Sociologyindex

ANDROGYNY

Sociology Books 2008

A personality which holds a balance of feminine and masculine characteristics.

An androgynous person would be one comfortable with displaying both characteristics and able to move back and forth between the two.

Some feminists have advocated gender androgyny as a source of liberation from polarized cultural ideas of masculine and feminine.

Androgynous: having the physical characters of both sexes; hermaphrodite.

Androgynous could also mean, of ambiguous sex; partly male and partly female in appearance.

Psychological Androgyny - A Review of the Research 
Ellen Piel Cook, University of Cincinnati 
The Counseling Psychologist, Vol. 15, No. 3, 471-513 (1987) DOI: 10.1177/0011000087153006 © 1987 Division 17 of Counseling Psychologist Association
Androgyny represents a combination of personality characteristics traditionally associated with men (masculine) and those associated with women (feminine). This critical review provides an overview of basic assumptions, measures, research topics, and results of research in the androgyny literature. In particular, research on developmental perspectives emphasizes the importance of focusing upon how individuals systematically maintain and modify their perceptions and experiences as men and women over the life span. The impact of client and practitioner femininity and masculinity upon the counseling process remains poorly understood. Researchers and practitioners alike should recognize the complexity of sex-role-related phenomena, including the importance of situational factors and the role of individual differences in accounting for sex role behavior and adjustment. - tcp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/15/3/471

The Journal of Early Adolescence, Vol. 1, No. 2, 195-209 (1981) DOI: 10.1177/027243168100100209 © 1981 SAGE Publications
Development of a Measure of Androgyny for Young Adolescents 
Susan Thomas, Mary Robinson, Florida State University 
The construct of psychological androgyny or the co-presence of mas-culine and feminine traits, has been studied in college students as well as older adults. The ontogeny of androgyny has received limited empirical attention, in part because of the lack of available instruments. The present study describes the development and initial validation of the Adolescent Sex Role Inventory (ASRI) for subjects ages 10-14, and represents a downward extension of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). A principal axis factor analysis with a varimax rotation was performed for each scale (ASRI and BSRI). Factor structures were found to be highly similar. In addition, correlations among the scale scores and various personality characteristics were computed. There were no differences between sets of relationships for the two scales, providing further evidence of the similarity of the construct being measured by the two scales. - jea.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/1/2/195

Desirable and undesirable androgyny: a prescription for the twenty-first century 
Authors: Woodhill B.M.; Samuels C.
Source: Journal of Gender Studies, Volume 13, Number 1, March 2004, pp. 15-42(28)
Abstract: If femininity and masculinity are understood as consisting of both positive and negative traits and androgyny is a combination of feminine and masculine traits, then logically androgynous people could manifest any number and combination of positive and negative traits. The traditional notion of androgyny is as an identity that consists of a balance of positive feminine and positive masculine traits. A balance of negative feminine and negative masculine traits could also constitute a part of androgyny, creating the possibility of an undesirable or negative androgyny. - ingentaconnect.com

Training Men and Women for Androgynous Behaviors in Organizations 
Alice G. Sargent 
Group & Organization Management, Vol. 6, No. 3, 302-311 (1981) DOI: 10.1177/105960118100600306 © 1981 SAGE Publications
Organizational problems that arise from traditional sex-role behaviors are discussed. Androgyny is presented as a concept that can be integrated with behavioral-science training programs, especially human-resource-management programs. Androgyny is viewed as an effective mixture of behaviors that traditionally have been termed "masculine" and "feminine." Examples of traditional behavior are cited, and ways for male and female employees to acquire androgynous behavior are suggested. - gom.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/6/3/302

Androgyny - Is it Really the Product of Educated, Middle-Class Western Societies 
Shashi Ravinder, University of Wollongong 
This article examines the sex role identity of college students in India and in Australia and empirically tests the validity of the prediction that androgyny is the product of educated, middle-class, Western societies. Results reveal that sex role transcendence, rather than androgyny, is the product of Western societies such as Australia. Androgyny, on the other hand, was found to be more predominant in certain traditional cultures, such as India, and was particularly predominant among Indian males. These findings have important implications not only for sex role theory but also for cross-cultural investigations of sex role identity. - jcc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/18/2/208

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