How do sex differences in social domains affect; Relationships, Emotional behaviour; social

influence; Communication?

In early childhood, children have already developed clearly defined ideas of what constitutes
appropriate behavior for men and women (Blackmore, 2003; Mahalik et al., 2005). These ideas,
called “gender role norms,” affect the way people believe they are supposed to act, think, and
even feel depending on their sex (Mahalik et al., 2005). These norms can be learned through
simple observation, such as how children of different sexes act in television commercials and
what behaviors are reinforced by parents depending on their child’s biological sex. As children
grow up, their knowledge on gender norms and judgments on which norms can be violated
generally increase (Blackmore, 2003). Gender role norms can in turn help develop their identity
(Mahalik et al., 2005). This essay will therefore investigate how sex differences in social
domains affect, relationships, emotional behavior, social influence and finally communication

Relationships

The psychological differences between man and women are less obvious. They can be difficult
to describe. Yet these differences can profoundly influence how we form and maintain
relationships that can range from work and friendships to marriage and parenting. Recognizing,
understanding, discussing as well as acting skillfully in light of the differences between men and
women can be difficult, Heilman (2001). Our failure to recognize and appreciate these
differences can become a life-long source of disappointment, frustration, tension and eventually
our downfall in a relationship. Not only can these differences destroy a promising relationship,
but most people will grudgingly accept or learn to live with the consequences. Eventually they
find some compromise or way to cope. Few people ever work past these difficulties. People tend
to accept what they don’t understand when they feel powerless to change it. According to Mulac
Bradac & Gibbons (2001) relationships between men and women are not impossible or
necessarily difficult. Problems simply arise when we expect or assume the opposite sex should
think, feel or act the way we do. It’s not that men and women live in completely different
realities. Rather, our lack of knowledge and mutual experience gives rise to our difficulties.

At the heart of sensitivity is our capacity to form, appreciate and maintain relationships that are
rewarding. Even here there are important differences. For men, what demonstrates a solid
relationship is quite different from that of most women. Men feel closer and validated through
shared activities. Such activities include sports, competition, outdoor activities or sexual
activities that are decidedly active and physical. While both men and women can appreciate and
engage in these activities they often have preferential differences. Women, on the other hand,
feel closer and validated through communication, dialogue and intimate sharing of experience,
emotional content and personal perspectives. Many men tend to find such sharing and
involvement uncomfortable, if not, overwhelming, Cameron (2002)

However, accordidng to Heilman (2001) change in masculine and feminine roles has altered the
perception of relationships in the 21st century. Masculinity and femininity determine the quality
of relationships. According to Thornton, Axinn, and Xie (2006) the change of perception in
gender roles in relationships is due factors such as the level of education, lifetime earnings,
religious beliefs, and family history. In the course of history, society has proven to have had
unequal gender roles with a constant segregation in the division of labour. Traditional norms,
values as well as the influence of religion have prevented egalitarianism in the family life as well
as society. Traditional gender roles consisted of men being the breadwinners and women being
the homemakers. Men had the advantage of education, paid work, a voice in society and
dominance over their wives. However, modern family life has demonstrated that we are in a new
day and age growing closer to equality.

Emotional behavior

There is a common assumption that has transpired over the years with regard to women being
more emotionally expressive than men. Many studies have been conducted, examining emotional
expressiveness in males and females and there is a fairly substantial body of research
demonstrating that women are the more emotionally expressive gender (Kring & Gordon 1998).
In addition to this there are certain emotions that have been stereotypically linked to each gender.
Emotions of happiness, sadness and fear are believed to be more characteristic of women,
whereas men are believed to be more characteristically angry (Kelly & Hutson‐ Comeaux 1999).

Researchers such as Birnbaum, Nosanchuk and Croll (1980) have found in their studies that
these gender‐specific stereotypes are observed in children as early as preschool age (Kelly &
Hutson‐Comeaux 2002). This instilment of socially acceptable displayable emotions from early
childhood will become more sophisticated as children mature. Ideally, they will continue to
express their emotions ‘correctly’ to illustrate their social competence. This is done because
subconsciously we are aware that the way we express or manage our emotions has a significant
influence on the initiation, facilitation and maintenance of social relationships (Campos,
Mumme, Kermoian & Campos 1994). This early shaping of our views on emotional expressivity
results in women being more emotionally expressive than men in social domains.

