Conflict and Gender

Something interesting that came up today:

"Not surprisingly, there are significant gender differences in interpersonal conflict. For example, men are more apt to withdraw from a conflict situation than are women. it's been argued that this may be due to the fact that men become more psychologically and physiologically aroused during conflict (and retain this heightened level of arousal much longer) than do women and so may try to distance themselves and withdraw from the conflict to prevent further arousal. Women, on the other hand, want to get closer to the conflict; they want to talk about it and resolve it. Even adolescents reveal these differences; in a study of boys and girls aged 11 to 17, boys withdrew more than girls.

Other research has found that women are more emotional and men are more logical when they argue. Women have been defined as conflict "feelers" and men as conflict "thinkers." Another difference is that women are more apt to reveal their negative feelings than are men.

It should be noted that much research fails to support the supposed gender differences in conflict style that cartoons, situation comedies, and films portray so readily and so clearly. For example, numerous studies of both college students and men and women in business found no significant differences in the ways men and women engage in conflict."

This does not necissarily reflect my opinions, but I think it is good food for thought.

a lot of the "studies" were from the 90's. that was a long time ago in terms of cultural norms and deviances.

Interesting. I'm not too educated on these studies, but it makes a lot of sense. Me and my female friends can get in heated arguments and then turn the TV on and walk away from each other no worse for wear. But when my male friends get into it, if it gets serious it gets UGLY and friendships would be ruined if it weren't for the females jumping in and cooling the dudes off lol.

Thats interesting..I just got into a heated argument, worst than ever with my dude..and I was soo upset..yes I wanted an apology,talk about how we can avoid it happening again, and juz wanted to resolve the issue... and said "yea okay...still love you babe.lets ,make love"....What da? I still wanted to be mad...lol