AY '06-'07 2nd Sem Psych101 joint informal paper

J. Gabriel L. de Leon (BS Psychology)

Jammin M. Tanioka (BS Psychology)

Psychology 101 TFW-2

Prof. Jose Antonio Clemente

Pair Homework: A question that we really want to find the answer to…

I. Opinionated Background and Statement of the Question

Since time immemorial, some boys have probably grown curious about their naturally unsteady handwriting. At some point in time or another, many males have been quite frustrated with the fact that females have excelled in or mastered the seemingly tricky art of penmanship [perhaps because we guys have overly humungous male egos]. Majority of males have learned to accept this fact, as society has already reared them to believe that their handwriting abilities can only be as good as what them girls locally call sulat manok. Such has been the case, that whenever a part of society encounters a certain male whose penmanship quality is comparably similar to a woman’s handwriting, these people’s reactions could range from partially critical to moderately despising to sexually discriminating and utterly unfriendly.
The writers used the term “sexually discriminating” as the human action of categorizing certain people and their unique respective characteristics to a general sexual class, usually accompanied with derogatory terms or profanities – thus the birth of the modern “Third Sex.” However, people also believe that there are always exemptions. So in all merited fairness to those who were not actually part of the New Gender, but were unfairly treated as one without considering other valuable factors, new, less “derogatory” terms were invented to describe their somewhat unique behavior: effeminate, and effeminacy. Effeminacy, as defined in Wikipedia.com, is “a character trait of a male showing femininity, unmanliness… which contradicts traditional masculine, male gender roles.” The writers have considered this definition, and by relating it to the formerly stated handwriting dilemmas transformed it to this paper’s point of study: Is there a direct correlation between male effeminacy and penmanship quality?

II. Methodology

For this study, the students used a simple survey (see attached) containing some questions and special instructions. Ten (10) randomly selected UP Diliman male students took the survey, each doing so with his personal consent.
The survey, an adapted version of an online masculinity-femininity test, consisted of twenty (20) questions specially made for roughly determining the effeminacy of the person taking the survey; it also contained one special instruction, in which it instructed the survey-taker to write the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”
The surveyors then checked the survey sheets; the responses were rated according to how “effeminate” the corresponding answers were, basing the ratings on conventionally accepted behaviors and otherwise, empirically proven facts. For two-choice questions, an effeminate answer was given a point of 1, a masculine answer, 0; for three-choice questions, the former applies, but the semi-effeminate, middle option was given a half-point (0.5); for four-choice questions, the first point system also applies, but the more effeminate answer was rated 0.75, and the more masculine answer, 0.25. The total score per respondent was taken, and then converted into percentages.
Finally, one of the surveyors rated the respective handwritings of the respondents in the sample sentence, using a rating of 0-10 – with 0 corresponding to the worst penmanship possible and 10 to the best. The checker based his judgments on neatness, straightness and evenness, comprehensibility, and curve smoothness.

III. Results, Analysis, and Conclusion:

Table 1: Final tabulation of scores (survey questions and penmanship ratings)

[IMG]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/sycophite/psych1.jpg[/IMG]

Table 2: Penmanship rating clusters against average “effeminacy rating”

[IMG]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/sycophite/psych2.jpg[/IMG]

Based on the acquired data above, there is no clear pattern regarding the relationship of effeminacy to penmanship; it would be dangerous to conclude such, due to the fact that after the third cluster (5-6), there is a slight drop in the effeminacy percentage. However, it would be interesting to note that the highest rating attained can be found in the fourth cluster (7-8).

IV. Insights and Recommendations

The population that was used in the survey will not generally show the desired pattern because of the limited respondents, besides the fact that the topic can be considered sensitive, wherein the respondents will be conscious of what they are supposed to answer. Seemingly, the respondents were not quite honest in their way of answering the questionnaires because they might have been afraid of the humiliation they could possibly get. For example, Respondent no. 5 is afraid of fire; this can indicate effeminacy of a person because it is not normal for a guy to be afraid of something so simple as fire; aside from his doubtful answers in the survey, he also manifested some very feminine characteristic such as: the soft flip of the hand, the manner of his speech, movements, etc..
This study cannot conclude that there was such a happening because of inevitable differences in the mindsets, beliefs and personalities of our respondents. Here some of the factors to consider in making such judgments: First, the way the survey was presented was awkward when read. This factor greatly influenced the respondents, especially when they read it, and therefore could have contributed to the inconsistency of the results. Secondly, the questionnaires are quite very easy to filter out to which is masculine and which is feminine, considering the mental abilities and understanding of the respondents. These factors lead to the consciousness of the respondents and thus making their defense mechanism work. Lastly, there might have been subjective errors on the surveyor’s ratings, probably due to inexperience in penmanship studies. All these could have lead to such inconsistencies in the study.

V. References:

“Effeminacy.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effeminacy. 25 November, 2006.
“Masculinity/Femininity Test.”
http://www.mysticgames.com/mysticgames_cfmfiles/tests/showtest.cfm?TestID=29. 26 November, 2006.