Psychological Correlates of Attitudes Toward Men

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Psychological Correlates of Attitudes Toward Men a

John Maltby & Liza Day

b

a

Psychology Subject Group and Centre for Health and Social Care Research Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom b

Centre for Health and Social Care Research Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom Version of record first published: 01 Apr 2010.

To cite this article: John Maltby & Liza Day (2001): Psychological Correlates of Attitudes Toward Men, The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 135:3, 335-351 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980109603703

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The Journul of Psychology, 2001, 135(3), 335-351

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Psychological Correlates of Attitudes Toward Men JOHN MALTBY Psychology Subject Group and Centrefor Health and Social Care Research Shefleld Hallam University, United Kingdom LIZA DAY Centrefor Health and Social Care Research Shefleld Hallam University, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT. The relation between attitudes toward men and a number of personality, attitude, and health factors was studied. The 379 respondents (176 men, 203 women) completed the Attitudes Toward Men Scale (A. N. Iazzo, 1983) and measures of the Big Five personality factors, conservatism, male bashing, attitudes toward women, sex role, locus of control, and health (including depression, anxiety, and self-esteem). A regression analysis using correlates of attitudes toward men indicated that, among women, femininity and self-esteem were important in predicting attitudes toward men. Among men, masculinity, self-esteem, and age were most important in predicting attitudes toward men. Key words: attitudes, femininity, masculinity, self-esteem, sex role

WITHIN THE PSYCHOLOGY of sex and gender roles, researchers have examined the role of attitudes toward women and their correlates. Researchers have used versions of the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Parry, 1983; Spence & Helmreich, 1972; Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1973) to operationalize constructs of attitudes regarding women and have included cross-cultural studies of attitudes toward women (Furnham & Karani, 1985; Gibbons, Hamby, & Dennis, 1997; Kremer & Curry, 1987; Walker, 1992; Wilson & Mbudzi, 1989), sex role conflict (Chusrnir & Koberg, 1986), sex role behaviors (McDermind, Huston, & McHale, 1990; McHale, Bartko, Crouter, & Perryjenkins, 1990), sexual aggression (Archer & Rhodes, 1989; Harmon, Owens, & Dewey, 1995; Lonsway & Fitzgerald, 1994), health (Bennett & Rigby, 1991), mental health (Parry, 1983; Pryor, 1994), behaviorism (Moxon, Keenan, & Hind, 1993). personality (Gervai, Turner, & Hinde, 1995), and changes across time (Twenge, 1997). Address correspondence to John Maltby, School of Health and Community Studies, Shefield Hallam University, Shefield SIO 2BP, United Kingdom. 335

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Iazzo (1983) introduced the Attitudes Toward Men Scale to provide a psychometrically sound instrument that could be used to address the lack of relevant data concerning attitudes of women about men. He argued that many of the theoretical and empirical propositions made about women’s attitudes toward men were based on assumptions, rather than psychometrically defined constructs. The scale has been shown to be relevant to psychological research in examining attitudes toward men. Battered wives, rape victims, feminists, and lesbians demonstrated significantly more negative attitudes toward men than a control sample did (Iazzo, 1983). Reporting a low relation between personality factors, as measured by Cattell’s (1978) 16 personality factors, and the Attitudes Toward Men Scale’s subscales, Iazzo suggested that attitudes toward men are not bound to personality factors. Despite the sentiments of Iazzo (l983), the scale has been cited three times in the current literature since it was developed. One study examined the effects of aggressive and sexual film exposure on attitudes toward the sexes (Kelley, 1985); another examined adolescents’ attitudes toward women (Furnham & Gunter, 1988); and a third cited the scale in a review of masculinity measures (Thompson, Pleck, & Ferrera, 1992). Over the past 10 years, there has been notable work on the role of masculinity (Connell, 1995; Gough, 1998; Gough & Edwards, 1998; Kilmartin, 1994; Kimmel, 1987). However, as Iazzo (1983) observed, such work still includes cultural interpretations and speculative assumptions regarding women’s attitudes toward men, or it focuses on men’s perceptions of masculinity. No study in this area addresses the balance using a sound psychometric measure of attitudes toward men to define and consider masculinity. With the impetus over the past 10 years to speculate on men’s roles in society, it seems prudent to provide some empirical information on attitudes toward men. Given the dearth of literature, there is still little theoretical basis regarding correlates of attitudes toward men. However, there are studies on how men view masculinity, speculations on how women view men, and a history of literature on attitudes toward women. Within this literature, four areas of research allow speculation regarding correlates of attitudes toward men. The first research area draws on Iazzo’s (1983) original examination of women’s attitudes toward men within Cattell’s (1 978) personality theory. Since then, the Big Five personality constructs-neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness-have become more dominant (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Therefore, there is an impetus to reexamine the Attitudes Toward Men Scale with these personality dimensions. The second research area is the predicted relations between the Attitudes Toward Men Scale and other attitude sets. Within existing attitude structures, the most comprehensive is Wilson’s theory of conservatism (1973, 1975). Wilson argued that conservative-liberal attitudes within society subsume four factors: religious-puritanism, anti-hedonism, militarism-punitiveness, and ethnocen-

