Personal Attributes Questionnaire Explained

The Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) is a personality test measuring two scales "instrumentality" and "expressivity", commonly taken to be masculinity and femininity, respectively. It is one of the most commonly used measures of gender identity, second only to the Bem Sex-Role Inventory.[1]

The PAQ was first developed by Janet T. Spence, Robert Helmreich, and Joy Stapp in 1975.[2]

The PAQ has 24 bipolar items rated on a 5-point scale (e.g. item 1: "Not at all aggressive" to "Very aggressive"). The items are scored together to yield three scores: instrumentality (masculinity), expressivity (femininity) and androgyny (masculinity-femininity).[3] The third scale is not used much.

References

  1. Palan, K.. 2001. Gender Identity in Consumer Research: A Literature Review and Research Agenda. Academy of Marketing Science Review. 10. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120911204513/http://www.amsreview.org/articles/palan10-2001.pdf. 2012-09-11.
  2. Spence, Janet T.; Helmreich, Robert; Stapp, Joy (1975). "Ratings of self and peers on sex role attributes and their relation to self-esteem and conceptions of masculinity and femininity." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 32(1), Jul 1975, 29-39.
  3. Hill, Sarah A.; Fekken, G. Cynthia; Bond, Sheryl L. (2000). " Factor structure integrity of the Personal Attributes Questionnaire: An English–French comparison." Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, Vol 32(4), 234-242.