The MThe Measurement of Psychological Androgeny by Sandra Bem

Sandra Bem, a pioneer in social psychology, introduced the concept of androgyny in her 1974 study, ‘The Measurement of Psychological Androgyny’. Bem was the first in her field to suggest that masculinity and femininity range on two separate dimensions as opposed to one single dichotomy. The study encountered statistically significant results to this idea and it was found that Bem’s idea of androgyny had been supported. Further psychological research has shown that Bem’s original study had great impact on the psychological and sociological communities together, influencing further researching and becoming applicable as a reference in court proceedings such as, that of Norrie May-Welby (Bibby, 2013). In 1981, Bem furthered her research with ‘Gender Schema Theory: A Cognitive Account of Sex-Typing’, a revision of the findings from her 1974 study with an additional analysis on how gender is perceived and determined by the individual and the cogniti ve processes involved in identifying maleness and femaleness in the environment. The BSRI remains applicable to both disciplinary and practicing psychology and will still produce similar results (Carver et al, 2013). Bem was a significant influence on the study of psychological androgyny and social psychology as a whole. The 1974 study prompted much criticism, which Bem often considered in her further works, assisting to further the understanding of androgyny and gender in psychology. Bem believed that the masculine/feminine