Testing a New Personality Scale and Feelings, Behaviour, and Attitudes in a given moment, on a given day

Background

Societal pressures and expectations to conform to traditional feminine gender norms should place women at risk for experiencing gender role discrepancy strain in contexts where they feel unable to adhere to these rigid norms. Yet, prior research examining the outcomes of such gender-discrepant contexts have uncovered mixed results. However, these studies have had notable limitations, perhaps the most central of which is that they have attempted to manipulate experience of femininity discrepancy strain by applying the “reverse” of masculinity threat paradigms, instead of taking a theoretically informed approach to designing a paradigm specifically to manipulate femininity discrepancy (Harrington, Overall, & Maxwell, 2023). To address this gap, this research employed a paradigm designed specifically to increase women's feelings of femininity discrepancy, through providing feedback that challenges adherence to qualities particularly central to traditional feminine norms, including nurturance, deference, and emotionality.

Research Questions / Hypotheses

  1. Participants assigned to the discrepancy condition will score higher/lower on outcomes likely to be increased/decreased by feelings of feminine discrepancy than those assigned to the affirmation condition and the control condition, such as negative emotions, as well as lower feelings of self-esteem and belonging.
  2. Participants assigned to the affirmation condition will score higher/lower on measures likely to be increased/decreased by feelings of femininity affirmation than those assigned to the discrepancy condition and the control conditions, such as positive emotions.

Participants

We recruited 743 participants. 55 were excluded for completing the survey too quickly. 61 were excluded for failing one of two comprehension checks. 27 were excluded for failing an attention check 3 were excluded after asking to have their data withdrawn 59 were excluded because they indicated they had trouble understanding the language of the survey

Methods

  1. Demographics - Age - Language - Gender - Ethnicity - Country - Children - Sexuality - Relationship Status
  2. Experimental Manipulation (between-participant randomization)
  3. Emotions if Score was Made Public
  4. Affective Outcomes
  5. Comprehension Checks
  6. Behavioral Outcomes
  7. Attitudinal Outcomes
  8. Traditional Femininity Ideology
  9. Ambivalent Sexism
  10. Purpose of Survey Check
  11. Difficulty with Language Check
  12. Believability heck

Results

Results revealed that women made to feel discrepant from feminine norms report outcomes consistent with discrepancy strain, but only when this discrepancy has salient implications for their day-to-day lives. In essence, when women are asked to imagine their feedback was made public, they report anticipating experiences a range of negative emotions. No other associations emerged.

Implications

These results highlight the importance of

  1. employing a theoretically informed approach to designing a paradigm specifically to manipulate femininity discrepancy and
  2. the importance of interpersonal implications for experiences of femininity discrepancy. Previous studies may not have uncovered significant effects because their paradigms were a-theoretical and the experimental feedback did not have salient implications for women's interpersonal relationships. The findings of this study will be presented in conference presentations and a journal article.