Preview

Effects of men and women communication

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
858 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Effects of men and women communication
As the author mentioned in the essay, communication between men and women is often seen as “cross-cultural communication” ,which means many differences exist in their conversation. We can classify these differences into two parts.
The first main difference is that men and women have different habits in conversation. One remarkable point is misalignments in the mechanics of conversation. As for physical positions, women are more likely to face each other directly and maintain eye contact than men. As for topical alignment, women tend to talk once about one topic, but men prefer to switch topics. What’s more, Different responses also contribute to this difference. Women would like to acquire agreement and understanding, but men ignore each other’s problem, or reassure that this problem is not important. This makes women feel unsatisfied. Then, Listener noise also widens the gap between women and men in conversation .We can notice that women make more listener noise than men, such as “mhm” “yeah”. On the other hand, men usually stay silent. Meanwhile, women always participate actively in a conversation like finishing each other’s sentence, which is called “participatory listenership”. Men often see this as disturbance and distraction.
The second main difference is that men and women hold different views about communication, which leads to deeper misunderstanding. One divergence is the expectation of communication. .In a marriage, most wives hope their husbands to be conversation partners, but few husband share the same opinion. Therefore, in 1990,most women regard lack of communication as the reason for divorces. The other divergence is the understanding of the importance of communication. Women think that conversation is an significant method to create harmony and maintain intimacy. In this way, they wish their husbands to be further best friends, so they can share their thoughts and feelings and enjoy the sense of closeness. However, men don’t assume that talk



References: 1. http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/pubs/WP20.html Towards understanding the reasons for divorce 2. Smith, P.C., Kendall, L.M. and Hulin, C.L. (1969). The Measurement of Satisfaction in Work and Retirement. Chicago: Rand McNelly.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    When I look at the topic male-female communication, the first thing that comes up to my mind is that man and woman must have a very good communication, because there are only men and women in the world. But as I think a little bit deeper, there is something different between a man and a woman, different types of talking styles, different ways of thinking, and different point of views. For instance, if a guy thinks that he spends too much time on his girlfriend, but somehow she might think that he doesn't have enough time to be with her, so that if they are not willing to communicate to solve this problem, they will break up very easily. So when two different kinds of people get together, problem and conflicts will appear between them. There are two articles "His Talk, Her Talk" by Joyce Maynard and "Man To Man, Woman To Woman" by Mark A. Sherman and Adelaide Haas. Both articles talk about the same topic male-female communication.…

