Gender-related individual differences

Background. A dentist’s professional activity requires a high level of personality traits that are usually regarded as a combination of both female and male traits. Androgynous gender identity corresponds to dentists’ professional requirements and allows the dentists to retain mental stability and psychological well-being. 

Objective. The goal of this study is to determine the specificity of the androgynous identity in dentists in the context of gender differences as indicators of mental health and subjective well-being. 

Design. The first stage of the research covered 129 dentists of both sexes to reveal their androgynous gender type using the Bem Sex Role Inventory. During the second stage, 117 androgynous dentists were studied using the SCL-90-R and Brief Subjective Well-being Questionnaire in an effort to reveal the specificity of the dentists’ mental health and self-esteem. 

Results. According to the results, individuals with an androgynous type of gender identity constitute the largest part of dentists (90.70 %), regardless of their biological sex. The expression of masculinity does not statistically differ from the expression of femininity within the androgynous sample. Regardless of their sex, these dentists are characterized by a higher level of mental health. No significant differences were revealed between androgynous men and androgynous women in their subjective well-being indicators — self-estimation of health, satisfaction with material status and success motivation. 

Conclusion. We concluded that androgyny is the most common type of gender identity in the men and women engaged in dentistry. The basic gender characteristic in the structure of androgynous identity in dentists is masculinity, which is closely interrelated with mental health and subjective well-being regardless of biological sex.

Background. This study addresses a current problem relating to trust and the identification of gender differences in trust/mistrust manifestation. Gender identity is associated with cultural stereotypes and social roles, which facilitate the formation of trust in people. It acts as a significant integral meaning-based component of an individual’s “I”- conception, which contributes to the formation of trust in himself and the world around him. 

Objective. To study features of trust/mistrust towards others in young people with different gender identities. 

Design. The cross-gender-typical sample consisted of 179 representatives, 83 males and 96 females, ages 17 to 23 (M = 19.34 and SD = 1.79). The techniques for collecting data included the MMPI, the Sex-Role Inventory by S. Bem, and the Trust/Mistrust towards Others questionnaire by A. Kupreychenko. The results were processed via the Mann-Whitney U Test, the Kruskal-Wallis H criterion, and cluster analysis. 

Results. Criteria of trust/mistrust among the youth with different gender identities were identified, and basic types of trust — categoric, irrational–emotional, ambivalent– contradictory, and non-differentiated — were singled out. Irrespective of biological sex, bearers of different gender identities do not exhibit the same criteria to determine trust/ mistrust. 

Conclusion. This study makes it possible to enrich our understanding of the role of social gender in the formation of interpersonal trust and differences in the foundations of trust toward others, in people with different gender identities. The empirical typology of trust in youth with different gender identities allows for using the typology in organizing psychological diagnostics, and for support and improvement of their interpersonal relations.