Vocational interests, personality, and sociosexuality as indicators of a general masculinity/femininity factor ¬リニ

a r t i c l e i n f o Several individual difference domains include variables that show substantial sex differences and may be considered indicators of masculinity/femininity (M/F). We examined the structure of gender-related characteristics from three domains (vocational interests, personality characteristics, and sociosexually relevant sexual fantasies) to determine whether a general factor of M/F can be derived even when participant sex is controlled, and if so, which domains and which variables within those domains are the best indicators of that factor. In a sample of 198 undergraduate students, we found strong intercorrelations between indicators of M/F across domains in the combined-sex sample but only weak intercorrelations within sex. The results also indicated that a general masculinity/femininity factor could be obtained, even when participant sex was controlled, and was defined more strongly by personality characteristics and sociosexuality of sexual fantasies than by vocational interests. For several decades, psychologists have attempted to understand and to measure the constructs of masculinity and femininity (see Lippa, 2001, for a review). Several bipolar masculinity-versus-femininity scales were developed in the mid-20th century, using vocational interest items (Strong, 1936), personality items (e.g., Guilford & Zimmerman, 1956), and items representing a wide range of psychological characteristics (Terman & Miles, 1936). In the 1970s, researchers conceptualized masculinity and femininity as two independent dimensions, and constructed scales to reflect this conceptualization has rehabilitated the concept of a single bipolar M/F dimension, and has measured it using vocational interest items that are highly " gender diagnostic " , showing large sex differences. The resulting scales have been largely independent of personality characteristics, even though those latter characteristics also show some sex differences. In the present research, we examine potential indicators of M/F from three different domains: vocational interests, personality characteristics , and sexual fantasies. We investigate whether these variables define a general factor of M/F and whether that higher-order factor can be recovered even when participant sex is controlled. Previous work by Lippa (1998) has suggested that M/F as assessed by vocational interests is only moderately associated with personality characteristics, even with those that do show sex differences. Here, we investigate M/F in terms of both of the above domains as well as a third domain in which important sex differences are both expected and observed, namely, that of sociosexuality, which we assess through participants' sexual fantasies. In particular, we examine the question of whether indicators of M/F …