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trism-intolerance.Therefore, the examination of attitudes toward men within this model should provide some empirical data. Furthermore, because men sometimes define masculinity through sexism, racism, and homophobia (Fine, 1987; Lyman, 1987), the relation between conservative-liberal concepts and attitudes toward men is of interest. Of further interest is the issue of male bashing by women (Farrell, 1986; Kilmartin, 1994; Macchietto, 1991) and how women show disrespect to, and are sexist about, men (Farrell, 1986; Kilmartin, 1994). Therefore, an examination of the relation between attitudes toward men and attitudes toward male bashing is of interest. Furthermore, inclusion of how the Attitudes Toward Men Scale compares with the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Parry, 1983) seems to be prudent, particularly in light of the role of sexism in masculinity (Fine, 1987; Lyman, 1987). The thrid research area draws from the literature regarding sex roles and attitudes toward women that focus on cognitive and health variables. Within this literature, studies have linked sex roles or attitudes toward women with depression (Halloran, 1998; Shimonaka, Nakazato, Kawaai, & Sato, 1997; Wilhelm, Parker, & Asghari, 1998), anxiety (Wade & Gelso, 1998), self-esteem (McCall & Struthers, 1994; Napholz, 1995; Pryor, 1994; Shimonaka et al., 1997;Wilhelm et al., 1998), locus of control (Ferreira, 1996; Furnham & Karani, 1985; Kuther, 1998), and other mental health factors (Parry, 1987). Given these mental health factors in sex roles and attitudes toward sex roles, the examination of the relations between attitudes toward men and depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and locus of control is useful. Fourth, Twenge (1997), in a meta-analysis of literature on attitudes toward women (1970-1995), suggested that mean scores of attitudes toward women were strongly, positively correlated with the year of the study. Twenge argued that this statistic suggests a trend toward more liberal attitudes toward women over the course of this period. Therefore, the relation between attitudes toward men and age is of interest. Given these four empirical areas, the aim of our study was to examine the relation between women’s and men’s attitudes toward men and a number of personality, attitude, cognitive, and health variables. Method Sample

For this study, 379 respondents (176 men, 203 women) from Sheffield, England, with ages ranging from 20 to 59 years (M = 37.4), completed nine questionnaires: 1. The Attitudes Toward Men Scale (Iazzo, 1983), developed among a sample of 104 U.S. women, contains 32 items in four subscales-marriage and parenthood, sexuality, work, and physical and personality attributes (see Table 1 ).

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TABLE 1 Principal Component Analysis and Oblimin Rotation for the Items on the Attitudes Toward Men Scale Comuonent

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Variable

1

Women (n = 203) 2 3 4

1

Men (n = 176) 2 3 4

5

Marriage and parenthood Men consider marriage as a trap. Most fathers want very much to be close to their children. (+) Most husbands consider their wives to be weak and witless creatures. Men often view women as one of their possessions. Most men marry to obtain sexual and domestic service. Men feel that raising children is women's work. After several years of mamage, men become bored with their wives. Men consider washing dishes and doing laundry to be entirely women's work. Men use work to avoid family and home responsibility. Men are generally faithful to their wives. (+) Fathers are often "heavyhanded" in disciplining their children. Men dislike children. Many men are incapable of giving warmth and love to a child.

