Instrumental (masculine) and expressive-affiliative (feminine) traits, normative (typical and ideal) in Mexico

Recent research on instrumental (masculine) and expressive-affiliative (fem inine) traits, traditionally adscrived differentially to males and females, has consistently shown that these characteristics emanate from distinct so cialization and enculturation practices in each culture. Furthermore, measu rement instruments developed and validated in several cultures have shown t he robustness of a multidimensional dualistic theoretical conception in the depiction of personal character and its normative and socio-cultural roots . The prevalence of social factors over genetic factors in the composition, delimitation and manifestation of masculine and feminine traits, implies t hat the attributes to describe these characteristics should be obtained dir ectly from each cultural group. In order to identify the instrumental and e xppressive-affiliative characteristics which better describe Mexican female s and males, several focus groups were conducted and yielded a list of 323 adjectives which define these two dimensions. In a second study, 856 partic ipants, divided by gender and educational level, indicated how ideal and ty pical each attribute is for males and females. Results show the lists of ex pressive and instrumental attributes which appeared as socially desirable a nd undesirable for males and females, as well as the difference in tipicity means for each, gender.