Sex-Role Orientations and Control Orientations of Southern Italian and West German University Students

Abstract

The hypothesis was tested that generalized self-related cognitions concerning sex-role orientations and locus of control beliefs are more strongly associated with cultural membership than with morphophenotype sex. In addition, it was expected that differences in generalized locus of control orientations between the morphophenotype sexes can be duplicated by psychological sex-role orientation variables. Questionnaire data on normative sex-role orientations (SRO scale), gender-related self-concepts (masculinity, femininity, and androgyny; BSRI), and three dimensions of locus of control (internality, powerful others control, and chance control; IPC scales) were obtained from 98 Southern Italian and 98 West German university students. The samples were matched for age, sex, education, and student status. The hypothesis that morphophenotype sex differences in control beliefs can be duplicated by psychological sex-role orientation measures, and its corollary that these psychological variables explain more variance than morphophenotype sex, were confirmed by the data. In addition, the findings show that national and cultural differences exceed markedly morphophenotype sex differences in locus of control and sex-role orientations. The results are discussed with reference to an action theoretical approach to human development, which focuses on the efforts of individuals to regulate and to control their own development within a given cultural context.