.53

-3

.67

.61

.65

-.47

.88

-.50

.60

-.52

.58

.60

.67

-.67

.66

-.65

.55

-.58

.65

-.54

.63

-.56

.5 1

.56

.56

.60 (table continues)

TABLE 1 (continued)

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Variable

Component Women (n = 203) Men (n = 176) 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

5

Sexuality

Men only want “one thing” from a woman. The male body is visually unappealing. A man cannot get enough sex. The sight of a penis is repulsive. Qpically men enter into a sexual relationship only to satisfy their sexual urges. A man’s penis is not his only sensual area. (+) Male organs are attractive. (+)

-.78

.56

-.67

.69

-.59

.67

-.65

-70

-.59

.54

-.56

.71

-.56

.63

Work It is important to a man that he provides for his family. (+) Men are ambitious and achievement oriented. (+) Success is important to a man. (+) A man’s job is the most important thing in his life,

.63

-.61

.77

-.70

.48

-3

.66

-.67 (table conrinues)

The overall scale and subscales demonstrate good internal consistency (a> .7), freedom from social desirability scores, and good discriminant validity. Each item was scored on a 4-point scale ranging from disagree strongly (1) to agree strongly (4). Higher scores on this variable indicated a more positive attitude toward men. 2. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) provides a measure of five major personality dimensions: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Higher scores on these subscales indicated a greater level of these personality dimensions.

TABLE 1 (continued) Component Men ( n = 176) Women (n = 203) 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

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Variable

5

Physical and personality attributes An athletic man is to be

admired. (+) A man’s independence is to be admired. (+) The facial and body hair of a man adds to his virility. (+) Physical strength is a positive attribute of men. (+)

A muscular male body is a thing of beauty. (+) Men stand up very well

under pressure. (+) Men have strong leadership qualities. (+) A man’s broad shoulders and namow hips are impressive. (+)

.58

.65

.7 1

.71

.44

.67

.52

.59

.79

.60

.65

.52

.62

.78

.64

.74

Note. (+) = positively worded. Higher scores represent a more positive attitude to men.

3. The Wilson Patterson Attitude Inventory (Wilson, 1975) subsumes four subscales: religious-puritanism, anti-hedonism, militarism-punitiveness, and ethnocentrism-intolerance. Higher scores on these subscales indicated a greater level of these conservatism dimensions. 4. For a measure of male bashing, we used Kilmartin’s (1994) six examples of situations in which disrespect of men is intended (e.g., “Sign in an office: Of course God created man before woman. You always do a rough draft before the final masterpiece”). For each situation, respondents were asked how much they agreed with the portrayals of men. Responses were scored on a 5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Responses were then computed into a new variable, male bashing. Higher scores indicated a higher level of male bashing. 5. The British version of the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (Parry,1983) encompasses 22 items. Responses were scored on a 5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Higher scores on this variable indicated a more favorable attitude toward women.

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6. The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (Bem, 1974) yields scores on self-concept regarding higher levels of masculinity and femininity. 7. The Internal Control Index (ICI; Duttweiler, 1984) was used to measure locus of control. Though other measures are more widely used (for example, Rotter’s I-E scale, 1966), they have come under much criticism (Duttweiler, 1984; Kline, 1993), and evidence suggests that the ICI is more psychometrically sound than its predecessors (Duttweiler, 1984; Maltby & Cope, 1996). Higher scores on this variable indicated higher levels of internal locus of control. 8. The 12-item general self-esteem subscale of the Self-Description Questionnaire I11 (SDQIII; Marsh, 1990) was modified from the original Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). The SDQIII manual and two reports on the reliability and validity of the scale (Hunter & Stringer, 1993; Maltby, 1995) suggest confidence in using the scale among the present sample. Higher scores on this variable indicated a higher level of self-esteem. 9. The 28-item General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Williams, 1991) subsumes four subscales-somatic symptoms, anxietyhsomnia, social dysfunction, and severe depression. Higher scores on each of these variables indicated a greater amount of general health worries in each of the four dimensions. Results With 15 years since the Attitudes Toward Men Scale was developed, the relevance of some items among a present-day sample has not been established. To check first the relevance of each item, we computed skewness statistics and frequency counts on the agree strongly and disagree strongly response-point formats of each item for the sample (N= 379). The skewness statistic for each item ranged from -.48 to .51, and the minimum frequency count (n) for any of the agree strongly and disagree strongly response-points formats was 49. Using significance testing to examine skewness with large samples is not recommended, as distributions will be deemed skewed when there are only very small deviations from the normality (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996).Therefore, the recommendation that skewness is deemed to have occurred when the skewness statistic is higher than positive or negative 1 was used (Cohen, 1969).Among the sample, the findings suggested that each item demonstrated a normal distribution and that extreme points were answered by at least 13% of respondents ( n = 49), suggesting that each item had some relevance among the present sample. Table 1 shows a principal component analysis (Harman, 1967) with oblimin rotation (Jennrich & Sampson, 1966) for the Attitudes Toward Men Scale for both men and women. A scree test (Cattell, 1966) indicated that four components should be extracted for women and five components should be extracted for men. Among women, the Attitudes Toward Men Scale breaks down into the four components suggested by Iazzo (1983): marriage and parenthood (component I),

