Sandra Bem
IN MEMORIAM
Professor Sandra Bem died on May 20, 2014, at her home in Ithaca, New York. Social Psychology Network is maintaining this profile for visitors who wish to learn more about Professor Bem's work.
Please see below for more information:
- The Last Day of Her Life (New York Times Magazine)
- Sandra Bem, feminist scholar and psychologist, dies (Cornell Chronicle)
- How Sandra Bem Has Changed Understanding of Gender Issues (BetterHelp)
- The Personal, Political, and Professional Life of Sandra Bem (Sex Roles: A Journal of Research)
- Sandra Bem: Revolutionary and Generative Feminist Psychologist (Sex Roles: A Journal of Research)
- Further reflections on Sandra Lipsitz Bem's impact (Sex Roles: A Journal of Research)
- Sandra Lipsitz Bem (1944–2014) (American Psychologist)
- Profile: Sandra Bem (Psychology's Feminist Voices)
- Remembering Sandra Bem (Medium)
- Sandra Bem: Gender Schema Theory and Androgyny Test (Study.com video)
- Obituary: Sandra Bem (New York Times)
- Obituary: Sandra Bem (Ithaca Journal)
I stopped doing empirical research in the early 1990s.
During the 1970's and 1980's, I did both empirical and theoretical work focused on the social construction of gender and sexuality, including the development of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), a widely used tool to assess masculinity, femininity, and androgyny. Please note that Mind Garden owns the copyright for the BSRi and can be reached at the following web address:
http://www.mindgarden.com/products/bemss.htm
Beginning in the late 1980s, I shifted away from empirical research and wrote two books, both published by Yale University Press. The first was The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality (1993), a conceptual and interdisciplinary project. The second was a memoir entitled An Unconventional Family (1998).
In the late 1990s, I retrained in clinical psychology, thereby fulfilling a lifelong desire and also honoring "the road not taken" at an earlier time. Since then, I have had a small private practice specializing in trauma, and I have also been teaching a senior seminar at Cornell entitled "Trauma and Treatment."
I have been in phased retirement at Cornell for the last five years and will be fully retired from Cornell as of July 1, 2010. After my Cornell retirement, however, I will continue to have a small private practice.
Primary Interests:
- Applied Social Psychology
- Close Relationships
- Gender Psychology
- Intergroup Relations
- Interpersonal Processes
- Prejudice and Stereotyping
- Research Methods, Assessment
- Self and Identity
- Sexuality, Sexual Orientation
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Image Gallery
Video Gallery
Sandra Bem's Gender Schema Theory
Books:
- Bem, S. L. (1998). An unconventional family. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
- Bem, S. L. (1993). The lenses of gender: Transforming the debate on sexual inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Journal Articles:
- Andersen, S. M., & Bem, S. L. (1981). Sex typing and androgyny in dyadic interaction: Individual differences in responsiveness to physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(1), 74-86.
- Bem, S. L. (1995). Dismantling gender polarization and compulsory heterosexuality: Should we turn the volume down or up? Journal of Sex Research, 32(4), 329-334.
- Bem, S. L. (1995). Working on gender as a gender-nonconformist. Women & Therapy, 17(1-2), 43-53.
- Bem, S. L. (1982). Gender schema theory and self-schema theory compared: A comment on Markus, Crane, Bernstein, and Siladi's 'Self-schemas and gender." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43(6), 1192-1194.
- Bem, S. L. (1981). Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 88(4), 354-364.
- Bem, S. L. (1981). The BSRI and gender schema theory: A reply to Spence and Helmreich. Psychological Review, 88(4), 369-371.
- Bem, S. L. (1979). Theory and measurement of androgyny: A reply to the Pedhazur-Tetenbaum and Locksley-Colten critiques. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(6), 1047-1054.
- Bem, S. L. (1977). On the utility of alternative procedures for assessing psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 45(2), 196-205.
- Bem, S. L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42(2), 155-162.
- Bem, S. L. (1970). The role of comprehension in children's problem solving. Developmental Psychology, 2(3), 351-358.
- Bem, S. L. (1967). Verbal self-control: The establishment of effective self-instruction. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74(4, Pt.1), 485-491.
- Bem, S. L., & Bem, D. J. (1973). On liberating the female student. School Psychology Digest, 2(3), 10-18.
- Bem, S. L., & Lenney, E. (1976). Sex Typing and the Avoidance of Cross-Sex Behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33(1), 48-54.
- Bem, S. L., & Lewis, S. A. (1975). Sex role adaptability: One consequence of psychological androgyny. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(4), 634-643.
- Bem, S. L., Martyna, W., & Watson, C. (1976). Sex typing and androgyny: Further explorations of the expressive domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(5), 1016-1023.
- Frable, D. E. S., & Bem, S. L. (1985). If you are gender schematic, all members of the opposite sex look alike. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49(2), 459-468.
- Schellenberg, E. G, Keil, J. M, & Bem, S. L. (1995). "Innocent Victims" of AIDS: Identifying the subtext. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25(20), 1790-1800.
Other Publications:
- Bem, S. L. (1994). In a male-centered world, female differences are transformed into female disadvantages. Chronicle of Higher Education, B1-B2.
