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Sexual Permissiveness, Sex‐Role Rigidity, and Violence across Cultures
Author(s) -
McConahay Shirley A.,
McConahay John B.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1977.tb02009.x
Subject(s) - permissiveness , masculinity , social psychology , uncorrelated , psychology , rigidity (electromagnetism) , rank (graph theory) , developmental psychology , mathematics , combinatorics , biology , statistics , genetics , structural engineering , viral replication , psychoanalysis , engineering , cell culture
The possible relationships between sexual permissiveness, sex‐role rigidity, and violence at the societal level are examined. Two judges independently rank ordered the levels of sexual permissiveness of a random sample of 17 cultures chosen from the Human Relations Area Files. A second set of two judges rank ordered the rigidity of these cultures' sex roles, and a third set of judges rank ordered the cultures on their levels of intra‐ and extra‐communal violence. An attempt to rank order the degree of achieved masculinity content of the cultures' sex stereotypes failed because judges could not rank them reliably. Sexual permissiveness was uncorrelated with either sex‐role rigidity or violence, but sex‐role rigidity was highly correlated with violence. The results are interpreted as being incompatible with theories of sex and violence that stress a single physiological or instinctual factor. The results supported two‐factor theories which gave more emphasis to social learning principles than to physiological determinants.