Social Behavior and Personality, 2001 29 (4), 375-384

Effect of Gender-Types on Interpersonal Stress Measured by Blink Rate and questionnaires: Focusing on Stereotypically Sex-Typed and Androgynous Types*

Kumi Hirokawa, Fumio Yamada, Itsuko Dohi, and Yo Miyata (Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan, Osaka Prefectural College of Nursing, Japan, Kobe Shoin Women's University, Japan, and Kansai University of Social Welfare Sciences, Japan)

This study was conducted to determine how differences of self gender-type and partner's gender-type in Japan had an effect on interpersonal stress (anxiety/uneasiness) during a conversation among mixed-sex pairs. The level of interpersonal stress was discussed in relation to blink rate. The participants were assigned to one of the following four pair types: (a) Male and female were androgynous (maleA-femaleA); (b) Male was androgynous and female was stereotypically sex-typed as feminine (maleA-femaleST); (c) Male was stereotypically sex-typed as masculine and female was androgynous (maleST-femaleA); (d) Both were stereotypically sex-typed (maleST-femaleST). Dependent measures were (1) Blink rate during five-minute conversation of one-minute intervals, and (2) Questionnaires (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory I and Iceberg Profile). Results suggested that participants who had a conversation with an androgynous partner reduced their interpersonal stress.

* Reproduced with permission of Robert A. C. Stewart Editor of Social Behav and Personality