Social Relationships and Sexism in the United States and Taiwan

Abstract

This research examines the cultural origins of sexism and how it is enacted within cultures. The harmonious tenor of Taiwanese collectivism and the competitive individualism of American culture are hypothesized to afford benevolent sexism and hostile sexism, respectively. Whereas hostile sexism was expected to affect Americans' bias in favor of men more than benevolent sexism, benevolent sexism should affect Taiwanese bias favoring men more than hostile sexism. Deferential family norms and support for hierarchical intergroup relationships (social dominance orientation) were hypothesized to increase support of sexism in both cultures. Two studies within each culture confirmed the aforementioned hypotheses. The cultural roots of legitimizing ideologies and the cultural origins of different forms of sexism are discussed.

Sexismo y alexitimia: Correlaciones y diferencias en función del género, la edad, y el nivel de estudios

“…The men's higher scores in HS and BS confirm the results obtained in other studies (Feather, 2004;Feather & Boeckmann, 2007;Forbes et al 2004;Forbes et al 2007;Fowers & Fowers, 2010;Garaigordobil & Aliri, 2011a, 2011bGlick & Fiske, 1996;Glick et al 1997;Lameiras & Rodríguez, 2003;Lameiras et al 2007;Lee et al 2007;Liang, 2007;Masser y Abrams, 1999;Pozo et al 2010;Russel & Trigg, 2004;Travaglia et al 2009;Viki et al 2003;Wiener & Hurt, 2000;Wiener et al 1997). However, other investigations did not find gender differences in BS (Chen et al 2009;Eastwick et al 2006;Expósito et al 1998;Lameiras & Rodríguez, 2002;Lameiras et al 2006;Pereira et al 2005;Sakalli-Ugurlu, 2010;Sakalli-Ugurlu et al 2007;Tasdemir & Sakalli-Ugurlu, 2010;Vaamonde, 2010).…”

“…Some studies have reported that men score significantly higher in HS and BS (Feather, 2004;Feather & Boeckmann, 2007;Forbes, Adams-Curtis & White, 2004;Forbes, Collinsworth, Jobe, Braun & Wise, 2007;Fowers & Fowers, 2010;Garaigordobil & Aliri, 2011a, 2011bGlick & Fiske, 1996;Glick, Diebold, Bailey-Werner & Zhu, 1997;Lameiras & Rodríguez, 2003;Lameiras, Rodríguez, Calado, Foltz & Carrera, 2007;Lee, Pratto & Li, 2007;Liang, 2007;Masser & Abrams, 1999;Pozo, Martos & Alonso, 2010;Russel & Trigg, 2004;Travaglia, Overall & Sibley, 2009;Viki, Abrams & Hutchison, 2003;Wiener & Hurt, 2000;Wiener, Hurt, Russell, Mannen & Gasper, 1997). However, other investigations found no gender differences in BS (Chen, Fiske & Lee, 2009;Eastwick et al 2006;Expósito, Moya & Glick, 1998;Garaigordobil & Aliri, 2012;Glick, Sakalli-Ugurlu, Ferreira & Aguiar de Souza, 2002;Lameiras & Rodríguez, 2002;Lameiras, Rodríguez, Calado, Foltz & González, 2006;Pereira, Gouveia, da Silva & Marques, 2005;Sakalli-Ugurlu, 2010;Sakalli-Ugurlu, Sila Yalcin & Glick, 2007;Tasdemir & Sakalli-Ugurlu, 2010;Vaamonde, 2010), or else they found higher scores in men but only up to the age of 42 years (Lameiras, Rodríguez & González, 2004).…”

The Influence of Family Context on Identity Processing

“…This also contradicted previous studies claiming that individuals who employed the normative processing style were likely to form a foreclosed identity commitment earlier in adolescence (Berzonsky, 2004;Berzonsky et al, 1999;Berzonsky et al, 2007). One explanation is that, in the local context, normative individuals are overprotected and tend to exhibit a lack of independence and responsibility for their own decisions (Lee et al, 2007;Papini, Micka, & Barnett, 1989;Perosa, Perosa, & Tam, 1996). As a result they might delay forming identity commitment even when entering university.…”

“…Chinese youth apparently do not perceive their parents as 'permissive' when the parents pose fewer demands and controls on their socio-cognitive explorations, focusing rather on the parents' responsiveness to their needs. On the other hand, the demandingness embedded within the authoritative parenting style is perceived as benevolent control and supportive of socio-cognitive explorations (Chen, Dong, & Zhou, 1997;Lee, Pratto, & Li, 2007).The results from the revised structural model corroborated with findings in previous Western studies for identity commitment (Adams, Berzonsky, & Keating, 2006;Berzonsky et al, 2007). Macau youths adopting the informational style showed a positive relation to identity commitment.…”

“…The higher the SES, the more likely that parental authority was perceived as being responsive to the youth's needs and the more forthcoming the resources were for adopting an informational processing style and identity commitment. The young people were also likely to perceive their parents' style as deferential and benevolent (Lee et al, 2007), and as supportive of their socio-cognitive processing during the identity development phase. On the contrary, and as expected, when high SES families were perceived as having low authoritative parenting style, the influence of the socio-economic status disappeared.…”