A conversation
A conversation is an exchange of ideas between two or more people. The participants of a conversation may either be people of the same gender or different genders. According to Deborah Tannen, gender differences contribute significantly to how we speak, and the inferences made after the conversation. For instance, if one says ‘come with me!’ that message would signal that the speaker has high status or the speaker is angry. Secondly, If the speaker said, ‘would you please come with me if you don’t mind?’, the message would signal great respect and honor to the message’s receiver. Thirdly, if the speaker said, ‘I would be honored if you come with me,’ the message would signal great concern for others and consideration. The three different case scenarios have a similar goal: the receiver of the message accompanying the speaker. However, the interpretations of the three messages are very different, which affects the effectiveness of the message. The differences will even be more significant if the speaker and the message receiver are of different genders. According to Deborah Tannen, female conversations involve negotiations on building a relationship with each other.
In contrast, males aim at maintaining the upper hand of the conversation and protecting themselves from others. Therefore, the two groups have different communication goals, which are a great hindrance to the intended message’s effectiveness. According to her, ladies aim at establishing a win-win situation by supporting each other’s views and opinions to reach a consensus. However, on the other hand, males aim at promoting dominance in the conversation where the high-status participants are regarded as leaders, and the low-status participants are the followers.
How are gender roles played out in conversation rituals between men and women in the article?
According to the article, if both males and females were to make similar utterances, the results of the utterances would differ depending on the receiver of such messages. The difference inferences made from the same message are referred to as meta-messages, which she believes can ruin the message’s intended meaning. According to Deborah Tannen, men lead in maintaining meta-messages in most of the conversations. The meta-messages result from men’s desire to maintain high status in a conversation where the low-status participants follow what is said by the high-status participants. Women desire to bridge the social status differences between a conversation’s participants, promoting solidarity and consensus.
Additionally, Tannen states that females’ conversation is dominated by a cooperative overlap where several participants interrupt each other. She says that a cooperative interruption aims to strengthen the speaker’s points or elaboration of a raised issue, maybe in one or two sentences. However, an interruption may be uncooperative if it aims to introduce a new subject in a conversation. According to her, women dominate in cooperative interruptions, whereas men prefer turn-taking where the leader is given the highest priority.
From your own personal observations, what have you noticed between the ways that men and women communicate and do they back up or refute what Tannen says?
From my previous observations on the topic, I strongly support Tannen’s findings that women aim to enhance group cooperation and strengthen relationships. In contrast, men aim at outdoing the others in a conversation to prove their social statuses. Additionally, female conversations are ordinarily symmetrical, where each participant is given equal chances to contribute to the discussion, and each response is treated equally. On the other hand, males’ conversations are asymmetrical, whereby a pattern is followed on who speaks and who listens.
What other ways do social statuses affect how we behave?
One’s position in the society has far-reaching consequences on behavior. Social class is measured by the amount of wealth accumulated by an individual, their education level, their incomes, and occupations, to name just a few. These factors affect the individual’s interaction with the following; the judicial system, healthcare, education, political and religious affiliations, among others. Therefore, the educated class of people will make very different life decisions than less educated people. For instance, if a person is educated, they will most likely endeavor to educate their young ones even at higher levels. In contrast, those who are less educated may not take their kids to school or even support higher education levels.
Part two
Provide your current status set. Be sure to include three or more roles and the responsibilities for each of the roles.
My current status set includes being a student and a church youth leader. Some of my responsibilities as a student include attending all my classes, satisfactorily completing the assignments given to me, respecting other students and instructors, protecting the school properties, registering high performance in examinations, to name just a few. On the other hand, my responsibilities as a church youth leader include coordinating and leading all youth activities in the church, attending all church functions, among others.
Provide a detailed example of role strain in your life and 1-2 strategies that you use or could use for coping with role strain.
Role strain refers to the level of difficulty experienced in executing a particular role. In my current role as a church youth leader, I am expected to encourage more and more people to attend church services and bring in more people into the church. However, this role is a significant contradiction since most of my friends do not attend church services. Therefore, I cannot convince other people to attend church services since most of my friends lead in not attending the services. I intend to promote more youth activities in the church, which will encourage my friends to join us. Such activities include door to door religious services to reach out to more young people in different communities at their respective homes.
Provide a detailed example of role conflict in your life and 1-2 strategies that you use or could use for coping with role conflict.
Role conflict refers to a scenario whereby one role interferes with the execution of the other. For instance, as a student, I am expected to attend all my classes every time. On the other hand, as a youth leader, I am also expected to participate in every youth function without fail. However, a few months ago, a church program was scheduled for Monday when I usually have most of my classes. Since it was a youth program, I wouldn’t fail to attend, and therefore I sacrificed all my classes for the event. This did not auger well with my lecturers who expect 100% attendance from their students. After the event, I immediately organized a meeting with other church elders. We unanimously agreed that every church event would be scheduled for Saturdays and Sundays when most students are free.