Four hundred twenty-five participants were recruited to participate in an online survey to determine the effects of counterfactual thinking. In order to test its impact, we conducted a study to see if the participant responses would change depending on what type of scenario we provided them with. In this study the participants’ where given one of two versions of a story in which a couple ends up dead. a taxi driver was rude to a couple and the other in which he was not. The results from these studies showed that male participants reported more blame than female participants. However, there was a significant main effect in rudeness between both conditions (driver rude and the neutral). We also found that male participants reported less “if …show more content…
According to Millie (2011) one of the most common actions in rudeness is based on the desire for revenge as a way for the victim to get even. As a result, people tend to strike back without making a conscious decision (Caldwell 1990). Evidence shows that when people experience rudeness in a direct way, their cognitive thinking is affected in tasks such as attention, creativity and decision-making (Porath & Erez 2007). In another study, Porath and Erez (2011,) examined how rudeness affects people’s counterfactual thinking. In this study, participants were given three identical tasks. What varied from each condition was the source and the forms of rudeness that they experienced from the experimenter or a stranger. For example, in the first group, the experimenter was rude to participants for being late to the experiment. In the second group, the participant encountered a stranger who threatened them before they arrived at the experiment. In the last group, the participants were asked to simply think about how they would have reacted to various types of rudeness. In each situation, the number of possible uses for a brick measured the participants’ performance. The results of this study concluded that participants who experienced rudeness, not only produced fewer ideas than those who did not experience rudeness but their ideas were also less diverse and less creative. …show more content…
According to Mills (2005), the relation between gender and impoliteness is important because it is the way that the participants view their gender identity and the way that they think others will judge them. In her study, Mills (2003) argues that women are more polite than men because they are expected to speak and act in a certain way in our society. On the other hand, she argues that men regard the world as a battlefield in which they tend to attack in order to achieve something or maintain their social status. Aydınoğlu (2013) conducted a study to find out if there were any gender differences when participants were presented with a scenario that showed impolite acts. In this study, participants were divided into two groups. Participants in the first group were given scenarios that showed impolite acts such as insults, threats and disapproval. In the second group, participants were given scenarios were impoliteness was showed in a form of sarcasm, teasing and complains. The results of this study concluded that men responded to impoliteness more offensively when they were shown acts of insults, threats and disapproval, while the women reflected more on the passive roles showed in the
At birth, we are a blank slate, regardless of gender. We are introduced into a world that wrongly believes gender defines who we are and what we shall be. Everything we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel impacts our minds and how we react. Therefore, behaviors between the sexes are learned from our interactions with the opposite sex and how we, as individuals, see our world. In the literary piece, The Distrust between the Sexes, Karen Horney asks this question: “…What special factors in human development lead to the discrepancy between expectations and fulfillment and what causes them to be of special significance in particular cases” (Horney)?
Gender has a large influence on the way in which one is socialised, and thus, in my opinion how one conforms in social situations. The term ‘gender’ refers to the socially constructed differences between male and females in our society. All aspects of social life, including work and home life, as well as social interaction, is organised around the dimension of this difference. These differences over time have resulted in vast dissimilarities in the social behaviour between males and females. This gap in behaviour has resulted in a difference in conformity between males and females; with the latter being the more socially inclined and thus more compelled to conform when put in unclear social situations . This is partially due to females being relatively considerate of the opinions of others, while males are conditioned to be independent and self-confident. Ultimately, social media has the power to perpetuate and reinforce these
Sometimes the greatest test of a theory is its longevity. Over time, some theories will be disproved, some will be modified, and some will become the basis for a whole new group of theories. Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance has stood up to challenge for over forty years, and is considered by many to be the single most important theory of social psychology. Though there have been modifications to the theory after many recreations and simulations of the original 1957 experiment, few have been able to really disqualify Festinger’s findings. It would be safe to say that many people don’t even have a full grasp of the incredible implications that Festinger’s research and experiments have towards the self-concept and behavior, myself not excluded. The actual definition of cognitive dissonance is almost too simple: an unpleasant feeling that arises from the contradiction of belief and action. Festinger, however, went on to find that dissonance would in fact change attitudes over time, helping people to justify their behavior when they know it is clearly wrong.
