Bern sexual identity test

[JanePlain]

I was given the MMPI test long ago with the only "odd" result being that I was "very in touch with my feminine side"  So... I thought to myself that taking a test that is supposed to be more direct about this would be of value.  I'm just not sure the BERM sex role inventory is still considered a good test.  Did anyone take this?  Is there anyone who cares to look at the results and give their 2 cents worth?  Please?

Your scores on the Bem Sex Role Inventory are as follows:
Ratings rank from 1 to 7, with a mean of 4

    Femininity: 5.7
    Masculinity: 4.25
    Neutral items: 4.75

Interpretation:

    If both your Femininity and Masculinity score are above 4, you are 'androginous'.
    If both your Femininity and Masculinity score are below 4, you are 'undifferentiated'.
    The neutral items are not further interpreted

There are different ways to do the scoring.
Therefore, you are recommended to read the papers on the PsyToolkit library website.
Note that the interpretation is not generally accepted and that there has been a lot of debate about
the interpretation. Also, it is culture specific, so please be cautious with the interpretation.
Finally, this PsyToolkit questionnaire has sorted by scale, whereas it might be better to mixed them all randomly.

[Linde]

I ended up with Androgynous.  But this scoring means that women cannot be assertive, cannot be leaders, cannot defend their believes, and a lot of stuff along these lines.

Following this test, a "real" woman is this wify type person we know from old sitcom TV pieces!
We could not have women in powerful positions like the current leaders from the UK and Germany, or the political leaders here in the US.

I personally think this test sucks and is based on the antiquated role model of women in the 60's

[Angela H]

I got:
    Femininity: 5.2
    Masculinity: 3.5
    Neutral items: 4.7

So somewhat feminine I guess.


<Link Removed TOS 1>

edit: I see my link got removed. I was just trying to link to the survey in question in case anyone else wanted to take it. I guess anyone who wants to try can just google BEM sex role inventory if they're curious.

I recalled taking some similar tests on the Slatestarcodex 2018 survey and wanted to link to them here, but now I'm not sure if that's allowed or not. The first one is the "Gender Role Test" at the IDRlabs website. And the second is the "Open Sex Role Inventory" at the Open Psychometrics website. They're both modeled on the BEM but have different questions and different ways of interpreting your responses.

[Linde]

I got:
Femininity: 5.1
Masculinity: 5.1
Neutral items: 4.0

Again, my complaints with this test is that a woman wo is assertive, goal oriented, etc. is considered masculine.  This si not reflecting today's women in western society!

[Angela H]

I got:
Femininity: 5.1
Masculinity: 5.1
Neutral items: 4.0

Again, my complaints with this test is that a woman wo is assertive, goal oriented, etc. is considered masculine.  This si not reflecting today's women in western society!

I think it's interesting that the test says that having high scores on both femininity and masculinity is psychologically healthy. I feel like there's some underlying theoretical framework that is needed to understand the point of these tests better.

[Linde]

I think it's interesting that the test says that having high scores on both femininity and masculinity is psychologically healthy. I feel like there's some underlying theoretical framework that is needed to understand the point of these tests better.

Than we have to start to define, what they would consider to be healthy? 
I have high scores in both, and might be that they are correct, because I basically don't have dysphoria, and never had anything like described here by others.

I, however, contribute this more to my biological make up, because I have none of the physical characteristics that seem to be major sources of dysphoria with others here!

On the other hand, when I tried to be a man, I was a single, gigantic bundle of dysphoria, because I tried to be a gender which I never could be!  I wonder how that test would come out at that time, but my personality did not change much, because everything was and is based on the biological construction of my body.

[JanePlain]

Interesting tests.   More confirmation I'm way in touch with my feminine side.   

[IzzyM]

Again, my complaints with this test is that a woman wo is assertive, goal oriented, etc. is considered masculine.  This si not reflecting today's women in western society!

I usually come out as feminine in these types of test, for Bem I got:
    Femininity: 5.3
    Masculinity: 3.3
    Neutral items: 4.6
One of the  key indicator being the difference between your masculinity score and femininity score, in my case 2.0 which makes me feminine according to the test.

However, I agree with the comment from Dietlind, above, this type of test is based on a a very old stereotypical view of masculinity and femininity.

I think the value of these types of test is how you feel about the result you get. When my dysphoria got really bad a few years ago, and I start to seriously question my gender, I took a lot of these type of tests and I was always much happier when the result said female/feminine and quite upset when the answer was male/masculine. So, a BIG clue there then as to how I really felt about myself.

Love,

Izzy

[KathyLauren]

I feel like there's some underlying theoretical framework that is needed to understand the point of these tests better.

The Wikipedia article ("Bem Sex-role Inventory") is informative on that:

Stereotypical masculine and feminine traits were found by surveying 100 Stanford undergraduate students on which traits they found to be socially desirable for each sex

So it's not based on anything theoretical, it's just how people perceive us.

My scores were:
    Femininity: 5.35
    Masculinity: 3.4
    Neutral items: 3.95

It would probably be more accurate if someone else completed the test about us, since it is about how other people perceive us.

[Linde]

It would probably be more accurate if someone else completed the test about us, since it is about how other people perceive us.

