The Sex and Gender Role Differences in Exploration and

CuriosityT. Beth Carroll

Crystal Ann FravelFrank White

Amy R. ChildressRadford University

Previous Research

• Corrine Hutt (1970)• Identified sex differences in curiosity,

exploration, and play in young children• Found that males demonstrate more

exploratory behaviors than females

Previous Research (cont.)

• McLoyd and Ratner (1983)• Also identified sex differences in curiosity,

exploration, and play in young children• When they controlled for genderedness of novel

objects, sex differences disappeared.• Males explored the novel object more when

presented in a masculine context and females explored more in a feminine context.

Previous Research (cont.)

• Bem (1973, 1981)• Suggest that the distinction between male and

female is an organizing tool within our human processing.

• Few studies have investigated the influence of gender and role adherence on exploration and curiosity.

• The present studies investigate differences in adult exploration and curiosity predicted by sex and gender roles.

Exploration

• Specific exploration answers the question of “what is it and what does it do”.

• Exploration in AdulthoodStudies have focused on:– Competence in work– Attitudes towards curiosity and novelty– Information Seeking Behavior

Our Study

The present study focuses on:• Exploration of novel objects• Perceived academic competence and anxiety• Attitudes toward working with others in college• Attitudes toward novelty and physical exploration

of the college environment

Our Hypotheses• Because there is more variation within the sexes than

between the sexes, gender roles may be a better predictor of exploratory behavior than sex.

• Androgynous gender roles, because they are linked to flexibility, will be associated with higher levels of exploration.

• Masculinity, because of it’s instrumental nature, will be associated with focusing on academic tasks and exploration of novel objects.

• Femininity, because of it’s expressive nature, will be associated with focusing on exploration of social aspects of college.

Participants and Procedures• Participants were 70 Introductory Psychology

students• They participated individually in one hour

sessions.• Participants completed a series of

questionnaires as part of a larger study.• Participants were given an unstated

opportunity to explore several puzzle cubes.

Measures

• Self Report of Exploration in College that was a 52 item measure. It was made up of ten subscales, five of which were included in the present study.

Mean SD– Academic Competence 5.22 1.03– Social vs. Academic Orientation 4.48 1.02– Comfort Seeking Assistance 5.53 1.22– Exploration of the Campus 4.31 1.31– Approach to Novelty and Challenge 4.56 0.93

• The Bem Sex Roles Inventory (Bem, 1973)

Mean SD Alpha– Masculinity .81

Males 5.31 .5502Females 4.85 .6726

– Femininity .83Males 4.87 .5050

Females 5.15 .6362

Behavioral Measure of Exploration

• During a 5 min. period, ostensibly not part of the study, participants were given an opportunity to explore 5 puzzle toys.

• Participants were unobtrusively videotaped• After a 20 minute delay, participants

completed a recognition task where they discriminated between 5 test items and 5 similar distractors.

Scoring of Exploratory BehaviorMean SD

• Perseverance 66.09 58.76– Mean of two longest manipulations

• Total Time 166.30 127.65– Sum of all manipulations

• Involvement 17.56 7.70– Interest and complexity of exploration

• % Targets Correct 3.93 .9974– Number of original toys correctly identified

Correlations between Gender Role and Self-Report Exploration Measures

Masculinity Femininity Total Males Females Total Males Females

Novelty Seeking .26* .13 .36* .09 .16 .00

Campus Exploration .08 -.10 .18 .22+ .09 .29+

Assistance Seeking .35** .40* .32+ .26* .27 .22

Academic Competence .40** .12 .58*** .17 .30+ .06

Social vs. Academic -.06 -.02 -.09 .24* .32+ .20Orientation

Note. Total df=68, Male df=32, Female df=34+ = p< .10, * = p< .05, ** = p< .01, *** = p< .001

Differences in Male and Female Exploratory Behavior

Sex Male Female t

___________________________________________________________

Perseverance 80.85 52.15 2.09*(59.99) (56.80)

Total Time 199.33 135.11 2.16*(123.54) (125.19)

Involvement 19.68 15.55 2.31*(7.26) (7.66)

Percent Targets 4.29 3.58 3.17**Correctly Identified (.7988) (1.0522)

* = p< .05, ** = p< .01

Mean Self Report of Academic Competence for BSRI Categories

Females Only• F(3, 32)=4.38• F < M, A

M F A U

N= 14 15 24 17

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

masc fem undiff andro

Mean Self Report of Academic Competence for BSRI Categories

Males Only• F(3, 30)=3.10• U < A

M F A UN= 14 15 24 17

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

masc fem undiff andro

Mean Self Report of Comfort Seeking Assistance for BSRI

Categories

Males Only• F(3, 30)=3.51• M, A > F, U

M F A UN= 14 15 24 17

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

masc fem undiff andro

Overall Findings

• Exploration Self Reports– Masculinity was related to seeking novelty and

challenge (for females)– Femininity was related to exploring social aspects of

the campus environment (for females)– Having non-traditional gender roles was associated

with reporting greater academic competence– Femininity (for males) was related to a more social

orientation.– Masculinity and Androgyny related to greater comfort

with seeking assistance

Overall Findings Cont.

• Exploratory Behavior– Males demonstrated more exploratory behavior

and better performance on a recognition task.-Why do females show less exploration?

Hypothesis 1 – Genderedness of Puzzles- Toys do not seem clearly masculine.- McLoyd & Ratner (1983) offer a system for classifying toys as masculine and feminine. The items used in the present study possessed features of both categories.

Overall Findings Cont.

– Hypothesis 2 – Gender socialization- Females may feel more pressure to respect interpersonal boundaries• However, Femininity (endorsing a traditional gender

role) was not significantly associated with exploratory behavior.