsequent sexual activity with females were found to be her husband, other swingers, and the general swinging environment-the husband's influence usually being of paramount importance. It was concluded that those influences, perhaps together with a predisposition toward gaining perceived fulfillment of felt needs through sexual activity, will result in some heterosexual females engaging in multi-female sexual activity and eventually adopting a self-identified bisexual orientation.

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The concept of rigidity: An enigma

Stewin

1983

Int J Adv Counselling

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A controversy about the nature of behavioral rigidity exists in current psychological theory. To date, large bodies of empirical data have been accumulated which support two major theoretical perspectives. A dichotomy exists between the assumption that rigidity is a personality factor and the perspective that maintains that rigidity is task specific, a behavioral phenomena observable under certain conditions. This paper highlights the dichotomy by examining some of the relevant classical and recent research in the area. It is concluded that the concept must be used cautiouslyby both researchers and practitioners.The concept of rigidity has long been a source of interest to and discord among psychologists and counsellors. There is no question that flexibility in functioning -the ability to adapt to any given situation, is an extremely desirable trait. It allows one to function in changing circumstances and to resist premature closure. Rigidity on the other hand results in an intolerance for ambiguity and an excessive need for structure. Currently the term is extensively employed by researchers and therapists and is used to describe a wide variety of behaviors including the tendency to perseverate, an inability to change habits and the inability to modify concepts and attitudes once developed.Over the years, a number of authors have attempted to trace the development of the concept (Chown (1959), Oliver and Ferguson (1951), Rubenowitz (1963). Chown (1959, p. 195) for example, notes that initial use of the term perseveration in the psychological literature can be attributed to Neisser in 1894; however, it wasn't until 1927 that Spearman attempted a specific description of the term while conducting his now famous studies on mental inertia (an inability to process information quickly). Spearman's work triggered a number of other investigations focused on demonstrating the existence of a perseveration tendency

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Sex Differences in Psychological Rigidity

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

Openness in processing social information among attachment types

Openness in processing social information among attachment types

The commencement of bisexual activity in swinging married women over age thirty

The concept of rigidity: An enigma

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