Course:PSYC305/2013ST2/ClassProject/1 Abstract

Single-Dimensional Gender Diagnosis: Correlation of Behaviors and Preferences with Gender in Undergraduate Respondents

The UBC Psychology 305 (2013) Single-Dimensional Gender Diagnosticity Questionnaire (UBC-SGDQ) is a self-administered inquiry to determine which traits best predict membership in masculine or feminine gender group, or vice versa. It is designed to assess personality traits among the demographic in which it is administered, and to calculate correlative relationships of those traits with gender. The questionnaire was both created by and administered to a single group: 60 students (50 female, 10 male) enrolled in a third year level university course in July 2013. Each student was given instructions to contribute a couple of questions that they believe would differentiate between males and females and the resulting questions were compiled to reduce repetitions, concluding in 390 items on the questionnaire, and subsequently distributed to the class to complete. No repeats of the questionnaire were attempted for test-retest reliability; moreover the questionnaire has not been administered to control groups who had no input on the creation of the questionnaire. The hypothesis tested was then that there will be significant correlations between self-reported gender and behaviors/preferences. Results from this study correlate with other gender diagnosticity studies demonstrating that occupation, hobbies, relationship styles, and emotional tendencies are the best predictors of inclusion in gender groups. The only Big Five personality trait that demonstrated a strong correlation was the measure of agreeableness on which female respondents scored significantly higher than male respondents; consistent with past research that gender is independent of the Big Five traits. There will be no attempt to examine the causality of the results. The authors agree that these differences are not necessarily universal or predictive of individual life-outcomes; and while not necessarily representative of other demographics, the results may be added to a series of future administrations of the questionnaire to test reliability.