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sexuality (component 3), work (component 4). and physical and personality attributes (component 2). Among men, the five components include three identical to those suggested by Iazzo-sexuality (component 3), work (component 4), and physical and personality attributes (component 1). However, for the marriage and parenthood subscale, two sets of items load on different components: Component 2 contains items concerned with marriage, and component 5 contains those concerned with child rearing. This suggests that, for men, the Attitudes Toward Men Scale encompasses five dimensions-marriage, parenthood, sexuality, work, and physical and personality attributes. Table 2 shows the Cronbach alpha coefficients and mean scores, by sex, TABLE 2 Mean Scores and Internal Reliability Statistics for All the Scales Women (n = 203)

Men f n = 176)

M

Variable

a

M

SD

Marriage and parenthooda Marriageb Parenthoodb Sexuality Work Physical and personality attributes Neuroticism Extraversion Openness Agreeableness Conscientiousness Religious-puritanism Anti-hedonism Militarism-punitiveness Ethnocentrism-intolerance Male bashing Attitudes toward women Locus of control Self-esteem Masculinity Femininity Somatic symptoms Anxiety, insomnia Social dysfunction Severe depression

.74 .73 .72 .76 .81 .72 .85 .83 .78 .77 .85 .7 1 .83

13.64

6.4

Nore. NA = not applicable. aWomen only. bMenonly. *p < .05. **p < .01.

.81

.75 .79 .82 .91 .93 .74 .75 .77 .76 .76 .80

8.30 5.57 12.50 103.37 105.94 106.52 112.98 104.89 14.64 12.13 14.42 11.26 18.21 72.65 41.02 44.90 2.68 5.56 1.68 1.69 1.59 1.09

24.55 13.19 2.2 18.01 11.59 3.9 23.80 5.0 12.6 103.51 13.5 105.41 12.7 106.01 13.9 109.40 12.8 107.66 11.60 2.0 6.9 10.90 11.67 7.4 8.32 6.2 8.13 6.2 13.9 44.34 42.82 9.7 44.40 9.4 2.2 4.76 3.03 3.1 1.79 0.7 1.50 0.6 1.53 0.5 1.02 0.8

SD

t

NA NA 7.7 5.4 NA 20.94** 6.2 12.58** 5.3 17.96** 7.2 .10 13.7 12.7 -.39 -.38 12.8 15.0 -2.40* 13.1 2.08* -7.07** 5.7 -1.98* 5.2 5.4 -4.09** -5.40** 4.0 2.1 -20.47** 8.4 -23.57** 2.19* 5.1 -.53 9.2 10.02** 1.7 1.1 -10.19** 0.9 1.30 0.5 -3.1 I ** 0.6 -1.06 0.6 -.98

