Differential effectiveness of two classification procedures on the Bem Sex Role Inventory

Two procedures-a simple median split and a difference/median split method-were used to classify 102 male and 129 female college students into masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated sex role orientations on the basis of their Bern Sex Role Inventory scores. Differences in classification occurred among nearly one-third of the subjects, and as expected, the difference/median split procedure was more successful in predicting sex-role ideology. Using this procedure, masculine-typed females were found to be most profeminist in their attitudes, while low masculinity females were most conservative. No significant differences were obtained for the male groups using either procedure. Future research with the BSRI and related sex-role measures should employ similar comparisons to determine the relative validity of the two procedures.