MISUNDERSTOOD

A sample situation taken from http://www.my-counseling-site.com/gender_differences.html

A young woman and her fiancé are planning their upcoming wedding. It is a highly tension filled and exciting time for both of them. They are talking about the reception. The woman asks her fiancé, "Which centerpiece do you think is best? Do you like the large one with all the flowers or the smaller one that has our engagement picture?" The young man looks at both centerpieces, turns to his bride to be, and responds: "uh, I don't care." The bride, who is very excited and emotionally "charged" about the upcoming wedding, looks at her beloved in disbelief, starts to cry, and runs from the room. The young man is totally dumbfounded. He thinks to himself, "What did I do wrong?"

From a male's gender perspective, he was answering her question
and stating that he didn't have any preference.

From a female's gender perspective, what did she hear?

I DON'T CARE!

Gender difference in Communication

         Generally, men and women respond differently in terms of communication.Take the video shown above as an example. Rachel spent almost a minute trying to describe how Ross kissed her while Ross tell the details succintly to his male pals in almost 4-5 seconds only. I guess this affirms my hypothesis that women think and decide aloud while men converse precisely with all their points out as they think silently. I remembered talking to a male pal on the phone. He asked me how I was and I answered in almost thirty seconds what happened to me all through out the day. Then, he told me that he was just asking me how I was and not to recite my daily activities. Quite embarassed, I asked him how he was and he answered me, "Im good".

 

         In non verbal communication, I have the tendency to nod repeatedly in the class discussions to show that I am listening attentively. I also listen to each and every word to convey the meaning and write it down, in full details. And studies have shown that women show attentiveness through verbal and non verbal cues. Many men avoid these cues to keep from appearing "one-down." Most men do not listen attentively and are selective listeners. They only listen to the main points of the conversation.Men also dont like taking down notes.

          The reasons for communication of a man is to seek control, and thus tend to interrupt others while women seek to develop relationships by emotional connections so they tend to share more openly compared to men.