2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Theoretical and Empirical studies of Gender Development from the view point of Life-span Development
| Project/Area Number |
15530424
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Educational psychology
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| Research Institution | Nara University |
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Principal Investigator |
YUKAWA Takako Nara University, Sociology, Professor, 社会学部, 教授 (40100945)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TAKATA Toshitake Miyagigakuin Women's University, Professor, 学芸学部, 教授 (20008189)
HIROOKA Shuichi Mie University, Education, Professor, 教育学部, 教授 (30199111)
ISHIDA Setsuko Nagoya University of Foreign Languages, Professor, 外国語学部, 教授 (90151373)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2005
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| Keywords | Mechanism of gender development / life-span development / biological sex difference / socio-cultural sex difference / androgyny / transition of gender cognition / gender cognition in aged person / gender cognition in college students |
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this research project was to reconstruct a theory and a paradigm of social development of gender from the life-span developmental viewpoint. The project consisted of three studies. The first study was to confirm a predicted transition or change of social stereotype cognition of gender from a traditional to an innovative cognition in Japanese students for the last twenty years. Data were collected in the 1970s and the 1990s. Different samples of 1,000 college students (about half were females) participated in each time period. A questionnaire was consisted of fifty adjectives that represented typical gender personality traits in Japanese culture during the 1970s. The main results supported the prediction. Girls showed a distinguishable change toward the egalitarianism.
The second study was to examine the relationship between psychological androgyny and successful aging. Thirty aged male and female adults were given two types of questionnaires. The first type of questionnaire was consisted of three scales, Health, Life-satisfaction, and Self-esteem. The second was consisted of Bem's Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI). Finally, they were asked to recall their past life on dimension of gender, that is, their own past life as a male (or a female) by free recall. About half of the male and female participants were classified into androgynous person, respectively. Although they have not clearly attained successful aging, case studies based on the free recall of their past life suggested that androgynous persons were under the process of successful aging.
The third study was a preliminary examination of effects of teaching to make a change from conservative cognition toward egalitarian ones in college students. The results did not show any clear effects of the teaching.
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