Sexism can have many negative impacts on the way women view themselves, research was conducted and it showed that when exposed to modern sexism, women expressed negative self-directed emotions. Modern sexism exposure also resulted in stereotypical self-presentation, where in contrast, women who were exposed to old-fashioned sexism displayed less self-defeating behavior. This research concluded that women were more likely to stand up and defend themselves against the old-fashioned gender stereotypes, but let the modern day expectations defeat them (Ellemers & Barreto, 2009).
In recent years, gender differences have already been one of the most controversial issues in various research. As an important communication tool of mankind, language is inevitably involved in controversies. However, Rachel Rafelman, a Canadian journalist and the author of “The Party Line” express her thought and opinion in her essay. She not only have some great points on what and how women and men are likely to talk, but also have different points on the talking environment. She comes up with facts and fit real and particle examples in her essay to make it understood. Whereas, Ronald Macaulay, a professor of linguistics and the author of “Sex Difference” uses words of novels to argue and promotes them as a cause of reinforce to men’s and women’s stereotypes in his essay. He argues through his whole as rebuttal and gives some examples to oppose the preconceived notion of sex differences. Over all, both Rafelman and Macaulay are the good writer but Rafelman is having upper to prove her essay better organized using her tones as per requirement.
David Grazian’s study builds on Quinn’s research on men and women's interactions and Grazian finds similar results as Quinn did in her study. In the study of Grazian the performance of both men and women was driven by both genders trying to prove that they are as the audience (society) says they should be. Society has men believing that all women want only one type of man, a masculine man and society has woman believing that men want women who are quite, pretty and live to make their man happy. Both parties in both studies have been fooled by society and they don’t realize or understand
Cognitive dissonance is a communication theory mostly used in the field of social psychology in providing a theoretical framework in dealing with various issues relating to psychology. The title provides us with the concept that cognitive is thinking while dissonance is the inconsistency or conflict brought about. Cognitive dissonance manifests when one holds two or more incompatible beliefs simultaneously. This theory has been used and applied in several disciplines including communication, due to its simplicity and straightforwardness. The theory is commonly applied in these dynamic fields since it replaces previous conditioning or reinforcement theories by viewing individuals as more purposeful decision makers striving to acquire a balance in their beliefs. Cognitions are chunks or bits of knowledge which can pertain to any variety of values, emotions or values. These cognations can be related to one another or they can also be completely independent from each other (Cooper, 06). For instance, one may like to eat junk food, but may also be trying to lose weight. The two cognitions are related to each other in tha...
In her article “But What Do You Mean” Deborah Tannen, claims that there is a huge difference in the style of communicating between men and women. Tannen breaks these down into seven different categories; apologies, criticism, thank-yous, fighting, praise, complaints, and jokes. With each of these she compares men to women by explaining the common misconceptions that each of the genders do. The different style of communication can cause some problems at the workplace and even affect the environment. The different styles of communication has been around forever and almost becomes a “ritual”(299). Tannen is effective with mainly women and not men. She is primarily successful with women due to the fact that her tone targets women, also the organization
Gender is not based on the sex of a person, but the cultural norms of that society. Gender roles are based on the norms and standards in different societies (Flores 2012). Each societies has their own set of social norms, and the identities that fit those norms. In the United States masculine roles are associated with strength, dominance, and aggression. Women in the US are expected to be more passive, nurturing and subordinate (Flores 2012). Gender roles not only assign traits to men and women they affect the way men and women are supposed to think and act. Women are held to a different set of rules than men are. For a woman to show anger in public is highly stigmatized, and looked down upon. When a man does it it's considered normal. When women are in the media they are given a different set of g...
