FEMIPHOBIA AS MEASURED BY GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ANXIETY SCORE INCREASES FOLLOWING CROSS GENDER BEHAVIOR INSTRUCTION

To test for gender differences in anxiety scores, forty male and forty female college students between the ages of seventeen and thirty were administered the Spielberger State Personality Inventory (SPI) before and after observing a gender-specific task demonstration. Subjects observed the task with or without opposite-gender persons present. Males in the cross-gender task showed larger increases in anxiety and anger scores than males assigned to a same-gender task, while females showed decreases in anxiety and anger scores. Within the male cross-gender task, those tested with females present showed greater increases than those tested without females. Analyses involving two Semantic Differentials revealed the influence of gender and observed task on self-ratings of feelings and the attribution of feelings to opposite-gender persons.