How the gender-related personalities relate their attitude and knowledge about LGBT and their gender identity

Abstract

The LGBT issues have received wider social recognition in Japan these several years. However, the knowledge and attitude towards LGBT varies depending on many different psychological traits. In this study, we presumed that they varied depending on their gender-related personalities, since many researches showed that there were relationships between gender-related personality and psychological health. Empirical studies showed that the Androgynous gender personality (A) type was more flexible and has better adaptability than the undifferentiated gender personality (U) type. Therefore, we hypothesized that the A type is more flexible and positive to LGBT and has more knowledge and attitude than other types. Furthermore, the androgynous type has more gender consistency than other types. Bem sex role inventory (BSRI), Lesbian, Gay, and bisexual knowledge and attitude scale for heterosexual (LGB-KASH), and Gender identity scale (GI) were administrated to 208 university students in Japan. We classified the participants into four gender-related personality groups based on BSRI: Androgynous gender personality type (A), sex-congruent gender personality type (SC), sex-incongruent gender personality type (SI), and undifferentiated gender personality type (U). The results indicated that A type scored higher than SI type in positive and affirmative attitude and in socially accepting beliefs towards LGBT. The results also showed that A type had higher gender identity stability and consistency than other three types. We concluded that since A type had more stable gender identity than other types and also had affirmative and positive attitude toward LGBT, it is important to foster both masculinity and femininity for psychological health.