Willingness to Accept the Sick Role in Men and Women Professionals

149 Pages·2016·3.79 MB·English

by  Kimberly Evans Merrill

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Dissertations Theses and Dissertations
1980
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Kimberly Evans Merrill
Loyola University Chicago
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Copyright © 1980 Kimberly Evans Merrill
WILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT THE SICK ROLE
IN MEN AND WOMEN PROFESSIONALS
by
Kimberly E. Merrill
A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School
of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
December
1980
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Martha Brand, Mimi Bender,
Shiela Lieber, Alex Aleinikoff and Tom Merrill for taking
the time to solicit their co-workers for my study.
I would also like to thank the members of my
committee, Dr. John Shack, Dr. Jill Nagy and Dr. Alan
DeWolfe, for their support, encouragement and always
helpful criticism.
ii
VITA
The author, Kimberly E. Merrill, is the daughter
of Dr. Gomer P. Evans and Shirley Mays Evans. She was
born on December 26, 1948 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Her elementary and secondary education was obtained
in the public schools of Grosse Pointe, Michigan where she
received a high school diploma in 1967.
In September 1967 she entered Grinnell College,
and in June 1971 she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree
with a major in Studio Art. In September 1974 she began
her graduate work in Clinical Psychology at Loyola Univer
sity of Chicago.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
VITA iii
LIST OF TABLES vi
CONTENTS OF APPENDICES viii
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Sex Role Identification: Its Relation
ship to Professional Status and Willing-
ness to Accept the Sick Role . . . . . . . 1
Role Theory: A Discussion of the
Difference in Perspective Between
the Psychological and Sociological
Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
II. THE BEM SEX ROLE INVENTORY: ITS
AND RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER
DEVELOP~ffiNT
MEASURES OF SEX ROLE IDENTITY . . . . . 14
The Problem of Construct Validity in
the Early Masculinity/Femininity (MF)
Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Research of McKee and Sherriffs:
Defining Basic Parameters of Sex Role
Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Other Sex Role Measures and Research
on Sex Role Stereotypes . . . . . . 21
The Development of the Bern Sex Role
Inventory . . . . . . . 26
iv
Chapter
III. THE SICK ROLE AND RESEARCH IN THE
SOCIOLOGY OF ILLNESS . . . . . . . 31
The Sick Role According to Parsons 31
Evidence for the Influence of Multiple
Social Factors on Illness Behavior . . . . 36
IV. SEX ROLES AND ILLNESS BEHAVIOR . 45
The Evidence for Higher Female
Psychiatric Morbidity . . . . 45
Accounting for the Phenomenon of
Higher Female Psychiatric Morbidity:
A Review . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
V. SUMMARY AND HYPOTHESES . 76
VI. METHOD . . 84
Subjects . 84
Measures . 84
Procedures . 86
VII. RESULTS 88
VIII. DISCUSSION 103
REFERENCE NOTES . 121
REFERENCES 122
APPENDIX A 130
APPENDIX B 138
v
LIST OF TABLES
Table
1. Utilization of Psychiatric Facilities by
Sex in 1970 . . . . . . . . .... 49
2 . Leading Diagnoses for Male and Female
Psychiatric Patients in 1970 ..... . 51
3. Utilization of Psychiatric Facilities by
Sex and Race in 1975 ......... . 52
4. Leading Diagnoses for Male Psychiatric
Patients in 1975 by Type of Treatment
Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5. Leading Diagnoses for Female Psychiatric
Patients in 1975 by Type of Treatment
Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6. Ratio of Male to Female Patients by
Diagnosis . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7. Ratio of Male to Female Patients by Type
of Treatment Facility . . . . . . . . . 57
8. Means and t-tests between Male and Female
Subjects on all Measures . . . . . . . . . 89
9. Means and Standard Deviations on the BSRI
for Stanford and Loyola Undergraduates
and D.C. Attorneys . . . . . . . . . . 91
10. Means and Standard Deviations on the
Langner Mental Health Scale for Loyola
Undergraduates and D.C. Attorneys 93
11. Correlation Matrix of All Major Variables 94
12. ANOVA on Number of Ailments During the
Past Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
13. ANOVA on Number of Days Lost from Work
During the Past Year . . . . . . . . . 97
vi
Table
14. ANOVA on Number of Physician Visits
During the Past Year . . . . . . . . 98
15. ANOVA on Anxiety Symptom Disclosure 99
16. ANOVA on the Type A Profile 100
Vll
CONTENTS OF APPENDICES
Page
APPENDIX A--Health and Stress Measures 130
The Social Readjustment Rating Scale 131
Bortner's Short Rating Scale of
Type A Behavior . . . . . . . . 133
The Langner Mental Health Scale 135
The Health Questionnaire 136
APPENDIX B 138
Letter to All Subjects 139
viii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Sex Role Identification: Its Rela
tionship to Professional Status and
Willingness to Accept the Sick Role
The past ten years have seen the publication of
a number of books addressed to the task of clarifying
and cataloging the differences between the sexes (Maccoby
and Jacklin, 1974; Chafetz, 1974; Frieze, Parsons, John
son, Ruble and Zellman, 1978). These works are best
exemplified by Maccoby and Jacklin's, The Psychology of
Sex Differences, which represents an encyclopediac effort
to isolate human qualities and abilities and then weigh
in the balance studies which have directly addressed the
question of a sexual discrepancy. Maccoby and Jacklin
review nearly 2,000 studies covering a wide range of
human behavior including intellectual abilities, achieve-
ment, social relationships and emotionality. The authors
are frankly dedicated to the proposition that the number
and extent of real differences between men and women have
been grossly exaggerated. Their aim is to dispell popu-
lar misconceptions about "innate" masculine and feminine
qualities.
1