Recent evidence indicates that masculine and feminine personality attributes have only minimal associations with many kinds of sex role preferences, behaviors and attitudes, and that both masculine and feminine traits are positively associated with valued characteristics. This study investigated the measurement of some socially undesirable traits--eight which are generally considered to be masculine and eight which are feminine. Undergraduates were administered both positive and negative scales, as well as a measure of self esteem and interpersonal competence. Subjects also reported on their experiences in two areas of problem behaviors--emotional/neurotic, and acting out (drugs, cheating, fighting). Conclusions included the following: (1) the lack of correlation between positive and negative scales indicated that they measured unique aspects of masculinity and femininity; (2) the negative scales were related to negative self esteem, and positive scales were related to positive self esteem; (3) the best predictor of neuroticism was low incidence of desirable masculine characteristics; (4) the best discriminator between high- and low-acting out was high incidence of undesirable masculine traits; and (5) undesirable feminine traits were associated with both types of behavior problems. (A list of the 16 traits is included). (GDC)