    • 775 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Deborah Tannen’s “Sex, Lies, and Conversation” is a brief look at how men and women communicate with one another and the cross-culture differences between their individual styles and needs for conversation. Women often say that men do not listen or do not want to talk. Tannen gives reasons why women tend to believe that men are not listening, and shows that just because men have a different approach to communicating does not mean they are not listening to what women are saying. She uses several different examples to back up her statements including early childhood differences in communication between girls and boys, the body language men use and how women tend to interpret it, and how women tend to receive information while communicating. Men and women have very different expectations when it comes to communicating with one another.…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to the author Deborah Tannen the article, “Sex, Lies, and conversation; Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other?” men and women perceive conversations in their relationships to be differently. She states that lack of conversation is wreaking havoc within marriages. This is due to the fact that men and women have very different expectations of communication.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Debrah Tannen’s essay on “Why Is It So Hard For Men and Women to Talk to Each Other,” she tries to inform us of this lack of communication between men and women and the problems that it can cause. The author starts off by giving the reader an example of a situation involving a man and his wife where the husband would comment on how much his wife is the talker in the family and how she is always talking when she is at home. This demonstrates that men generally talk more in public situations, while women tend to talk more at home. She follows up by talking about how most of the women that divorced gave lack of…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The communication style of men is more direct. Men are more dominate and may take offence or feel put down when women offers to help and add input in a conversation. Men can come to decisions quickly and on their own. In contrast, women like to discuss the issue with others and ask for opinions before making a decision. Women use communication to build relationships and collaboration to bond with others. Men are usually uncomfortable discussing feelings or showing emotion. Men want to solve a problem and move forward. However, women tend to like to discuss personal feelings, show emotions, and invite input from others. Thus, challenges arise between men and women. For example, after a long day I like to come home and vent to my boyfriend. His interpretations are that I am a constant complainer when really I just want to express my personal…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this chapter, Floyd (2011) discusses the many ways that gender affects interpersonal relationships. He describes is as a “defining feature of our identity, shaping the way we think, look, and communicate” (p. 51). It is explained that each gender culture puts emphasis on different parts of the relationship. Women come to value communication and closeness, while men value taking part in activities together (Floyd, 2011, p. 57). This makes sense when I think about how I communicate with men versus with women.…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A major disparity between men and women is their conversation goals. Women always want to share everything, but men do not. For instance, a woman likes voicing everything she thinks and how she feels. Moreover, the women like to tell story what happened in a day and she want her partners can feel and understand her story. In contrast, a man does not really want to share what is going on in his mind, except that the conversation is inevitable. In contrast, men do not want to share his…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Tannen says these habits are formed from a very early age. She says she believes that systematic differences in childhood socialization make talk between men and women like cross-cultural communication, heir to all the attraction and pitfalls of that enticing but difficult enterprise (Tannen 101). She goes on to explain that kids typically play with children of their own gender and therefore develop sex-separate organizational structures and interactive norms. *** In the third section, Listening to Body Language, Tannen explains how men and women interpret body language differently and how this plays a big part in misunderstanding one another. When women are among other women, they usually make noises that suggest they are listening and encourage the talker to keep going. When they carry this habit into conversations with men, the men take these noises as interruptions and a sign that they are overreacting or impatient. Men are often silent listeners and tend to look around and face different directions while listening. Women interpret these habits as not listening or showing a lack of care. Also, when women talk to each other they tend to think that a conversationalists…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The article, “Sex, Lies and Conversation”, by Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics, distinctively informs us about the importance of conversation and how it drastically affects marriages. Aimed at married couples and people in serious relationships; Tannen, explains marriages are being destroyed because men express themselves more freely in public rather than at home “(Tannen 2)”. Tannen enlightens us with the similarities between men and boys and women and girls. For the latter “intimacy is the fabric of relationships, and talk is the thread from which it is woven…So a woman expects her husband to be a new and improved version of a best friend” “(Tannen 9)”. Men and boys on the other hand have bonds “based less on talking and more on doing things together. Since they don’t assume talk is the cement that binds a relationship, men don’t know what kind of talk women want and they don’t miss it when it’s not there” “(Tannen 10)”. Men and women view marriage and conversation completely different in saying “women’s conversational habits are as frustrating to men as men’s are to women” “(Tannen 18)”. Ending relationships and divorce are not solely based on conversation or the lack there of, yet, it is a fundamental element in our everyday lives and it should be understood by each participant so a clear understanding of what the other is feeling is reached and interpreted correctly. It is in these misconceptions and this miscommunication, Tannen believes, that we…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    His Talk, Her Talk

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages

    It is no secret that men and women have marriage problems. A big source of that happens to be communication issues. Men tend to not be interested in what the women wants to talk about. Same goes with women, they may not be as interested in male conversations or men do not give as much detail as the women would like. That is why many are attending marriage counseling.…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The fact that men and women are different in their communication styles is understandable. They differ in the way they think and it shows in the way they talk and communicate with each other. Though their communication is unlike each other, we do speak the same language –to each gender it just might have a different meaning, connotations or personal messages.…

    • 108 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Communication is a very important factor in human life. Without communication our lives would be dull because we wouldn't learn from each other or keep up with what is occurring around us every day. Men and women communicate in the same form, but each of them oppose in certain aspects of communication that may cause interference between both sexes. Why do we differ so much to often cause uncomfortable social situations between each other? This question is often answered by understanding simple social observations of both sexes as adults and as children.…

    • 726 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is a large problem when it comes to communication between men and women, whether it is between children, teenagers, or adults; because of a cross gender society. Once both sides understand this "cross-culture communication" problem, so that no gender is blamed, improvement will naturally occur. Deborah Tannen, is an award winning writer and a best selling author for her eccentric essays based on differences of male and female conversations. In the essay, "Sex, Lies and Conversation" she writes on the many distinctions of the style of conversations on both men and women.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Smith, P.C., Kendall, L.M. and Hulin, C.L. (1969) The Measurement of Satisfaction in Work and…

    • 13663 Words
    • 55 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Male and Female Language

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages

    To start with, the use of men language should be mentioned. In 1979 Dr. Adelaide Haas of the State University of New York in New Paltz declared, ' 'that men use more direct language and use more nonstandard English than women, but they use more polite language when in the company of women, avoiding curse words and coarse language. ' ' We can usually find jumping from topic to topic while…

    • 713 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays