Cognitive Psychology: Applying The Science of the Mind (4th Edition) Chapter 9 E

Question

Cognitive Psychology: Applying The Science of the Mind (4th Edition)
Chapter 9

Either in your daily conversations with friends, or by unobtrusively listening to the conversation of others, see if you notice any differences in the amount of time women and men talk in conversations. Observe whether your anecdotal observations match the stereotype or the research. In a few sentences describe your experience with this observation.

Here's some examples of my class mates responses:
1.) After reading this chapter, I found myself paying very close attention to conversations around me as well as my own to see if they matched the results discussed in the text book. After listening to different conversations among my male and female coworkers I realized that I could not decide who talked more in any of the conversations. It seemed that both the men and women spoke similar amounts. I thought that I would hear more from the women but just from the conversations I observed it seemed to match the research. I noticed that in multiple conversations throughout the day I myself used a lot of tag questions. I also noticed that women seemed to interrupt much more than men when talking to either a man or another woman. Some men did interrupt but not as much as I observed women to throughout the day.

2.) After analyzing the research in the book, I went ahead and tested the results in my work. I work in a shipping department were the amount of women and men are the same. My observations fell within the stereotype because women talked more than men by keeping a prolonged conversation. They usually tend to do a short statement and go into detail ending with a whole different topic. I saw that there was a lot of interrupting when women were talking since they would ask work questions all of the sudden and go back to the conversation topic after that. On the other hand, men would only make small statements or questions and retrieve from the conversation once they got an answer. Moreover, I observed the women at work and myself use a lot of tag questions.

Explanation / Answer

After reading the chapter, I closely observed conversational patterns around me to find if I could relate the textbook material to real-life settings. I did not find any significant differences between men and women when it came to the amount of time each contributed to a conversation. Although I did find that their style of communicating was quite dissimilar, the amount of time women and men spoke were more or less the same. Women tend to use more interrogative questions than men, seemingly as a method to keep the conversation active. Also, people with more power use more questions in conversation than those with less.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse C
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.