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Gender-Based Communication Differences In Her Essay

Those conversations also invariably include expressions of success or confidence as well. However, they discuss their feelings and those of others relatively rarely. In many cases, even the closest of male friends maintain a relationship that is sustained largely by common interests such as in sports or recreational interests. They may know one another for many years without ever really discussing their feelings or their intimate thoughts about personal matters. Women, tend to do the exact opposite, focussing on discussions about people instead of inanimate objects or impersonal interests. Close female friends typically know everything there is to know about one another and they invariably know one another better and more fully than their respective husbands or boyfriends know them. As Tanner explains, these tendencies are likely functions of both biology and social learning. From the evolutionary biological perspective, males would have had to worry more about projecting their strength and dominance to groups; in many respects, the same analogous behaviors are apparent in many primates in the way that they express their dominance with their body language and vocalizations. Men would also have had a need to be able to communicate information in the most direct possible way, particularly in connection with hunting and protecting their clans against outside threats. Conversely, females...

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Similarly, women would have evolved more communicative nonverbal mannerisms to communicate most effectively with other members of their families, groups, and clans.
Conclusion

Author Deborah Tannen provides a very clear explanation detailing the way that men and women tend to differ in their communication styles. She argues that men focus on discussing things and on exchanging substantive information; that is evidenced by the manner in which men position themselves in one-on-one conversations and in the content of their conversations. Generally, men communicate about things and they tend to include expressions of their personal success and aptitude. She explains that women communicate through a much broader range of communication tools besides words and that is evident in the way that women respond to facial expressions and in their natural skills at understanding and communicating with infants in the pre-verbal stages. While these tendencies share likely evolutionary origins, they are also almost certainly also products of social learning in that male children are encouraged to pursue competitive sports and active hobbies while female children are encouraged to engage in more passive and communicative activities.

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