GENDER, GENDER-ROLE, AND DRAWING SKILL

Separate bodies of research suggest that performance in spatial reason ing covaries with gender and with gender role. Typically studies emplo y a spatial task whose variance is then used to account for difference s in scores between gender groups or variance in a measure of gender r ole. A methodological issue in such research is that the tasks used to represent spatial reasoning may be differentially available or differ entially appealing as a function of gender. Also, authors tend to anal yze data in terms of either gender or gender role but rarely both. A c ollection of personality assessments administered to 204 college stude nts each contained a completed Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inven tory (MMPI-2) and a drawing of a human figure. Within MMPI-2 are three measures of gender role. Drawing talent is unquestionably spatial and has the advantage of being equally available and encouraged among the two genders. Male gender predicted drawing skill. Within both genders , self-perceived masculinity in gender role also predicted higher scor es on the drawing skill. Outcomes are seen as compatible with Geschwin d and Galaburda's 1987 formulation regarding the behavioral manifestat ions of fetal androgenization.