Development of the Revised Sex-Role Behavior Scale.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Gender Studies

Background:

• Sex-role behavior is a significant aspect of individual identity and social interaction.
• Existing measures may not fully capture the nuances of sex-typed behaviors across various life domains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To construct and validate the Revised Sex-Role Behavior Scale (SRBS-2).
• To develop a comprehensive inventory assessing male-valued, female-valued, and sex-specific behaviors.
• To evaluate the scale's psychometric properties and utility for global and domain-specific assessments.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 240-item self-report inventory (SRBS-2) with items categorized by sex-typing and behavioral domain.
• Administration of 216 items to 520 undergraduates under three instructional sets: typicality comparison, desirability rating, and self-rating.
• Utilized typicality and desirability ratings, alongside self-ratings and SRBS-1 data, for item selection and scale construction.

Main Results:

• The SRBS-2 demonstrated adequate internal consistency for its overall and area subscales.
• Intercorrelations among subscales indicated consistency across recreational, vocational, social, and marital behavior areas.
• Findings suggest the SRBS-2 can provide both global and detailed assessments of sex-role behaviors.

Conclusions:

• The Revised Sex-Role Behavior Scale (SRBS-2) is a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring sex-role behaviors.
• The scale effectively differentiates between male-valued, female-valued, and sex-specific behaviors across key life domains.
• Both global and domain-specific scores from the SRBS-2 offer valuable insights into sex-role behavior assessment.