Adelyn Emter

Date of Award

January 2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Alison E. Kelly

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine disparities between personal beliefs and perceived societal ideologies about earning gendered traits and maintaining masculinity and femininity, with a focus on gender-diverse perspectives and the influence of gender identity on responses to social research. The current study recruited 334 gender-diverse participants to compare Viewpoint and Gendered Trait based on participant Gender Assigned at Birth, using twelve statements about earning and maintaining masculinity and femininity. The Traditional Egalitarian Sex Role (TESR) Inventory and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) Scale were used as covariates which significantly contributed to the model. As expected, societal belief scores were significantly higher than personal belief scores, and masculinity scores were higher than femininity belief scores. Participants who were assigned female at birth (AFAB) displayed greater discrepancies in viewpoint-based agreement than participants assigned male at birth (AMAB), while AMAB participants displayed a greater discrepancy in trait-based agreement than AFAB participants. These results may indicate a discrepancy in the construct validity of social research surveys for gender-diverse populations and provoke further questions about the impact of expectations placed on people based on the gender they are assigned at birth.

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