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This study was designed to examine path models of the relationships of instrumentality, expressiveness, and social self-efficacy to shyness and depressive symptoms in college students. Models indicated strong relationships between social self-efficacy and instrumentality; the relationship of instrumentality to depressive symptoms was mediated by its relationship to social self-efficacy. The relationship of social self-efficacy to depressive symptoms was direct and was also mediated by its relationship to expressiveness. These findings provide new information on how gender role-related personality traits may be protective against depression.

Most of the research conducted on sexual harassment over the last decade and a half has used categories that are neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive. This has created problems for researchers: it is difficult to compare results from one study to another, harassment types that have scholarly and legal-policy relevance are omitted, and the ability of researchers to inform legal and policy decisions is diminished as a result of these problems. A comprehensive categorization of harassment types that addresses these methodological problems is presented. Specifically, 11 specific types of harassment—4 types of Verbal Requests, 3 Verbal Remarks, and 4 Nonverbal Displays—are presented with examples from research and legal literatures. Recommendations for reconceptualizing research definitions of harassment as well as for diversifying the methodological approaches to the topic are made.

This paper reviews six explanations persistently used in the literature for the existent division of family work between spouses. These include role differentiation, socialization—ideology, relative resources, time available, economic efficiency, and the interdependence of institutions. Some difficulties with these approaches are noted, and the overall power-dependence structure of the relationship is suggested as a predictor of the extent to which spouses will share household and child care responsibility. A comprehensive model which integrates present explanations within a power-dependence framework is offered.

Pennebaker’s experimental writing paradigm quantifies who, when, and how people benefit from writing about trauma, but researchers and meta-analyses thus far have rarely considered gender. Gender theories specify useful research strategies. Gender schema theory suggests examining gendered measurement biases, gender-relevant writing content, and whether traditional masculinity predicts benefits. Social role theory suggests assessing physician visits, disclosure history, and privacy as possible moderators of benefits. Socialization theory suggests assessing emotional approach coping, imagined readers, alexithymia, and whether mastery instructions influence benefits. All specify measuring functionally related gender constructs (gender schemas, gender roles, and socialization), asking whether gender proxies co-varying moderators and mediators of benefits, and examining possible linkages between benefits, trauma type, and disclosure. Help-seeking and somatization require integrated theoretical approaches.

The focus of the present study was self-disclosure patterns of young women in three types of close relationships: same-sex friend, opposite-sex friend, and romantic partner. The influences of respondents' sex-role orientation and intimacy level of topic on self-disclosure in the three relationships were examined. Androgynous respondents were more willing to disclose than sex-typed and undifferentiated respondents, and disclosure willingness was highest to romantic partner, then to female friend, and least to male friend. Intimacy level of topic interacted with target person so that wider variations in disclosure willingness occured in medium and high intimacy topics. Sex-role orientation interacted with intimacy level of topic so that androgynous respondents were more willing to disclose on high intimacy levels than either undifferentiated or feminine-typed respondents, but the groups did not differ significantly on low or medium intimacy topics. The significant interaction effects indicate that research on self-disclosure patterns needs to address the complexity of factors that may impact on self-disclosure.

An observational analysis of student—teacher interactions in 60 college classes revealed sex differences in student behaviors. Male students were the majority sex more often than females in classes taught by male lecturers; there was no sex difference for classes taught by female lecturers. Male students engaged in proportionately more student—teacher interactions than female students in male-taught classes; there was no sex difference in female-taught classes. Neither male nor female professors appeared to respond differentially to male and female students. Possible causes and implications of these findings are discussed.

The primary objective of this study was to determine whether males and females have different views about the partner behaviors that constitute positive, negative, and typical dating experiences. Undergraduate students (50 males, 70 females; primarily Caucasian) were asked to rate the likelihood of sexually suggestive and nonsexual events in “good,” “bad,” and “typical” date contexts. For good and typical dates, men and women identified many of the same events as likely to occur. However, sexually charged events were more salient for men in these contexts, as shown by the higher mean likelihood ratings men gave to items describing sexually suggestive partner behaviors. For bad dates, there was a striking gender difference in the behaviors judged likely to occur. Women gave higher mean likelihood ratings to sexually charged events in bad dates. Furthermore, women incorporated sexually charged events in their scripts whereas men did not. These findings have implications for our understanding of how males and females view the development of sexual intimacy in dating.

Although research has investigated definitionsand prevalence of sexual harassment, little is knownabout responses to sexual harassment. Therefore, thepresent study was designed to explore how individuals interpret the communication of various targetresponses. One hundred and twenty employees fromhealthcare settings were randomly assigned to one offour conditions. The majority of the individuals in the sample was White-European American (75%) whilethe remaining 25% was comprised of minority members. Theconditions contained a video-taped interaction betweentwo co-workers, one male and one female. The male's behavior in each interaction continuedto escalate to the point of sexual harassment while thefemale's responses varied. There were two passiveresponses and two assertive responses. After viewing the short video participants responded toquestions assessing their perceptions of theinteraction. Results indicated there were no differencesin perceptions between men and women when viewing thevarious conditions. There were, however, differencesfound between the assertive conditions and the passiveconditions. Specifically, assertive responses areperceived as more effective than passive responses in communicating unwelcomeness and in deterringthe initiator's persistence. However, consistent withthe research on responses to sexual harassment,perceptions of sexual harassment appear to be based more on the initiator's behavior than on thetarget's responses.