gender roles: a handbook of tests and measures

Beere has produced a new edition of her Women and Women's Issues: A Handbook of Tests and Measurements. Based largely on a search of the PsychLIT and ERIC databases from January 1978 to December 1988, the volume includes information on 211 tests and measures pertaining to gender roles and attitudes towards gender. . . . Particularly useful are chapter reviews of the literature in which the author reviews the quality of available research. Recommended for college and university libraries.

Choice

This handbook stems, in part, from the author's previously published Women and Women's Issues. Realizing that a book published in 1979 could no longer provide researchers with the up-to-date information they require regarding measures to use in research, Beere set out to revise and update her work. In the process, she soon discovered that the measures identified through her search of the literature produced since her first book was published far exceeds the number that can be realistically described in a single handbook. Thus, she has undertaken a two-volume guide, the first of which, Gender Roles, describes only those measures pertaining to gender roles and attitudes toward gender-related issues. Gender roles are broadly defined to include adults' and children's gender roles, gender stereotypes, marital roles, parental roles, employee roles, and multiple roles. A total of 211 measures are included.

In addition to 67 scales still in use that were described in her earlier book, Beere includes scales that are relevant, have evidence of their reliability and/or validity, and are used in more than one published article or ERIC document. If a scale does not satisfy these criteria, but its development is the focus of an article or ERIC document, it is included, as are scales that are unusual or pertain to a topic that would otherwise receive inadequate coverage in this handbook. The scale descriptions follow a standard format that includes the following information: title; author or authors as listed in the earliest publication mentioning the scale; earliest date that the scale is mentioned in a publication; profile of variable being measured; type of instrument; description; sample items; previous and appropriate subjects; scoring information; a description of the development of the measure; information regarding reliability and validity; and a listing of published studies that use the measure. This important new handbook promises to make several important contributions to gender-related research. It will make it easier for researchers to locate quality instruments appropriate for their research, discourage the proliferation of substandard or redundant measures, set some minimal standards for measures used in gender role research, and encourage more research regarding gender roles. All social science libraries will want to find a place for it in their reference collections.

CAROLE A. BEERE is Professor of Psychology at Central Michigan University. She is the author of Women and Women’s Issues and has contributed articles to Sex Roles and Psychology in the Schools.