The article looks at the problem of the formation and manifestation of an individual's sex role identity in the conditions of interaction of traditional ethnocultural sexual roles and factors caused by the social and economic changes in modern society. Co-existence within one socio-economic system of a Russian and a Tatar communities was used as a model which allows the investigator to separate ethnocultural and socio-economic conditions of the development of personality. An adapted version of the Bem Sex Role Inventory and a specially designed method of revealing sex role conceptions of the subjects were used to determine the sex role identity of a person. It has been proved that the process of sex role formation is most harmonious when conceptions of masculinity/femininity correspond to the ethnocultural sex role tradition. When socio-economic conditions of socialization conflict with the cultural tradition, sex role conflicts may occur.