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computed for all the scales. Alpha coefficients, which ranged from .7 1 (religiouspuritanism) to .93 (self-esteem), are above the .7 criteria for satisfactory internal consistency (Kline, 1986), suggesting that all the scales could be used with confidence in the present sample. Scores on all the scales were compared between men and women. Because of the number of r tests carried out, a confidence level of .01 was used. Women were found to score significantly higher than men on femininity, on the anxiety measure in the General Health Questionnaire, and on all the measures of conservatism. Men were found to score significantly higher than women on the measures of attitudes toward men and masculinity. These findings are consistent with the theory regarding conservatism (Wilson, 1975), sex roles (Bem, 1974), attitudes toward men (Iazzo, 1983), and general health (Goldberg & Williams, 1991). Table 3 shows Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients between each of the aspects of the Attitudes Toward Men Scale and all the variables for men and women. For the subscale scores, higher scores indicated a more positive attitude toward men. Among women, a more positive attitude toward men’s marriage and parenthood role was significantly, positively related with openness, agreeableness, masculinity, and age and shared a significant, negative correlation with malebashing, self-esteem, and femininity. A more positive attitude toward men’s sexuality was found to share a significant, positive association with extraversion, openness, and age and a significant, negative association with religious-puritanism, anti-hedonism, male bashing, femininity, self-esteem, and anxiety. A more positive attitude toward men’s work role shared a positive association with extraversion, agreeableness, masculinity, and age. Furthermore, a significant, negative association was found between attitudes toward men’s work role and male bashing, self-esteem, and femininity. Finally, attitudes toward men’s physical and personality attributes were found to share a significant, positive association with extraversion and openness, self-esteem, masculinity, and age, while sharing a significant, negative association with religious-puritanism, male bashing, self-esteem, femininity, and social dysfunction. Among men, the five aspects of attitudes toward men (marriage, parenthood, sexuality, work, and physical and personality attributes) were found to share a significant, positive association with ethnocentrism-intolerance,locus of control, self-esteem, and masculinity and a significant, negative association with male bashing, attitudes toward women, and age. Furthermore, neuroticism was found to share a significant, negative association with attitudes toward men’s sexuality and attitudes toward men’s physical and personality attributes. Openness was found to share a significant, positive association with attitudes toward men’s marriage role, sexuality, and physical and personality attributes. Religious-puritanism was found to have a significant, negative association with attitudes toward men’s sexuality and physical and personality attributes. Anti-hedonism was found to have a significant, positive association with attitudes toward men’s mar-

.06 -.31** .05 .11 -.26** .IS* -.38** .03 -.02 .03 .10 .15*

.02 .I2 .27** .23** .03 .07 .13 -.02

MP

.I0 -.13 .23**

-. 18**

.09

-.15* .07 -.23**

-.09 .05

.10 .06 -.41**

-.40**

.04 .35** .24** .13 .02 -.33**

.24**

.09 .o1

-.04 .13 .26** .16* -.03 .07 -.09 -.03 .o1 -.29** .I 1 -.08 -.24** .17** -.15* .04 -.11

Women (n = 203) Sexual Work

.02 .30**

-. 17*

.05

.01 -.29** .19** -. 14* -.04

.01

.04 -.36**

-.07 .37** .30** .09 -.01 -.22** .02 -.I2

PPA .I 1 -.20** .22** -.01 .I0 .02 .26** .02 .37** -.29** -.28** .36** .22** .47** .08 .03 .I2 -.13 .06 .24**

M

.04 .07 .28**

.16*

.02

-.05

.43** -.43** -.45** .33** .28** .49**

.20** -.05

-.16* .12 .06 .04 .04

-. 10

~

.I1

.a** .O 1

.24**

.o 1

.04 .07 .03 .19**

-.05

-.14

.08 .29** -.44** -.34** .26** .25**

-.04

-.09

-.23** .05 -.02 .06

.15*

-.26** -.33** .25** .26** .39** .04 -.11

.33**

-.23** .03 .04

.05

-.16* .04 .23** .07

Men (n = 176) Parent Sexual Work

Note. MP = marriage and parenthood; Sexual = sexuality; PPA = physical and personality attributes; M = marriage; Parent = parenthood. *p < .05. **p < .01 (two-tailed).

Neuroticism Extraversion openness Agreeableness Conscientiousness Religious-puntanism Anti-hedonism Militarism-punitiveness Ethnocentrism-intolerance Male bashing Attitudes toward women Locus of control Self-esteem Masculinity Femininity Somatic symptoms Anxiety, insomnia Social dysfunction Severe depression Age

Variable

TABLE 3 Correlations Between the Aspects of Attitudes Toward Men and Personality, Attitude, and Health Variables

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.03 .13 .20** .03 -.08 -.30**