This is the absolute correct comment!  We all see us as we want to be seen.  I think that I am a pretty assertive person, who leans to the aggressive side, and I don't care much about little children (babies).  That gives me a real masculine rating. 
But yet, my daughter in law is a real girly girl, and she does not want kids, because she can't stand babies, and she loves to ride snow mobiles!  Would she also be a masculine girl?  As girly girl as she is?

[930310]

Femininity: 4.75
Masculinity: 4.85
Neutral items: 4.3

Meh..

[Wendi]

I saw and took 2 tests.

1)

Your score for masculinity was 89.
Your score for femininity was 110.

2)

Your scores on the Bem Sex Role Inventory are as follows:
Ratings rank from 1 to 7, with a mean of 4
Femininity: 5.35
Masculinity: 4.95
Neutral items: 5.35

[Linde]

Femininity: 4.75
Masculinity: 4.85
Neutral items: 4.3

Meh..

Don't read much into it!  I have similar results to you, and I don't consider myself anything else but a woman, but a woman with some male interests and hobbies.  So what?

[JanePlain]

I certainly do some flip flopping and foot dragging so its good to have some con-fem-ation that I score high.  Anyway - a late thanks to everyone who took the test and shared the results.  I'm taking a deep breath and being just a much less conflicted about my current step - HRT.  How is it that I put this off so long?  I tell myself it was just too unacceptably weird when I was younger.

[MaryT]

This is the absolute correct comment!  We all see us as we want to be seen.  I think that I am a pretty assertive person, who leans to the aggressive side, and I don't care much about little children (babies).  That gives me a real masculine rating. 
But yet, my daughter in law is a real girly girl, and she does not want kids, because she can't stand babies, and she loves to ride snow mobiles!  Would she also be a masculine girl?  As girly girl as she is?

I don't recall doing that test but it seems to me as though it may have been designed by male chauvinists.  Feminine women can be very aggressive and often find children and noisy babies annoying, especially if they are someone else's.  I used to say to my mother "I'm glad you had me when you still had some maternal instincts."  In my experience, men are at least as protective towards children in general as women, although some women may be over-protective of their own children.

[Chloe]

I saw and took 2 tests.

         Wendi,I now see two tests too and took the wrong one not discussed here. First one says "an interactive version of the Open Sex Role Inventory, a measure of masculinity and femininity modeled on the Bem Sex Role Inventory" and the scoring is different but liked the result, disagree with KathyLauren think how we feel about ourselves is much more important than "about how other people perceive us".

According to Sandra Bem, high levels of both masculinity and femininity is androgyny and is psychologically healthy.

Suppose it depends on how one wants to interpret the results I got high marks in both gender categories which means I'm "psychologically healthy"? (overall averages being 100)

• Your score for masculinity was 92.
• Your score for femininity was 97.

         What more could one ask? If "androgyny" is a perfect blending of male & female then that describes me pretty well but that doesn't mean I subscribe to "non-binary" quite the opposite! I come to realize I've been resisting transition for the last 40yrs because I subscribe to "very binary" (very 60's Old Fashioned?) and simply have a thousand reasons for not doing so? Having achieved "acceptance" of myself and by others "passing" has only gained in importance lately I may just social transition yet . . . lol call me a coward yes but refuse to "give up" anything and am definately not a "come lately" to the transition game!

[NatalieRene]

I took it and the results are too easy to manipulate. I don't think it's a very good test.

[Linde]

I took it and the results are too easy to manipulate. I don't think it's a very good test.

I am with you.  It reflects a picture of females, to be very clear, in my opinion of American females, which one could find in the 50's an early 60's (the motherhood and apple pie thing), which I could see represented by some of the friends of my mother in law, but which I did not see by many women in Germany!  Those women in Germany had to manage their and their family lives, because their husband either did not come back from WWII, or were prisoners of war.  They had no time to be the wify wifes .
All the friends of my mother in law, who were like the ones the test preferred to see, were stay at home moms whose husband had good incomes, to allow them to stay home.  Others, who and their husbands owned businesses (like my in laws), were not like this, because they ahd  function in the business.

Now fast forward to modern younger women.  I have 3 nieces, one is a major in the US Air Force, one has an business degree, and runs a large Petco store, and one is an ordained minister, and all have children!  My daughter in law has a criminal justice master degree, and works or the largest sheriff district in Minnesota as an investigator, she does not want children.  Neither of these women would have scored female in this test, because they got to their positions being assertive and goal oriented!
Even if I look at women of my generation, I see not any of those, who were successful in life, displaying many of the "ideal woman" characteristics!

I don't care whether some students at one university thought the questions were good, because they are, after all, students!  And have not really had a chance to learn what real life is!

[JanePlain]

I find it reassuring that I scored the way I did on two different tests. 

Sadly I do a lot of second guessing hand wringing.   Some of the tests I've seen are so NOT subtle I think what results they pronounce are just echoing what we might want to hear.  Anyway if the MMPI and the Bern are not well done tests does anyone have suggestions on what would be better?

[MarcSteele]

Your scores on the Bem Sex Role Inventory are as follows:
Ratings rank from 1 to 7, with a mean of 4
Femininity: 2.8
Masculinity: 5.65
Neutral items: 3.05

Though the test is completely old fashioned and out dated.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk