Androgyny And Its Effect On College Adjustment Among Indian Students

Gender is what it means to be a man or a woman, whereas sex refers to one’s biological classification as male or female. Therefore, sex =male or female and gender = masculine or feminine. Gender is culturally-based and varies in a thousand subtle ways across the many diverse cultures of the world. Gender has been shaped by political, religious, philosophical, linguistic, traditional, and other cultural forces for many years. Gender differences have had its impact in almost all the psychological phenomenon studied till date. In India, the implications of gender are not balanced and serves as a mean of suppression of a certain sex generally females. Females are subjected to being submissive, or stay at home woman who take care of the house, cook and clean while raising children than working or having a career. Whereas, in the West, or more precisely, in developed nations in the west, the woman have the freedom to leave the relationship whenever she wants and even start a career whenever she pleases. There is a common misconception that men are gender exempt from burdening expectations, stereotypes, and societal pressures. But in truth, men and boys to say so may be faced with a force entirely different, more complicated, and more painful - being told to fit into a hyper masculine and misogynistic mold. People often confuse sex with gender and expect individual’s to behave in a certain way. A Female to portray feminine traits and a Male to portray masculine traits. But, is this always the case? Does sex determine our gender?

One significant aspect of human experience is marked by the development of sex role identity. Traditionally, development of sex role identity has involved the internalization of behaviors and attributes which society considers sex appropriate, either masculine traits or feminine traits according to one's biological gender. Freud (1933), the crucial distinction between men and women results from a consequence of different experiences in the Oedipal stage of development.

According to Kolhberg, children go through three major systematic stages in the process of acquiring sex appropriate behavior and identity. These three stages include: (1) gender identity, (2) gender stability, and (3) gender consistency.

Gender Identity can be seen as a way an individual perceives his own sense of being or sex role in his/her environment. One way to explore gender roles is to measure their endorsement of traits that are typically considered masculine or feminine. Sandra BEM in 1974 developed an inventory that represented the 2 fully independent scales of culturally defined masculinity and culturally defined femininity. Masculine traits are generally viewed as being competitive, assertive, being goal directed, rational, and a logical thinker, being independent, aggressive, dominant, courageous, protective, ambitious, etc. Feminine traits are generally viewed as sensitive, thoughtful, compassionate, sympathetic, gentle, warm, shy, understanding, etc. However she felt that an individual can express both masculine and feminine traits – a proponent she called androgyny. The term ‘androgyny’ has its roots in classical mythology and literature. ‘Androgyny’ comes from the Greek word andros meaning ‘man’ and gyne meaning ‘woman’ Heilbrun offered poignant insight into the concept of androgyny in his definition. According to his description, androgyny "suggests a spirit of reconciliation between the sexes, a spectrum upon which human beings choose their places without regard to propriety or custom. " People who are androgynous have both the traits i. e. traits typically considered as female as well as those that are considered as male traits. Androgynous people might have a combination of traits such as aggression, compassion, sympathetic, courageous, ambitious, sensitive, gentle, warm, dominant, etc. Entrance into college marks an exciting as well as demanding transition in one's life. The College Inventory of Academic Adjustment (CIAA) was one of the first instruments developed that had adequate reliability and validity. Researchers have found that personality variables are often closely related to college adjustment. Personal control and self-esteem are suggested as significant parts of the multidimensional phenomenon of college adjustment. In a study conducted by Itai Ivtzan and Rita Conneely, 2009 titled ‘Androgyny in the Mirror of Self-Actualisation and Spiritual Health’ it evaluated the potential relationship between Androgyny and self -actualization and their role in both feminine and non- feminine occupations. 119 participants were a part of the study and they answered both the BEM Sex Inventory (BSRI) and Personal Orientation Inventory (POI). It was found that, those deemed to possess an Androgynous Gender Role, by the BSRI, were found to be significantly more Self-Actualized across almost the entire range (ten out of twelve) of the POI scales, than those of Non-Androgynous Gender Identities. No differences were found between the prevalence of Androgyny or achievement of Self-Actualisation between the Experimental (those employed in typically-female fields) and Control (those engaged in traditional-gender or gender-non-specific work) occupation groups; although significant lower numbers of Masculine Men in the Experimental group do verify that Gender Roles continue to be an influential occupational factor.

In another study, conducted by heath Marrs, Robyn D Brammer and Ellen A Sigler, 2012 titled ‘Gender, Masculinity, Femininity and help seeking in college’ explored the possible impact of Gender related attributes such as masculinity and femininity on academic help seeking behaviours and academic performance. In the study there were 567 undergraduate students that classified themselves as androgynous on the BSRI were more likely to engage in academic help seeking behaviors than those classified as male sex typed, female sex types and undifferentiated. No significant difference was found in academic performance.

A study was conducted by Daniel Donghyun Kim titled ‘A study of the relationship between psychological androgyny and college adjustment among Korean American college students’, 1996 explored the process of adjusting to college that has been difficult for many Korean-Americans because of the tension that exists between traditional sex roles versus androgynous sex roles. This descriptive study consisted a sample population of 153 Korean American college students from six universities from the East and West Coasts of the United States who voluntarily completed two surveys, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), Short Version, measuring psychological androgyny, and the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ), measuring college adjustment. Results indicated that androgynous Korean American subjects adjusted to college significantly better than feminine or undifferentiated Korean American students. However, there were no significant differences in levels of adjustment to college between androgynous Korean American students and masculine Korean American students. There was no conclusive evidence of greater flexibility of behavior with androgynous individuals.