Lichtman, Brenda2022-10-072022-10-0719771977 Augushttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11875/3735The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of psychological personality and physical sexuality of athletes and non-athletes upon an individual’s perception of the female sports competitor, as measured by the BEM sex role inventory. The BSRI was used two separate times, to obtain information regarding a person’s perception of himself and an individual’s perception of the female sports competitor. Three dependent variables were calculated form the masculine and feminine scale scores when using the BSRI to rate the female athlete: The psychological perception score: The differentiated perception score: and the undifferentiated perception score. Data from each of the three perception scores were analyzed using two way ANOVA’s for unweighted means. The three-way interaction was sacrificed due to small cell size. The following results were obtained. The female athlete was perceived as being more masculine by females than by males. The female athlete was perceived as being more masculine by non-athletes than by the athletes. The masculine and feminine psychological personalities perceived the female athlete as being more masculine than did the undifferentiated psychological personalities. For Ss who possessed a differentiated perception score, males perceived the female athlete as being more masculine than did the females. For Ss with a differentiated perception score, athletes perceived the female athlete as being more androgynous than did non-athletes. For Ss with an undifferentiated perception score, athletes perceived the female athlete as being more undifferentiated than non-athletes.application/pdfenWomen athletes.Sports for womenperception of female sports competitorphysical sexualityThesis