'The world in our own image' explored: Philosophical worldview, gender-role and masculine gender role stress in nontraditional and traditional physical and social scientists

This study assesses the relationship between philosophical worldview, gender role, and masculine gender role stress in men from traditional and non-traditional fields of physical and social science. This research is a continuation of previous studies that have identified an important link, particularly germane to the pursuit of scientific knowledge, between personality and philosophical worldview. Data from 170 doctoral level scientists recruited from the 152 extensive research institutions across the United States from the fields of particle physics (n=65), bio/medical physics (n=35), neuropsychology (n=29), and social psychology (n=41) were analyzed for the purpose of this study. Femininity and androgyny were negatively associated with mechanicism and positively associated with organicism; mechanistic worldviews were related to higher levels of masculine gender role stress. Physicists reported more mechanistic worldviews and higher levels of masculine gender role stress than psychologists. Physicists scored higher on masculine gender role stress subscales: intellectual inferiority, performance failure, physical inadequacy, and emotional inexpressiveness. These findings reflect the relationship between gender-role, masculine gender role stress and philosophical worldview---variables that underlie the construction of scientific theory and experiment, and influence the way we view, measure and treat problems facing nature and the public.