Gender and Age Stereotypes of Emotionality

This study examined the content of adults' stereotypes about sex differences in both the experience and the expression of emotions and investigated how these beliefs vary with the age of the target person. Four hundred college students (200 men and 200 women) judged the frequency with which they believed males or females in one of five age groups (infants, preschoolers, elementary schoolers, adolescents, and adults) typically feel and express 25 different emotions. It was found that adults' gender-emotion stereotypes held for both basic and nonbasic emotions and appear to be based on a deficit model of male emotional expressiveness (i.e., a belief that males do not express the emotions they feel). Moreover, these beliefs about sex differences in emotionality refer primarily to adolescents and adults. It was concluded that gender-emotion stereotypes are complex and that there may be an age-of-target bias in the evaluation of others' emotions.

[1]  R. Buck.  EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND EMOTIONAL EDUCATION , 1983 .

[2]  M. Biaggio,et al.  Expression of anger as a function of assertiveness and sex. , 1981, Journal of clinical psychology.

[3]  J. Balswick,et al.  The Inexpressive Male: A Tragedy of American Society. , 1971 .

[4]  Preschoolers' inferences about gender and emotion: The mediation of emotionality stereotypes , 1984 .

[5]  S. Shields.  Distinguishing between emotion and nonemotion: Judgments about experience , 1984 .

[6]  E. E. Maccoby,et al.  Sex differences in aggression: a rejoinder and reprise. , 1980, Child development.

[7]  William L. Croll,et al.  Children's stereotypes about sex differences in emotionality , 1980 .

[8]  L. Brody,et al.  Gender differences in emotional development: A review of theories and research , 1985 .

[9]  John Condry,et al.  Sex Differences: A Study of the Eye of the Beholder. , 1976 .

[10]  J. Balswick,et al.  Differences in Expressiveness: Gender, Interpersonal Orientation, and Perceived Parental Expressiveness as Contributing Factors. , 1977 .

[11]  A. Ortony,et al.  What's basic about basic emotions? , 1990, Psychological review.

[12]  Jon G. Allen,et al.  Sex Differences in Emotionality: A Multidimensional Approach , 1976 .

[13]  S. Shields,et al.  Emotional Stereotyping of Parents in Child Rearing Manuals, 1915-1980 , 1989 .

[14]  D. Bugental,et al.  The Development of Control over Affective Expression in Nonverbal Behavior , 1982 .

[15]  Janet Shibley Hyde,et al.  How large are gender differences in aggression? A developmental meta-analysis. , 1984 .

[16]  J. Averill,et al.  Anger and Aggression: An Essay on Emotion , 1982 .

[17]  J. Block,et al.  Conceptions of sex role. Some cross-cultural and longitudinal perspectives. , 1973, The American psychologist.

[18]  Judith A. Hall.  Gender Effects in Decoding Nonverbal Cues , 1978 .

[19]  Carolyn Saarni,et al.  Social and Affective Functions of Nonverbal Behavior: Developmental Concerns , 1982 .

[20]  M. Hoffman,et al.  Sex differences in empathy and related behaviors. , 1977, Psychological bulletin.