Adult Development: Nurturing an Individual - Essay Example

? Adult Development Adult Development Androgyny and psychosocial development among college and adults. Alan S. Waterman, Trenton State College, and Susan Krauss Whitbourne, University of Rochester. Journal of Personality Introduction The article majors on the relationship between androgyny and psychological development among college students and adults in view of personality. Androgyny means the presence of male and female characteristics not only sexually but behavioral and in dressing. The purpose of this study was to discover any advantages of androgyny through application of life span theory of personality by Erikson (1963, 1968). In his theory, he states that one’s ability to succeed in future endeavors of life rests on the grounds laid when young. Therefore, adult psychological development, regardless of the sex depends on how well they dealt with issues that affected them as they approach adulthood. In the theory, there are various stages to pass through and most crises emerge from socialization demands. The effective way to determine the personality of an individual is by taking interest in the manner the crises in different stages is resolved. The stages involve various components compared against each other with both negative and positive effects. Erikson mentions that each of the components has its own time to show, thus the androgyny can change in relation to future experiences of individuals (Waterman & Whitbourne, June, 1982.). In a previous study, Bem (1974) says that androgynous individuals are those who are confident, social and adapt flexibly to most situations. He, therefore, asserts that if Erikson’s theory is true, then androgynous adults who successfully passed the earlier crises in their life stages should do so to a higher level than other sex group. In contrast, the undifferentiated individuals, who are those with limited characteristics of both male and female, should depict low behavioral characteristics since they would not be able to resolve most of the crises in their early stages of life. In relation to the theory, then those whose one set of characteristics predominate will score between the androgynous and undifferentiated individuals. Another study by Kelly and Worrell (1977) challenges Bem theory on basis that masculinity reveals itself as being stronger in massive areas of psychological development than femininity. However, Spence and Helmreich, (1978) argue that masculinity and femininity androgynous individuals are strong independent attributes. They claim the male is known as competitive and energetic while the female is sensitive and emotional (Waterman & Whitbourne, June, 1982.). Hypothesis The hypothesis of this study was to seek the difference between the androgynous and undifferentiated individuals way of resolving crisis in their earlier stages of life to establish a reasoning adult. This was in assumption that both individuals differ in psychological development. It was hypothesized that the male is more independent and focused while the female is more intimate than independent. Erikson’s theory in association to both sexes are equal in intelligence level and maturity but as time progresses the female tend to abandon this attributes leaving the male to embrace them more. In the same context, scholars as if Kelly and Worrell (1977) state that androgynous male perform better than the androgynous female who fails to perform tasks related to her. A psychological difference between the androgynous and undifferentiated individuals has been constantly found to be self-esteem. Although it would be easier to major mostly to the adults who are more stable rather than the college students who are still developing thus prone to various changes, the study took samples of both (Waterman & Whitbourne, June, 1982.). Method In order to investigate the relationship between androgynous and psychological development in various individuals, a sample of college students and adults of familiar social environment was taken. The sample was taken from the students and alumni of the University of Rochester volunteers who were willing to participate in the personality survey. The college students comprised of 299 undergraduates with an average age of 19 years while the adults were 155 with an average age of 30 years. The sample contained both sexes. The procedure was that each participant completed a set of questionnaire materials which entails the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1974), the inventory of Psychological Development (Constantinople, 1969) and the Marlowe- Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960). The college sample completed the instruments during group testing sessions while the alumni responded via mail survey (Waterman & Whitbourne, June, 1982.). Among the instruments was, the Bem Sex Inventory, which consists of 60 personality characteristics on which each respondent gives a self- rating using a 7-point scale. It contains a 20-item masculine and feminine scale, which are composed of characteristics considered socially desirable in American society for the respective sexes. The participants were categorized as male, female, androgynous, and undifferentiated on the basis of median splits on the masculine and feminine scale scores. The Inventory of Psychological Development consists of 60 brief statements to be rated on a 7-point scale ranging from an individual’s most definite character to the least. The Marlowe- Crowne Social Desirability Scale was used to measure bias. Results The results according to the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Inventory of Psychological Development supported the hypothesis that sex role orientation would be related to psychological effectiveness with the androgynous individuals fairing best, followed by the masculine, female then lastly the undifferentiated. Various tests confirmed that the male individual is strongly linked to independence and initiative while the female is linked to communal quality of intimacy. In this study, gender and sample did not interact with sex role. This shows that individuals with like sex role orientations had similar psychological development regardless of gender or age (Waterman & Whitbourne, June, 1982.). Discussion The results reported above confirm the hypothesized relationship between androgyny and effective psychological development in the context life-span theory of personality by Erikson. In contrast, the undifferentiated individuals scored lowest outcomes in both male and female in the early stages of life thus could affect adult functioning. As in previous research, it is evident that the androgynous male performs better than the androgynous female thus proving importance of male characteristics over female. However, the androgynous female scores higher than the male without any androgynous traits. It was overly proved the psychological effectiveness is more in males than females (Waterman & Whitbourne, June, 1982.). Conclusion In conclusion, the study offers practical support to show that androgyny has particular advantages in nurturing an individual in regards to character and reasoning if a foundation is established during the early stages of the life span. An individual has to watch the resolutions to opt for while young to be a functioning adult with effective psychological development. Reference Waterman, A. S., & Whitbourne, S. K. (June, 1982.). Androgyny and psychosocial development among college students and adults. Journal of Personality 50:2. , 121-133. Read More