The relationship of sex and sex role to trait and situationally specific anxiety types

doi:10.1016/0092-6566(81)90029-5

Journal of Research in Personality

Volume 15, Issue 3, September 1981, Pages 312-322

https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(81)90029-5 Get rights and content

Abstract

While considerable research has investigated the relationship of sex and/or sex role to general or trait anxiety, little is known about their relationship to more specific anxiety types. Based on the postulate that sex and sex-role differences may depend on the extent to which an anxiety-producing situation represents a sex-stereotypic domain, the present study compared their relationships to four measures of anxiety: Math anxiety, test anxiety, and two measures of trait anxiety. Subjects were 180 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory psychology courses. Although females reported higher levels of anxiety on all four scales than did males, a discriminant function analysis indicated that math anxiety was the strongest contributor to the separation of the sexes. Significant score differences as a function of sex role were found using the STAI A-Trait scale, and a significant sex × sex-role interaction was found for scores on the S-R Inventory of Anxiousness. Feminine-typed males and undifferentiated females reported highest anxiety levels in comparison to same-sex individuals. Implications for the understanding and treatment of both general and situationally specific anxiety are discussed.

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The relationship of sex and sex role to trait and situationally specific anxiety types

Abstract

The measurement of psychological androgyny

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

On the utility of alternative procedures for assessing psychological androgyny

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Sex typing and the avoidance of cross-sex behavior

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Prevalence, distribution, and correlates of math anxiety in college students

Journal of Counseling Psychology

Anxiety correlates of sex-role identity

Journal of Clinical Psychology

Handbook for the IPAT anxiety scale

Test anxiety, locus of control, and feedback in self-instruction

Dissertation Abstracts International

The development of human behavior

Generalizability of contributions from sources of variance in the S-R Inventories of Anxiousness

Journal of Personality

An S-R Inventory of Anxiousness

Psychological Monographs

Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales: Instruments designed to measure attitudes toward the learning of mathematics by males and females

JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology

The relationship between masculinity-feminity and manifest anxiety

Journal of Clinical Psychology

Behavioral group counseling with socially anxious and unassertive college students

Journal of Counseling Psychology

Effectiveness of an intervention strategy for reducing mathematics anxiety

Journal of Counseling Psychology

The enigma of androgyny: Differential implications for males and females?

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Anxiety: States, traits, situations?

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Social psychology