SO**

-.17* .01 .27** .04 .03 -.21** .05 .08 .32** -.53** -.19** .37** .40**

PPA

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riage and parenthood. Finally, a significant, positive association was found between anxiety and attitudes toward men’s parental role, sexuality, and physical and personality attributes. Among men and women, a number of variables were associated with all aspects of attitudes toward men. To understand the importance of these relationships, we performed a series of multiple regressions (see Table 4). Those variables that were correlated with every subscale of the Attitudes Toward Men Scale (openness, male bashing, self-esteem, femininity, and age for women; ethnocentrism, male bashing, attitudes toward women, locus of control, self-esteem, masculinity, and age for men) were used as independent variables in the analysis for men and women. The overall score for the Attitudes Toward Men Scale was used as the dependent variable. Included in this table are the unstandardized regression coefficients (B), the standardized regression coefficents (B), the semipartial correlations (s?), r, ?, and adjusted ?. For the total sample, the regression statistic ( r ) was significantly different from zero for overall scores on the Attitudes Toward Men Scale for men, F(7, 168)=7.21,pc.001,and women, F(5,197)= 1 2 . 6 7 , c ~ .OOO1. For women, femininity and self-esteem accounted for unique variance in the prediction of attiTABLE 4 Regression Analysis of General Attitudes Toward Men Using Predictor Variables for Men And Women ~~

-

B

Variable

B

Sr2

Women (n = 203)

Openness Male bashing Self-esteem Femininity Age

-.09

-.I 1 -.37 -.37 -.02 Men

Ethnocentrism Male bashing Attitudes toward women Locus of control Self-esteem Masculinity Age

-.06 -.I0 -.28 -.30 -.02

.08** .09**

(n = 176) .01 -.07 -.06

.05 .10

.I0 .08

.01

-.14 -.I 1 .08 .I7 .22

.05**

.I8

.03*

.03*

Note. For women,3 = .24, adj. 9= .22, r = .49**.For men. 6 = .23, adj. $ = .20, r = .48**. *I,< .05. **p i.01.

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tudes toward men. Among men, masculinity, self-esteem, and age accounted for unique variance in the attitudes toward men.

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Discussion The aim of this study was to examine the relation between women’s and men’s attitudes toward men and a number of personality, attitude, cognitive, and health variables. The component structure of the Attitudes Toward Men Scale differed for women and men. For women, the structure broke down to the factor structure suggested by Iazzo’s (1983) research into marriage and parenthood, sexuality, work, and physical and personality attributes. For men, however, a split between marriage and parental aspects of the scale suggested that men’s attitudes toward men are different from women’s attitudes toward men and that men see child rearing as separate from other home life aspects. Notwithstanding this difference, and despite the 15 years since the scale was published, Iazzo’s Attitudes Toward Men Scale broke down into recognizable constructs. However, future researchers will want to use different subscales for men when using the Attitudes Toward Men Scale. Furthermore, the other scales in this study, including the newly introduced measure of male bashing, showed adequate reliability and could be used with confidence. In terms of the main aim of the study, both men’s and women’s correlates of attitudes toward men were related to aspects of personality, attitude, and health. Among women, some variables were generally related to all aspects of attitudes toward men. Openness, a lesser degree of male bashing, lower self-esteem, and a greater age accompany a more positive attitude toward men. This is better interpreted by examining what is meant by a more negative attitude toward men. With this interpretation, derogatory attitudes toward men may rely on a tendency not to show openness and may be typified by male bashing, femininity, greater self-esteem, and a younger age. Such findings are consistent with research that has indicated that male bashing is an important construct as to how men are viewed (Kilmartin, 1994), that self-esteem is important in sex roles (McCall & Struthers, 1994; Napholz, 1995; Pryor, 1994; Shimonaka et al., 1997;Wilhelm et al., 1998), that male bashing is related to femininity (Iazzo, 1983), and that concepts about gender roles are changing over time or with age (Twenge, 1997). Furthermore, among women, some constructs demonstrated a correlation with only some aspects of attitudes toward men. Extraversion was found to share a positive attitude toward men’s sexuality and their physical and personality attributes, suggesting that women who view men positively in these aspects are more outgoing. In addition, attitudes toward men’s sexuality shared a significant, negative association with religious-puritanism and anti-hedonism, suggesting that more religious and anti-hedonistic individuals tended not to have a liberal view regarding men’s sexuality. Such an explanation also would account for the nega-

