Masculine and feminine personality attributes of dental students and their attitudes toward women's roles in society.

Egalitarian attitudes and the personality traits of instrumentality (masculinity) and expressiveness (femininity) were examined for 314 male and 71 female dental students. Women dental students hold far more egalitarian views toward women's roles than a norm group of women college students, who are somewhat more liberal than male dental students. Female dental students are also more instrumental than college women, though somewhat less instrumental than male dental students. Male and female dental students did not differ on expressiveness, though both were less expressive than college women. A comparison of dental students with academic psychologists suggests that successful professionals have similar personality traits regardless of gender.