1. Feminism and Life Narrative Focus: CONCLUSIONS & FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Achieving or connecting?: Gender roles and focus of life stories.
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
Adrienne Austin and Kristi Costabile
Introduction
Methods
Results
Life narratives provide the basis of one’s identity and have important implications for one’s perceptions, expectations, and behaviors.
McAdams (1996) suggests that personality is expressed across three layers: 1) Dispositional Traits, 2) Characteristic Adaptations, and 3) Integrative Life Stories.
Women tend to tell more relationship- oriented life stories and men focus on individual achievements (Fivush & Buckner, 2003).
Individuals in the last stage of feminist identity development are less likely to adhere to gender role stereotypes (Saunders & Kashubeck-West, 2012).
Cultural values have been identified in narratives and various forms of storytelling (Imada & Yussen, 2012).
A two-part study was conducted to investigate how Layer 1 gender traits overlap with Layer 3 life narratives. The relationship between narratives and relational self-construal was also explored.
Procedure :170 undergraduates completed two study sessions.
57 Males, 113 Females, M age=19.64, sd = 2.01
78.8% Caucasian, 9.4% Asian, 5.8% African American, 5.8% Other, 3.5% Latino Hispanic, 1.1% Indian
Part I: Participants completed measures at lab.
Part II: Participants wrote six, short life story essays within two weeks of Part I.
Bem Sex Role Inventory Scores and Life Narrative Focus:
Masculinity and femininity explained a significant proportion of the variance in essay focus, R2 = .119, F(2, 151) = 10.23, p < Controlling for gender and gender identification, individuals with high masculinity scores wrote achievement-oriented narratives, β= .206, t(147) = 2.56, p = .01. High femininity scores were not significant, but were in the predicted direction, β = -.138, t(147) = -1.76, p = .081.
Feminism and Life Narrative Focus:
There was a significant interaction,
F(1, 178) = 2.275, p = .005, men high
in feminism focused their narratives
on relationships and women high in
feminism focused their narratives on
achievements.
Relational Self-Construal and Life Narrative Focus:
A series of analyses revealed no significant relationship between relational self- construal and life narrative focus, all p’s > .05.
Measures
Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1974)
Aggressive, Compassionate
Gender Identification Scale (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992)
Being a woman is an important reflection of who I am
Feminist Identity Development Scale (Bargad & Hyde, 1991)
I want to work to improve women's status
Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal Scale (Cross, Bacon, & Morris, 2000)
My close relationships are an important reflection of who I am
Prosocial Personality Battery (Penner, Fritzsche, Craiger, & Freifeld, 1995)
Social Responsibility, Empathy, Moral Reasoning
The Life Story Interview (McAdams, 2008)
High Point, Low Point, Turning Point, Positive Childhood Event, Negative Childhood Event, Adolescent Event
Essay Focus
1 = Relationship 3 = Neutral 5 = Achievement
High Point Essay Excerpt:
I won the state tennis championship with my doubles partner. I was 17 years old and at the peak of my tennis career. I felt great contentment and satisfaction since I had worked towards this goal since the age of 12. It's important to my life story since it helped me realize that I am capable of achieving my dreams and goals through hard work and perseverance.
Hypotheses
CONCLUSIONS & FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Results provide insight as to how personality variables are reflected in life stories.
Individuals with high masculine traits used personal achievements to describe their life narratives, whereas those with high feminine traits focused on relationship events.
Men high in feminism told more relationship-oriented life narratives and women high in feminism told more achievement-oriented life narratives.
Relational self-construal did not predict life narrative focus. Need additional measure to capture why individuals wrote about an achievement or a relationship.
Future research will investigate the relationship between life narrative focus and prosocial personality.
1) High masculinity scores on the BEM Sex Role Inventory will predict achievement-oriented life narratives, whereas high femininity scores will predict relationship-oriented life narratives. Effects will be maintained controlling for gender and gender identification.
2) Gender and feminist identity will interact to predict life narrative focus.
3) Greater relational self-construal will predict a relationship focus of life narrative content and low relational self-construal will predict an achievement focus.
Please address all correspondence to Adrienne Austin at