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tive association between religious-puritanism and attitudes toward men’s physical and personality attributes. The finding that positive attitudes toward men, through their marriage and parenthood roles, their work roles, and their physical and personality attributes, were accompanied by more masculine traits is also of interest, yet not unexpected given theory regarding sex roles (Kilmartin, 1994). However, this finding does not extend to attitudes toward men’s sexuality. Finally, there are some relations between women’s attitudes toward men and health factors. A more negative attitude toward men’s sexuality was significantly correlated with anxiety, and more negative attitudes toward men’s physical and personality attributes were significantly related to social dysfunction. These findings are of limited interest, given that these associations account for no more than 4% of the variance. Among men and women, some variables were significantly related to all aspects of attitudes toward men, and some were more specifically related to specific aspects of attitudes toward men. Generally, a more positive attitude toward men was accompanied by greater levels of ethnocentrism-intolerance, locus of control, self-esteem, and masculinity; higher age; more derogatory attitudes toward women; and lower levels of male bashing. These findings are consistent with suggestions that masculinity reflects racism (Fine, 1987; Lyman, 1987), that concepts such as locus of control and self-esteem are important to how sex roles are viewed (Ferreira, 1996; Furnham & Karani, 1985; Kuther, 1998; McCall & Struthers, 1994; Napholz, 1995; Pryor, 1994; Shimonaka et al., 1997; Wilhelm et al., 1998), and that attitudes toward men (including male bashing) and sex roles are intertwined (Kilmartin, 1994). Furthermore, the significant relation between age and attitudes toward men suggests that concepts about gender differ between age groups (Twenge, 1997). There were a number of more specific associations between attitudes toward men and personality, attitude, and health variables among men. The findings suggest that neuroticism may be instrumental to how men view their own sexuality. This finding indicated that men who display neurotic traits such as anxiety, nervousness, and worry tend to worry about their own sexual attractiveness. This finding was consistent with those of Eysenck (1976), who argued that individuals who score high in neuroticism will show feelings of inferiority in their sexual attitudes. An openness personality trait was associated with a better attitude toward men’s marriage role, sexuality, and physical and personality attributes. Furthermore, attitudes toward men also were significantly associated with two aspects of conservatism: anti-hedonism and religious-puritanism. Here, attitudes toward men’s marriage and parenthood roles were associated with anti-hedonism, suggesting that men who viewed these aspects positively were not endorsing hedonistic behavior. Moreover, and similar to women, attitudes toward men’s sexuality shared a significant, negative association with religious-puritanism. This suggests that more religious individuals tend not to have a liberal view regarding men’s sexuality.

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Finally, regarding health, more positive attitudes toward men’s parenthood role, sexuality, and physical and personality attributes were related to higher anxiety. Although these relations, again, account for no more than 4% of the variance, the findings that these aspects of attitudes toward men were related to anxiety may be relevant for future research. The multiple regression analysis provided insight into the factors that were correlated with general attitudes toward men. In this analysis, among women, lower self-esteem and a higher level of femininity accounted for unique variance in positive attitudes toward men. Among men, higher self-esteem, higher femininity, and higher age accounted for unique variance in more positive attitudes toward men. The discovery that these variables accounted for most of the variance in attitudes toward men might be of primary interest and benefit to researchers. Of specific interest was the relation between self-esteem and attitudes toward men, as this suggested that the variable might be an important mediation in the relation between attitudes toward men by men and women. This finding suggested an area of investigation that uses knowledge within the psychological literature regarding self-esteem as a factor in the dynamics that determine the well-being of relationships between two groups (Abrarns & Hogg, 1988; Tajfel, 1982). One possible explanation is covered by the self-esteem hypothesis (Abrams & Hogg, 1988): Self-esteem may be important in maintaining sex role identity. That is, among men, sustaining positive attitudes about one’s own sex might enhance self-esteem. Contrary to this, by sustaining negative attitudes about men, women might enhance their self-esteem. Therefore, if this maintenance of self-esteem is important in attitudes toward men, then this knowledge might prove useful to aid inquiry when relationships between the sexes are detrimental to the individual. Future researchers may also wish to determine whether the scale covers all aspects of male-directed attitudes. However, the present findings suggest that these investigations should explore such concepts by building on the present Attitudes Toward Men Scale, rather than by replacing it. Notwithstanding such speculations, the findings suggest that attitudes toward men, among men and women, are related to personality, attitude, and health factors. Researchers may concentrate on those psychological factors that are consistent across the various subscales of the Attitudes Toward Men Scale, particularly sex roles and self-esteem. REFERENCES Abrams, D., & Hogg, M. A. (1988). Comments on the motivational status of self-esteem in social identity and intergroup discrimination. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18,317-338.

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Received December 10,I999