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Predictors Of Sex-Role Stereotypes

A construct is a person's "unique way of looking at life", constant hypothesis' of what will happen in the future because of personal history's consequences. From this, stems an individual's locus of control. Whether it is internal or external shows a person's beliefs and attitudes towards life. A particular opinion one forms is their view of what men and women "should do."
Harrison (1981) believed personality characteristics form sex-role attitudes. Men's sex role stereotypes tend to be instrumental factors and female stereotypes correspond to expressive factors. For example, men tend to be thought of and try to be "rational, competent, and assertive." Women tend to be stereotyped as "warm, interdependent, interpersonally skilled, and interested in others." Evidence indicates that behavior and attitudes of people that fit these stereotypes have a positive correlation with high self-esteem. Conversely, people who don't fall in their stereotypes experience society's negativity towards them leading to a lower self-esteem. Harrison argued Rotter's (1966) definitions of internal and external locus of control were consistent with the sex-role stereotypes. The masculine instrumental factors correlate with internal locus of control, and the feminine expressive factors correlate with external locus of control. Therefore, attitudes towards sex roles should be related to locus of control. Rotter described internal locus of control to be a belief that reinforcement is dictated by one's own behavior. To have an external locus of control is to believe reinforcement is provided by other means such as people, fate, or luck. There are also research findings that show a positive correlation between internal locus of control and high self-esteem. Conversely, the study indicates a positive correlation between external locus of control and low self-esteem. From this evidence, he hypothesized that self-esteem and locus of control should be good predictors of attitudes towards...