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Journal
ol
Consulting
and
Clinical
Psychology
1970,
Vol.
34, No. 1, 1-7
SEX-ROLE
STEREOTYPES
AND
CLINICAL
JUDGMENTS
OF
MENTAL
HEALTH
INGE
K.
BROVERMAN,1
DONALD
M.
BROVERMAN,
FRANK
E.
CLARKSON
Worcester
State Hospital
PAUL
S.
ROSENKRANTZ
AND
SUSAN
R.
VOGEL
Holy
Cross
College
Brandeis
University
A
sex-role
Stereotype Questionnaire consisting
of 122
bipolar items
was
given
to
actively
functioning
clinicians with
one of
three sets
of
instructions:
To
describe
a
healthy, mature, socially competent
(a)
adult,
sex
unspecified,
(6)
a
man,
or (c) a
woman.
It was
hypothesized
that
clinical judgments about
the
characteristics
of
healthy
individuals
would
differ
as a
function
of sex of
person
judged,
and
furthermore,
that these
differences
in
clinical judgments
would
parallel stereotypic sex-role
differences.
A
second hypothesis predicted
that
behaviors
and
characteristics judged healthy
for an
adult,
sex
unspecified,
which
are
presumed
to
reflect
an
ideal standard
of
health, will resemble
behaviors
judged healthy
for
men,
but
differ
from
behaviors judged healthy
for
women. Both hypotheses were confirmed. Possible reasons
for and the
effects
of
this
double
standard
of
health
are
discussed.
Evidence
of the
existence
of
sex-role stereo-
types,
that
is,
highly consensual norms
and
beliefs
about
the
differing
characteristics
of
men
and
women,
is
abundantly present
in the
literature
(Anastasi
&
Foley,
1949;
Fern-
berger,
1948;
Komarovsky,
1950;
McKee
&
Sherriffs,
1957;
Seward,
1946;
Seward
&
Lar-
son,
1968;
Wylie,
1961;
Rosenkrantz,
Vogel,
Bee,
Broverman,
&
Broverman,
1968). Simi-
larly,
the
differential
valuations
of
behaviors
and
characteristics
stereotypically
ascribed
to
men
and
women
are
well established
(Kitay,
1940; Lynn, 1959; McKee
&
Sherriffs,
1959;
Rosenkrantz
et
al.,
1968; White, 1950),
that
is,
stereotypically masculine
traits
are
more
often
perceived
as
socially desirable than
are
attributes which
are
stereotypically feminine.
The
literature also indicates
that
the
social
desirabilities
of
behaviors
are
positively
re-
lated
to the
clinical ratings
of
these same
behaviors
in
terms
of
"normality-abnormal-
ity" (Cowen, 1961), "adjustment" (Wiener,
Blumberg,
Segman,
&
Cooper, 1959),
and
"health-sickness"
(Kogan, Quinn,
Ax, &
Rip-
ley, 1957).
Given
the
relationships existing between
masculine
versus feminine characteristics
and
1
Requests
for
reprints should
be
sent
to
Inge
K.
Broverman,
Worcester State Hospital, Worcester,
Massachusetts 01604.
social desirability,
on the one
hand,
and be-
tween
mental health
and
social desirability
on
the
other,
it
seems reasonable
to
expect
that
clinicians will maintain
parallel
distinctions
in
their concepts
of
what, behaviorally,
is
healthy
or
pathological when considering
men
versus
women.
More specifically, particular behaviors
and
characteristics
may be
thought indicative
of
pathology
in
members
of one
sex,
but not
pathological
in
members
of the
opposite sex.
The
present
paper,
then,
tests
the
hypothe-
sis
that
clinical
judgments about
the
traits
characterizing healthy, mature individuals
will
differ
as a
function
of the sex of the
person judged. Furthermore, these
differences
in
clinical judgments
are
expected
to
parallel
the
stereotypic sex-role
differences
previously
reported (Rosenkrantz
et
al.,
1968).
Finally,
the
present paper hypothesizes that
behavioral
attributes
which
are
regarded
as
healthy
for an
adult,
sex
unspecified,
and
thus
presumably viewed
from
an
ideal, abso-
lute standpoint, will more
often
be
considered
by
clinicians
as
healthy
or
appropriate
for
men
than
for
women.
This
hypothesis derives
from
the
assumption
that
abstract
notions
of
health will tend
to be
more
influenced
by the
greater social value
of
masculine stereotypic
characteristics than
by the
lesser valued
feminine
stereotypic characteristics.
