Psychology of Women Quarterly

Thirty-five physicians in family practice or gynecology, 43 practicing nurses, and 35 menopausal or postmenopausal women rated the frequency, severity, and causality of 15 menopausal symptoms commonly reported in the literature. Subjects also rated their degree of preference for four possible menopause treatments (counseling, estrogen therapy, mood-altering medication, and no treatment) and answered an open-ended question asking them what they saw as the major factor in determining whether a woman would experience difficulty at menopause. The results overall suggest that medical persons see menopausal symptoms as more pathological than women who have experienced or are experiencing menopause and that physicians, relative to menopausal women, adhere to a more psychogenic model in which psychological causality and symptoms are given greater emphasis than menopausal women give them.

The psychological literature in pain perception is reviewed to clarify the influence of sex and menstrual phase on the phenomenon of pain. An attempt is made to resolve some of the discrepancies in the reported findings by taking special note of the methodological differences in the pain studies. The appropriateness of the measures of pain threshold, pain tolerance, discrimination accuracy, and of response bias to the study of pain are discussed.

A review was conducted of 28 psychology of women textbooks selected from university libraries and utilizing a psychological approach. The question of whether authors of psychology of women books in their treatment of Afro-American women had replicated the errors of authors of introductory psychology books in their treatment of women was raised. Of the 28 books reviewed, 18 offered either token or no references to Afro-American women. It is concluded that race and class biases underlie the exclusion, limited inclusion, and biased treatment of Afro-American women in these works.

Two studies were conducted to define reactions to gender-biased language empirically. In the first study, respondents evaluated the sexism in a series of sentences that contained no bias, used such words as man or he in the generic sense, or referred to women in an unfair, stereotypical manner. In the second study, reactions were examined in a more naturalistic context by asking respondents to evaluate an essay written using all plural pronouns, generic pronouns, or generic pronouns plus evaluative stereotypic phrasings. The results were consistent with the recommendations of the American Psychological Association's “Guidelines for Nonsexist Language” (1975, 1977): (1) generic phrasings were perceived to be somewhat biased and sexist, (2) designation and evaluation stereotyping was perceived to be extremely biased and sexist, and (3) neutral alternatives were judged to be appropriately nonsexist. These findings suggest that authors should conform to the standards prescribed in the “Guidelines” if they hope to avoid unfair treatment of the sexes.

This study attempts to develop a measure of the attributions of the term feminist. Seven hundred and sixty-eight undergraduate students (361 males and 407 females) completed a 91-item semantic differential test relevant to the label feminist. Principal components analysis with orthogonal rotation produced five factors indicating that when the term feminist is used, attributions of General Evaluation, Behavioral Characteristics, Political Orientation, Sexual Preference, and Gender Classification are likely to be made. Factor analysis of split halves of the sample shows an internal replication and, consequently, a stability of the obtained factor structure. This study presents students' judgments on specific items defining these factors, thereby indicating the evaluative associations of the term.

Because gender roles are rapidly changing, a more dynamic conceptualization of role is especially needed. Working toward this end, we build on the contributions of scholars such as Merton and Barber (1963), Rossi (1972), Bardwick and Douvan (1971), Komarovsky (1973a, 1973b), and Room (1976); develop two pivotal concepts, social psychological ambivalence and developmental alienation; and interpret current findings on the changing roles of women. Conflicts contemporary women may face because they are attracted to opposing values also are explored. One challenge for future researchers will be to clarify the situational factors that link ambivalence on the individual (i.e., psychological) level to structural or sociological ambivalence and to collective social action.

Using a projective method with college students, this study assessed sex differences in the motivation to share personal concerns in a friendship context. As expected, women were found to be significantly more likely than men to imagine that they would confide worries to a friend (Intimacy Imagery). Women's Intimacy Imagery stories included positive outcomes significantly more often than did men's Intimacy Imagery stories, and the theme of self-enhancement as a consequence of confiding occurred in one-quarter of the women's Intimacy Imagery stories and in none of the men's. For men, Intimacy Imagery was associated with high social confidence and a strong preference for confiding in women. For women, stories suggesting avoidance of confiding or anxiety around confiding were associated with low social confidence.

