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PSY409b October 3, 2006
Women Are Not as Indirect as You May Think
By Tiffany Akiyama
 
Instructions for this activity are found at:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/g25-oral1.htm
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
 
Deborah Tannen. (1994). Gender and Discourse. (New York, N.Y.: Oxford Univeristy Press, Inc.). Reviewing pages 85 to 99.
 
  1.  The Contradiction
    1. There is consistency in conversational styles within the sex across a life span
      1. Females use bodily alignment and eye contact more than males
      2. Females go into depth in conversation while males use more "small talk"
      3. Male discussion of problems ar emore indirect and less personal
    2. There is contradiction to the "frequently heard claim that women's language is more indirect than men's." (page 85)
  2. The Elements of a Conversation
    1. Emergent Coherence
      1. NOT a set "structure" in conversation
      2. Something that occurs between the interaction of (at least) two people involved
      3. Can be shaped differently every time two different people meet
      4. Involves the UNITY of the participant's individual speech in accordance to shared physical alignment and topical cohesion
        1. Physical Alignment
          1. Body language
            1. The position of the head and body toward the other person
          2. Eye contact
        2. Topical Cohesion
          1. Development of conversation
          2. How two people converse upon a topic
          3. The amount of depth that goes into the topic
  3. Cross-Cultural View of Gender Differences
    1. Cues are likely to be misinterpretted or missed due to gender differences
    2. Males and females learn conversation styles in "sex-separate peer groups"
    3. Different norms for interaction are developed within the same-sex peer group
      1. As if growing up in different cultural environments
  4. The Observation (a focus on physical alignment)
    1. Observation made within four different levels (age groups; gender-to-gender)
      1. Grades 2, 6, 10, and 25-year-olds
    2. At each "level"
      1. Females
        1. Sat closer to each other
        2. Body alignment was facing each other
        3. Occasional touches
        4. Sat relatively still
      2. Males
        1. Do not touch each other except for in playful aggression
        2. Not a lot of eye contact
        3. Larger "personal space" bubble (more spread out)
 
Related Links:
Gender Differences in E-mail Communication
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Rossetti-GenderDif.html
This site is a journal research article on gender differences on the internet. Paola Rossetti ran a random research project based on electronic mail discussion groups to see if the 'typical' communication differences between females and males were carried over to the online web. Rosetti discovered through the study that men seem to be more interested in contributing to discussion groups to show how 'smart' he is (to gain or est. authority), while a female contributed more for unselfish reasons (to help another). Therefore, the "cultural" differences between female and male speech does carry over. Which is very similar to what Deborah Tannen was trying to point out in her study about male and female conversational differences. I thought this was interesting becaue even though the online web allows total annonimity, you can still see the differences between a female versus a male posting (collaboration vs. competition).
 
Language and Gender
http://assets.cambridge.org/052165/2839/sample/0521652839ws.pdf
This is a clip of Chapter 1 from "Language and Gender" written by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet. Basically, their whole idea of language and gender is that it is not something we are born with. Language and gender is established into us from when we are small, whether it is the hospital we were born in, the tv, society, or our parents. They are trying to examine why gender seems so "natural" so as to why no body questions it. I thought this was an interesting clip because they say that even biology does not create these "differences" that scientists and some psychologists point out. They say that regardless of our biological differences, the reason for these brought out differences is because we subconsciously create our results like that. For example, male vocal cords are longer than female vocal cords, but that is not the reason for the lower voices in male. It is because we are "trained" to think that so we try to make it work like that.
 
Gender and Communication
http://www.uscg.mil/leadership/gender.htm
This is an article from the National Guard's, "The Leadership News" quarterly newsletter. It talks about how the cause of miscommunication amongst female and male enlistees is due to the cultural differences of how men and women were brought up: Team Sports vs. Playing with Dolls. Team Sports represents the hierarchical culture of men, which is the dominant model used in any type of 'uniformed' government job. And Playing with Dolls refers to the "flat" culture of women. I found this help-like article interesting because the National Guard is trying to help give an explanation for misunderstandings between the females and males in uniform, especially if they are your superior officer. However, at the same time it has this doministic underlying tone, especially when it refers to womens' culture as being "flat."
 
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Last Updated: 10/09/06
Tiffany Akiyama © Fall 2006