Studies of listening in the past have almost consistently been of the observer type, where participants watch a videotape and/or listen to an audio tape as stimulus material. However, a more accurate measure of true listening ability can only be done in an interactive setting. A study measured relational listening (an individual's ability to…

Several theories exist to explain the differences in the interruptive behavior of men and women. Early research suggested that men interrupt more than women, and this finding was attributed to the dominant/submissive relationship traditional in relationships among men and women. Later studies, however, found that either there were no significant…

A study examined the role played by gender and communication content in the leadership emergence process in small, task-oriented groups. Six hours of transcribed group interaction from a sample of the group deliberations of 6 mixed-sex groups of college students (n=27) engaged in a 4-month-long decision-making project served as the database for…

More than a decade after the provocative writings of French feminist writers Julie Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Helene Cixous, and Monique Wittig first appeared, the exploration of sexual and gender differences continues to draw controversy. Their work has been considered mostly in regard to literature, philosophy, and feminist theory, but their…

A study examined forensic competitor preference in choosing quotations for analysis in the event of impromptu speaking. Subjects were 62 competitors in one year and 59 competitors in the next year at an invitational tournament at a large midwestern university. The quotations for the tournament were divided into two groups. The first year, subjects…

A study was conducted to (1) describe the male/female participation and success in regional and national forensic individual events tournament competition, and (2) identify areas of gender-based inequity from these data. Letters requesting 1984-85 tournament results were sent to 44 individual events tournament directors, of which 20 were…

Continuing work led by D. A. Infante, A. S. Rancer, and C. J. Wigley, (i.e., Infante, 1982, 1992, 1996) and others, on argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness, this study utilizes two instruments recently adapted for use with adolescent populations (A. J. Roberto & M. Finucane, 1997) to assess the effectiveness of communication training. A…

This paper investigates the composition of women's mentoring relationships. The traditional male mentoring model is rejected in favor of an alternative model that more closely reflects female mentoring relationships. The paper proposes that women's friendships may serve as a closer match to their mentoring relationships than the traditional male…

A study examined gender differences in the uses of uncertainty reduction strategies (self-disclosure, interrogative strategies, nonverbal immediacy, and other's self-disclosure) and their interrelationships with attributional confidence (uncertainty reduction). The subjects, 853 students from three western universities, participated in a survey…

Indicates that couple type was significantly related to communication about marital conflict, but that there were neither any clear overall sex differences in communication nor sex differences within couple types. Also indicates that conflict styles are so strongly reciprocal that mutual influence within conversations tends to remove individual…

A study used a qualitative account analysis of excessively intimate encounters to investigate behaviors commonly described by male and female receivers, cognitive schemata invoked to explain why the intimacy was excessive, and the effect of the excessively intimate episode on the relationship. Subjects, 86 female and 37 male students enrolled in…

Although psychologists, sociologists, family scientists and communication experts are making important contributions to the study of personal relationships, discussion of the gender differences that often create barriers to intimacy, and how these differences are reflected in the communication process, is notably absent from much of this work.…

A study investigated the vocal intensity of interviewers and the gender of interviewees to test a speech accommodation theory of behavioral reactions to speech style, while simultaneously determining whether previous research is corroborated in the context of the employment interview. Multiple discriminant analysis of 34 interviews (13 males and…

This paper reviews the literature in self-disclosure and gender differences and offers some validity comments regarding the operationalization of the intimacy concept. Self-disclosure research offers two conclusions in regards to gender differences in communication. First, there is no definite indication that females self-disclose more than males.…

A study examined the likelihood of using compliance-gaining strategies when engaging in safe-sex situations. A sample of 110 college students from a large midwestern university completed a 16-item questionnaire that utilized G. Marwell and D. Schmitt's compliance-gaining typology. Results indicate that female college students were significantly…