The Structure and Dimensions of Stereotypes about Women

1. The Structure and Dimensions of Stereotypes about Women T. William Altermatt, C. Nathan DeWall, & Emily Leskinen St. Olaf College

2. Abstract Personality traits were sorted by 35 students into piles based on their likelihood of co-occurrence in the same woman. These sortings were submitted to a multidimensional scaling analysis, which produced a two-dimensional configuration of the traits. The traits were also rated in terms of four dimensions: power, competence, moral virtue, and sexual virtue. These ratings were used to fit vectors onto the configuration. The resulting plot provides a visual description of the organization of the stereotype for women: The stereotype can be divided into three subtypes which are described by varying degrees of virtue and agency.

3. Literature Review Cluster and factor analysis of the stereotype for women has consistently identified three “subtypes” of women: traditional / maternal, professional, and sexual (Clifton, McGrath, & Wick, 1976; Deaux et al., 1985; Noseworthy & Lott, 1984). Multidimensional scaling (MDS) provides a way to understand how these subtypes are related to one another as well as the dimensions that underlie evaluations of women who are classified into these different subtypes. Six and Eckes (1991) used MDS to produce a two-dimensional plot of the subtypes, but the dimensions underlying the subtypes were ambiguous. Ashmore and Tumia (1980) attempted to interpret the dimensions of sex stereotypes by fitting “property vectors” onto a two-dimensional solution, but their stimuli were not specific to women and did not produce the 3-subtype solution. The present study integrates these approaches in an effort to interpret the dimensions underlying the three-subtype pattern of the stereotype for women.

4. Part 1: Trait Sorting • Participants: • 35 students enrolled in an introductory psychology course at the University of Illinois • Materials: • 27 cards printed with traits such as “ambitious,” “maternal,” and “flirtatious” • Procedure: • Participants sorted the cards into piles based on their expected co-occurrence in the same woman using as many or as few piles as they wished.

5. Intelligent Ambitious Ambitious Ambitious Maternal Maternal Gentle Maternal Flirtatious Flirtatious Seductive Flirtatious • ambitious • attentive to appearance • beautiful • caring • college-educated • dependent • determined • devoted-to-family • faithful • fashion-conscious • flirtatious • gentle • goal-oriented • good-natured • independent • intelligent • maternal • passionate • progressive • romantic • seductive • sensitive • sophisticated • strong-minded • sympathetic • tidy • wears heavy makeup

6. Part 2: Trait Rating • Participants • 19 students enrolled in an introductory psychology course at the University of Illinois • Procedure • Participants asked to evaluate the Competence (ability to solve problems independently), Power (influence, leadership), Moral Virtue (integrity), and Sexual Virtue (sex only in committed relationships; lack of promiscuity) of a woman who is high in each trait.

7. Assuming that a woman possesses a particular trait, how high or low is she likely to be on the following four dimensions? For example, if you know that a woman is very “ambitious,” how high or low is her “moral virtue” likely to be? (1 = very low, 7 = very high) [Participants provided with description of 4 dimensions]

8. Analyses • Trait sorting • Multidimensional scaling used to convert psychological similarity (placed into same pile) into geometric proximity • Output: (X,Y) coordinates for each trait • Trait ratings • Multiple regression used to predict ratings from derived (X,Y) coordinates • Output: best fitting line (vector) through the traits for each dimension

9. Results • Multidimensional Scaling • Two-dimensional configuration produced best fit (Stress = .10) • Multiple Regression • Competence: adj. R2 = 0.73 (p < .001) • Power: adj. R2 = 0.45 (p < .001) • Moral Virtue: adj. R2 = 0.72 (p < .001) • Sexual Virtue: adj. R2 = 0.85 (p < .001)

11. Discussion • Interpretation of the dimensions underlying the three subtypes (and of the subtypes themselves) is facilitated by the property vectors of agency (power, competence) and virtue (moral and sexual) • Professional: High agency (power & competence) • Maternal: High moral & sexual virtue • Sex Object: Low virtue, Low competence

12. Future Directions • Search for group and individual differences in the structure and dimensions of the stereotype for women • Preliminary analysis suggests that individuals who endorse the chivalry script make finer distinctions along the Power dimension. • This suggests that “chivalrous” individuals see Professional women as higher in power and the other subtypes as lower in power than individuals who do not endorse the chivalry script.