Psychology poster assignment

The Relationship between the Effects of Suppressing Gender Eccentricity

in a Society that Stresses Gender Conformity

Angela Schlenther and Tammy Lowery Zacchilli, PhD

Saint Leo University, Saint Leo, Florida

Background

A pervasive condition of human identity paradigmatically relates an individual to their biological sex differentiation and gender. When an individual relates the idea of gender internally to their self-awareness of femaleness or maleness (or a combination thereof), they purpose themselves to the world around them with a heightened sense of self. In response to each person’s purpose, then, the world reaffirms to this individual their acceptance of their state of being, body and mind. However, when a person expresses their individuality to a society that mirrors back contempt, then that individual will likely suffer from a loss of purpose and potency, and may feel alienated from society (Israel, 2005).

Method

Participants

There were 123 participants recruited via an online survey provided through Qualtrics and disseminated by professors of Saint Leo University, and other social media outlets. Participants included 48 males, 66 females, 3 males who identify as females, 3 individuals who identify as either male or female and 3 who do not identify as male or female. There were 2 individuals who had undergone sex reassignment surgery and 4 who declined to answer. The mean age of the sample 30.2 (SD = 11.64).

Instruments

Participants responded to Snell Jr. and Johnson’s (2004) Multidimensional Gender Consciousness Questionnaire (α = subscale range between .882 and .936); Spence, Helmreich and Stapp’s (1973) Personal Attributes Questionnaire (α = subscale range between .616 and .756); Snell’s (1989) Masculine and Feminine Self-Disclosure Scale (α = subscale range between .940 and .973; Leary’s (2013) Need to Belong Scale (α = .817); and Lovibond’s and Lovibond’s (1995) DASS21 (α = .917; .829; .825) which measures depression, anxiety and stress, respectively.

Results

Correlations were calculated between the measures. There was a significant, positive correlation between how an individual felt about their gender as it related to gender awareness. Specifically, femininity was positively related to public gender consciousness (r = 2.35, p < .01) and also private gender consciousness (r = .25, p < .01). Conversely, masculinity was negatively correlated to private gender consciousness (r = -.20, p < .05). To support these findings, significant positive correlations revealed that the more salient one felt about their gender, the more comfortable they felt to disclose their gender expression. For instance, the more masculine an individual felt, the more he disclosed (r = .40, p <. 01); the more feminine an individual felt, the more she disclosed (r = .40, p < .01). However, individuals who identified more fluidly as masculine and feminine seemed to be more at odds with masculine disclosure, producing a significant, negative correlation (r = -.29, p < .01). Additionally, individuals who identified with a more fluid male-female expression were significantly and positively correlated: depression (r = .37, p < .01); anxiety (r = .34, p < .01); and stress (r = .31, p < .01). These same individuals have a high need to belong with a significant positive correlation (r = .62, p < .01) compared to females (r =.278, p < .01). Individuals who identified as masculine, by comparison, demonstrated a significant negative correlation with the need for a sense of belongingness (r = -.38, p < .01).

Hypothesis

Based on previous research, it is predicted that individuals will display gender-appropriate behavior that will more likely conform within their society rather than how an individual might more truly internalize their gender.

Poster presented at the SEA session of the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association in March 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Discussion & Future Research

The significance of these results indicate a need for further exploration of society’s definition of gender: there are more than two sexes (male/female); there are more than two sexualities (straight/gay); and, there are more than two forms of gender expression (masculinity/femininity). Future research will broaden the scope of defining cultural biases and stereotypes while narrowing its impact to focus on individuals who do not fit into current, prosaic Western European ideas of what constitutes gender. In fact, gender is not always necessarily just male or just female but for some, it is both or a combination of or in opposite of a person’s sex assignment given at birth. This reinforcement from both scientific and sociocultural sources may help the individual who expresses fluidity in gender begin the process of healing. And ideally, at long last, it would also incite an understanding that there is nothing wrong with them and that their gender differences do not make them nonconforming—and that, indeed, they would finally belong.