An Australian sex-role scale

Abstract

The development of two 50‐item parallel forms of an Australian sex‐role scale is described. A total of 2,427 subjects rated 512 adjectives in terms of their desirability for Australian males and females, the degree to which they are expected in Australian males and females, and their self‐applicability. These ratings were used to construct the two scales — Personal Description Questionnaire Forms A and B. Each scale comprises 10 masculine positive, 10 masculine negative, 10 feminine positive, 10 feminine negative, and 10 social desirability items. The new scales were administered to 282 (144 male, 138 female) high‐school students for self‐description, and the various psychometric characteristics of the scales and norms for these samples are presented. It is recommended that Australian sex‐role researchers use these new scales in preference to past scales based on American college students. As with any new scales there is a need for further normative data to be gathered and a variety of validation studies to be conducted.