ABSTRACT
Buss has described psychology as having undergone a paradigm shift in recent years: from a view that reality constructs the person to a view that the person constructs reality. The recognition that sex was more than a mere biological dichotomy-female or male-brought into the social sciences a number of new terms about whose definition there is not yet complete agreement. It has been found necessary to discriminate between sex as a subject variable-what males and females do or say about themselves or others (the traditional area of sex differences)-and sex as a stimulus variable-how people respond to a stimulus person who is either female or male. As in all cultures, sex roles serve both a normative and a prescriptive function-they define behaviors that are considered both typical and desirable. A number of theorists and researchers have dealt with sex as an ascribed status characteristic.
