The Effect of Genders Relationships in Communication (Coursework Sample)

GENDER AND COMMUNICATION
Name
Institution
Date
Gender and Communication
Communication is a transactional process where people exchange messages whose meaning and implications depend on experiences and relationship with the participants. Individuals use communication to express opinions, feelings, improve their status, emotions, values and opinions. Characteristics and diversity of communication affect the type of communication. Thus, communication relies on the status or relation between the parties. The reason people engage in communication has led to varied reactions from several scholars. Deborah Tannen evaluates communication avenues of communication and communication differences between men and women. She believes that men speak differently from women due to the differences in the conversational cultures, values, perceptions, and expectations of life.
Miscommunication between men and women arises due to cultural and biological aspects. Tannen asserts that biological differences lead to the communication barrier. She states that people feel different when they talk to someone from another gender. Tannen opines that girls and boys love playing with their sex toys due to the existence of the biological differences. Tannen conducted a research to evaluate biological differences among two girls and boys of five years, ten and fifteen years. She found out that the girls faced each other when communicating in the three cases and they featured friendship talk (Tannen 1996). However, Tannen asserts that boys in the three cases sat at an angle and looked around during the whole conversation. She posits that the boys did not look at each other but instead sat side-by-side. Thus, Tannen concludes that the differences among the kids support biological assertions.
Also, Tannen found out that men and women interact differently in groups. She opines that men and women show differences in their influence and participation in an interaction in groups. Tannen (1996) posits that men keep the floor more often, interrupt communication, talk for a long time and more than women. Men also make different kinds of contributions in communication using challenging language strategies. On the other hand, keep and get the floor less frequently and interrupt less during communication. Women also use supportive language strategies that are more supportive. According to Wood (2010) men seek to maintain and establish dominance and status in dialogue. Women, on the other hand, communicate by the rule of consensus, and they are more egalitarian than men. Women rely on the presence of others to make decisions especially if it deals with their wishes. Women wish men to act in their wish and demands. Women usually stop any activity or discussion that they feel can hurt men. McGeough and Palczewski (2010) posit that most of the women may stop any dialogue that is in contrary to the feelings of men. Men, on the other hand, tend to resist acting towards acting towards demands from women. However, Tannen asserts that there are some men who stretch their assistance towards their women counterparts. She states that touchy men tend to stretch more focus on women. However, insecure women tend to become super-accommodating. Thus, men and women exhibit varied communication skills in life.
Women and men also differ in their intimate communication skills and strategies. Tannen asserts that women create a closer feeling when talking to their lovers and friends. However, men lack this aspect, and they fail to understand why women like talking to their friends. Men tend to get confused by the way women initiate intimate conversation with others. Women talk about troubles as an essence of connection. Men, on the other hand, take their troubles as advice and they don't like sharing with their close partners. Men usually respond to women's talk with solutions which makes them feel dimi...