CHARACTERISTICS OF GENDER SUBTYPES - GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES

Basic level, ''subtype'' stereotypes of women and men were investigate d in this study. Students from two dissimilar college campuses were gi ven 2 minutes to generate highly accessible types of men and women. On e purpose of the study was to obtain descriptive information-evaluativ e valence, stereotypicality, and complexity-about the subtype represen tations of women and men in our culture. Additional purposes of the st udy were to ascertain differences in the representations of male and f emale subtypes as a function of individual differences (the gender-rol e of subjects) and as a function of group differences (i.e., ingroup/o utgroup differences due to subjects' gender and regional/institutional differences due to campuses). Subjects generated a greater number of male than female subtypes. However, female subtypes tended to be more evaluatively positive than male subtypes. Although group and individua l differences influenced the characteristics of the subtypes generated , these characteristics mirrored the general patterns of attributes as sociated with the gender subtypes. These patterns of subtype attribute s are compared to those documented in previous research and are discus sed from feminist and cognitive perspectives.