Alternative propositions to female achievement motivation theory were investigated in this study. The subjects were 139 Brazilian women selected from a pool of 619 female college students previously classified by levels of achievement (Ach) and affiliative (Aff) needs. The subjects were assigned to three experimental conditions—neutral, affiliation arousal, and achievement arousal—and wrote stories that were analyzed by a projective measure (MPAM). A significant Achievement Level × Treatment Interaction revealed that achievement arousal increased the Ach scores of High Ach subjects but did not affect the scores of Low Ach subjects. Level of affiliative tendencies did not affect these results. Contrary to some of the speculations, achievement arousal did not inhibit the scores of High Ach-High Aff women. Overall, affiliation arousal did not produce the expected effects. However, within the affiliation-arousal condition, High Aff subjects obtained significantly higher scores than Low Aff subjects.

This study identified the internal (personality) and external (social support) factors that differentiate women who enter male-dominated (Nontraditional) vocational training programs from those who only consider entering such programs (Considereds) and from those who enter female-dominated (Traditional) programs. Four hundred seventy women who were enrolled in California vocational training programs and were stratified on both social class and type of vocational training site completed a self-administered questionnaire covering (1) demographic/family background, (2) social support/encouragement from others, (3) peer experience with nontraditional programs, and (4) personality and sex-role orientation. Results revealed that the student subgroups differed most significantly in the amount of support, encouragement, and discouragement they received from the important others in their lives. Nontraditional students differed from Traditional students primarily in the support of female friends and family members, and from Considereds in encouragement from school personnel. Recommendations are made for steps that can be taken to foster equality of educational opportunity.

Active mentors, persons who are not simply role models, have been shown to facilitate and enhance career growth, yet the token role of women entering traditionally masculine professions was shown to inhibit sponsorships. An analysis of a sample of exit interviews from the first women cadets to graduate from West Point revealed that the marginal peer acceptance of tokens within a competitive, somewhat constrained atmosphere discouraged the development of these sponsorships. If women plan to play sustained roles in the professions, they must actively sponsor other women. A first step in this process is to be aware of the situational pressures, noted in the present paper, that are directed against sponsorships within a token group.

Derived identity, defined as a sense of self that is overly influenced by and dependent upon relationships with significant others, and depressive symptomatology, measured by the CES-D scale, were assessed in a sample of 564 adult women classified into one of six marital-employment status groups: married professional, single professional, married nonprofessional, single nonprofessional, married nonemployed, and single nonemployed. Married women were found to report more derived identity than single women and, when age effects were controlled, married women also had higher CES-D scores than single women. Employment status results in aggregate indicated that for women of equal education: (1) employment outside the home, whether it be professional or nonprofessional, is related to a more autonomous sense of self than nonemployment and (2) employment outside the home is not associated with lower CES-D scores than nonemployment. Derived identity and depression were also found to be significantly correlated within the total sample and within each marital-employment status group.

This study assessed the relationship between sex role orientation, self esteem, and occupational choice. A random sample of one hundred forty-four college women in a feminine-typed occupational field of study and 143 college women in a masculine-typed occupational field of study completed self-report measures to assess sex role orientation (androgynous, masculine, feminine, or undifferentiated) and self-esteem. Comparisons of occupational groups revealed a significantly higher level of self-esteem in the feminine-typed occupational group as opposed to the masculine-typed group. The masculine women in the feminine occupational group and the androgynous women in both groups had significantly higher levels of self-esteem than the masculine women in the masculine occupational group. Implications of findings and future research directions are discussed.

Respondents consisted of 124 working managers (62 men, 62 women) whose needs for Achievement (nAch), Affiliation (nAff), and Power (nPwr) were tested using two types of Thematic Apperception Tests, male-oriented and balanced as to sex. Results of a two-way ANOVA indicate that women managers have a higher nAch, a not significantly different nAff, and a higher nPwr than managerial men. Changing social values as well as the obstacles women face in first getting managerial jobs and then having to overcome sex-role conflicts—all possibly channel a specific type of woman into these managerial positions, as other factors act to select men.