Androgyny and its relationship to the anima and animus and related psychological constructs

Abstract

This study focused on the relationship between androgyny and the anima and animus, and the relationships between androgyny and the anima and animus and the dependent variables of individuation, psychosocial development, self-actualization, and self-esteem in women. A packet of questionnaires containing a demographic information sheet, the Personality Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ), the Anima-Animus Scale (AAS), the Measures of Psychosocial Development (MPD), the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, the Singer-Loomis Inventory of Personality (SLIP), and the Short Index of Self-Actualization were individually and anonymously administered to 114 female flight attendants who ranged in age from 21 to 50 (M age = 32). Using a mean-split on the masculine-feminine and animus-anima scales of the PAQ and AAS, respectively, subjects were classified into four categories of androgyny (androgynous, masculine, feminine, and undifferentiated) and four anima-animus categories (developed anima/animus (DAA), animus, anima, and undeveloped anima-animus (UAA). Androgyny and the anima-animus were both found to correlate with increased personality development; and, although androgyny and the anima-animus constructs were significantly correlated (r. = .45, p. < .001), they appeared to be independent. Generally, the results for the androgynous categories paralleled previous research; however, the results for the anima-animus categories produced mixed results. Similar to the androgynous classifications, DAA and UAA generally scored highest and lowest (respectively) on all of the dependent variables. While their scores were not significantly different, anima subjects scored higher than animus subjects on psychosocial development and individuation while animus subjects scored higher than anima subjects on self-actualization and self-esteem. Post hoc analyses of the MPD and SLIP revealed divergent response patterns between masculine/feminine and animus/anima categories. It was concluded that masculine/animus and feminine/anima classifications were not parallel...