Toward a Fuller Conception of Machismo: Development of a Traditional Machismo and Caballerismo Scale

Machismo is an important concept describing men's behavior in Mexican culture, yet it is not well-defined. Most conceptions of machismo focus on a restricted, negative view of hypermasculinity. The authors posit that a fuller conception consists of 2 parts: traditional machismo and caballerismo, which is a focus on emotional connectedness. The authors developed a scale to measure these dimensions and found support for these 2 independent factors in 2 separate studies of Mexican American men. Traditional Machismo was related to aggression and antisocial behavior, greater levels of alexithymia, and more wishful thinking as a coping mechanism. Caballerismo was positively associated with affiliation, ethnic identity, and problem-solving coping. Traditional Machismo was also associated with less education, whereas there were no differences across education level on Caballerismo scores. These results support the more complete, two-dimensional representation of machismo.