The Cognitive Development of Sex Role in Female Adolescence

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the development of the concept of sex role in female adolescence from the cognitive side, and, in particular, to clarify the relationship between an adolescent's sex role concept and social sex role norm. Subject: The middle school, high school and university female students 100 from each group and 80 male university students. Methods: A questionnaire consisted of 21 items each of which described a sex-typed behavior or characteristicsis was used. This questionnaire was developed in previous studies. As for each item, subjects are required to rate its desirability for male and for female under the following two instructions: 1. Do you think how much desirable is the charactersistics of this sort for male (or female)? 2. Do you think how much is the characteristics of this sort expected for male (or female) in society? Results: 1. Younger girls made distinct descriminations between the male role and the female role. As the age of the subjects increases the discrimination. between two sexes decreases greatly. 2. The female university students perceive that the male role and the female role are perceived accurately and contrastingly. 3. The largest discrepancies are found between adolescent's sex role concept and the social sex role norm in female university students. Conclusion: In general, older female adolescents are suggested to have some cognitive conflicts and difficulties in the formation of their sex role concept. © 1974, The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology. All rights reserved.