The role of psychological androgyny in athletic success: a United Kingdom perspective

Past studies have shown that successful athletes are required to display a wide variety of behaviours to win races and register exceptional performances. The traditional position holds that athletics be regarded as an unequivocally masculine endeavour. This investigation postulated that it is the psychologically androgynous person—that is, one who endorses both masculine and feminine positive behaviours—who would possess the desired range of behaviours that lead to success in athleticism. Accordingly, male and female athletes of past and present success in Britain (n=90; [30m, 30f, 15M, 15F]), along with male and female non-athletes (n=90; [30m, 30f, 15M, 15F]) were surveyed using the SBSRI (Bern, 1974) to determine whether athletic success is relative to psychological androgyny or whether it qualifies as masculine. Four distinct studies informed the line of investigation. [Continues.]