This research tested the hypothesis that the gender distribution of personality disorders stems from the resemblance between each personality disorder and the role/role-stereotype of the status group for whom the disorder is prevalent. The first study found that undergraduates attributed descriptions of each personality disorder to the gender, social class, and marital status of the group that tends to receive that label; the second study found that the Sadistic and the Self-Defeating Personality Disorders of the DSM-IIIR were attributed to white males and middle-class females, respectively. It is suggested that personality disorders represent the roles/role-stereotypes of both genders.
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