A Social-Role Analysis of Psychotherapists' Gender Stereotypes for Young, Middle-Aged, and Old Men and Women

This study combined data from two random, representative samples of national organizations of psychotherapists to assess the plausibility of predictions derived from a social role model regarding gender stereotypes for women and men of different ages. Broverman's Sex-Role Stereotype Questionnaire (SRSQ) was completed by 322 clinical members of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and 554 psychotherapists listed in the current "National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology" (NR). Results were analyzed for therapists who rated race-unspecified male or female targets in their late 20's, late 40's, and late 60's (N=412, AAMFT n=203, NR n=209). The findings revealed that young women and young and middle-aged men were perceived as significantly more achievement-oriented than were the old of either gender. Therapists perceived middle-aged targets as more controlled and well-socialized than adults in their late 20's. Young and middle-aged targets were perceived as more self-assured than the old. Therapists of both genders viewed women as more expressive- nurturant than men, but female therapists perceived male targets as much less expressive-nurturant than did male therapists. The outstanding finding in the study was that age of target differences appeared on three of the four gender stereotype measures, and in a pattern that generally supported predictions derived from a social role analysis of stereotype derivation. (NB)