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
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.