There is evidence to suggest that a great deal of the sensitivity that exists within men and women
has a physiological basis. It has been observed that is many cases, women have an enhanced
physical alarm response to danger or threat. Their autonomic and sympathetic systems have a
lower threshold of arousal and greater reactivity than men.

Communication

The biggest difference between men and women and their style of communication boils down to
the fact that men and women view the purpose of conversations differently. Academic research
has shown many differences in communication styles between men and women. Overall, women
are expected to use communication to enhance social connections and relationships, while men
use language to enhance social dominance (Mulac, Bradac, & Gibbons, 2001). On average,
women use more expressive, tentative, and polite language than men do, especially in situations
of conflict (Basow & Rubenfield, 2003). Men, on the other hand, are viewed as more likely than
women to offer solutions to problems in order to avoid further seemingly unnecessary
discussions of interpersonal problems (Baslow & Rubenfield, 2003). Research in gender
differences across communication styles has come to the conclusion that men tend to be self-
assertive and view conversations as a means towards a tangible outcomes, such as obtaining
power or dominance (Mason, 1994). Women, on the other hand, value cooperation, this
communal orientation “involves a concern with others, selflessness, and a desire to be at one
with others” (Mason, 1994).

Females are also typically known to have a less clear focus on where the boundaries of
their relationships end and their individual identities, defined in terms of relational bonds, begin.
Females value talk for the relationships it creates; for females, the process of communication
itself is valued (Hartmann, 1991). Other academic research argues that women use less powerful
speech: they tend to swear less, speak more politely, and use more tag questions and intensifiers
(Martell & DeSmet 2001). Women also tend to interrupt less than men do; researchers have
hypothesized that this is possibly because of their perceived lower status to men (Thorne &
Henley, 1975). This could be due to societal norms that enforce this gender status hierarchy.
Pearson (1985) also found that women often weaken their statements. One explanation of this
could be due to their lower self-confidence in what they are saying and their fear of being wrong,
which can be contributed to their perceived inferior status to male managers in the workplace.
Overall, research has showed that, in general, women are more social emotional in their
interactions with others, whereas men are more independent and unemotional or attached in
conversations (Eagly, 1987).

Social influence

In most settings, women possess lower levels of status and power than men do, particularly
power based on expertise or legitimate authority (Carli, 1999). Because men and women
typically fill different roles, with women more often occupying caretaking, domestic, and lower
status occupational roles and men more often occupying higher status occupational roles, people
expect men to behave more agentically than women and women to behave more communally
than men (Eagly & Johannesen-Schmidt 1993). Moreover, the prescriptive nature of stereotypes
about men and women leads to greater scrutiny of women’s than men’s leadership behaviors and
to penalties against women whose behavior is too status asserting or insufficiently communal.

According to Eagly (1993), men and women are believed to differ in how influential and easily
influenced they are: Men are thought to be more influential, and women more easily influenced.
In natural settings, men and women tend to differ in these ways, but these differences stem
largely from formal status inequalities by which men are more likely than women to have high-
status roles. Status is important because of the legitimate authority vested in high-status roles:

According to Corner (2008) within appropriate limits, people of higher status are believed to
have the right to make demands of those of lower status, and people of lower status are expected
to comply with these demands. Yet, small, stereotypic sex differences in leadership and social
influence generally have been found in laboratory experiments and other small-group settings
where men and women have equal formal status, Cameron (2000). These small sex differences
may occur because experience with hierarchical social structures in which men have higher
status creates expectancies about male and female behavior, and these expectancies affect social
interaction in ways that foster behavior that confirms the expectancies. Sex differences that occur
in the laboratory as well as natural settings, then, may stem from social structural factors namely,
from the existing distributions of women and men into social roles, Heilman, (2001)
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