Cognitive social psychology emerged in the mid-twentieth century as a critique of the dominant behaviourist movement and quickly became the main force behind the American school of Psychological Social Psychology. (Hollway, 2007). With its roots in mainstream psychology, cognitive social psychology has a primarily quantitative methodology, relying heavily on statistical methods in controlled conditions, and adheres to the hypothetico-deductive paradigm found in other sciences. The main focus of this form of social psychology is on how the individual behaves in controlled situations and this is examined through experiments and social psychometric data gathering.
Communication between males and females has always been somewhat complicated. Because we are arguing that males and females have different cultures we wanted to take a look at what some of these differences might be. According to our research the inherent differences between male and female culture are the different roles that society holds for them and the ways these roles lead to different communication styles. The stereotypes that men and women grow up with affect the types of ways in which they communicate. We first wanted to take a look at how they specifically differ while men and women are arguing or having normal conversations. We also looked at the different types of networks that men and women share. These networks also differ and as do the reasonings for their formation. Although we do not think that men and women need to change their cultures to effectively communicate, we do think that better communication is possible. One of the researchers we took a look at was Deborah Tannen. According to Tannen the reason that men and women do not communicate well is that men and women use language differently. Women take the attitude that conversation is to explore solutions to common problems while men concern themselves more with getting information and hard data from conversation. Tannen states that what women look for in communication is human connection, while men consider status to be most important. They are looking for independence and are constantly looking for higher accomplishments. Intimacy threatens this independence, so men have a tendency to avoid it. One of the old sayings about women is that they talk more than men. It turns out that it is not necessarily true. Women seem to talk more in private conversations than do men. Women do not generally have a fear of intimacy and therefore are much more open with one another during private conversations. It is more difficult for women to use this type of communication style in the public arena. In that case it is men that do most of the talking. Tannen ultimately argues that men use communication as a weapon. They use long explanations to command attention from who it is they are speaking to. They use it to convey information and to ultimately gain agreement. Tannen suggests that through even simple conversation men are continually protecting their status. She sugg...
Counterfactual thinking can be for imagining what could possibly happen in the future. Counterfactual thinking for the future is very unique in its own way because we are thinking ahead trying to see the different outcomes, and choosing the world that we want. This is something that we do in our everyday lives. You just do not notice it until now. In Alison Gopnik’s first lab experiment, she tested to see if a child can use their counterfactual thinking and see a problem before they even tried it. For Gopnik’s experiment, a child had to stack rings on top of a post, but one of the rings hole was taped over so that they could not fit it. The first test subject was a fifteen month old. The child’s method was to actually try it out before realizing that it would not fit. Obviously the ring would not fit but he kept going. Eventually, he gave up. An eighteen-month-old was the second test subject. When she saw the taped ring she knew what would happen if she tried. She did not even try to put the ring on. If children that are barely past a year old can counterfactually think into the future than so can adults, and they have before. “The most evolutionarily fundamental kind
The level of dissonance a person is experiencing, if any, is the main objective of the theory. If there is a person who does not feel psychologically uncomfortable with cognitive dissonance, the theory will not apply. Worldview 1 also includes a testable hypothesis, and Leon Festinger had three. The hypotheses for cognitive dissonance theory are mental mechanisms people use to ensure their actions and attitudes are synchronized (griffin, 2015, p. 202), and the objective experiment is to present evidence that will prove those hypotheses. The first hypothesis stated that selective dissonance prevents dissonance. “Not only do we tend to listen to opinions and select reading materials that are consistent with our existing beliefs, we usually choose to be with people who are like us. By taking care to “stick with our own kind” (Griffin, 2015, p. 202). Hypothesis two is post decision dissonance creates a need for reassurance. Everyone has tried to convince themselves, maybe after buying a car, that they have made the right decision. Three conditions heighten post decision dissonance: (1) the more important the issue, (2) the longer an individual delays in choosing between two equally attractive options, and (3) the greater the difficulty involved in reversing the decision once it’s been made. Hypothesis three, minimal Justification for action induces attitude
Since men and women work closely in the workplace today, there are many complaints addressing the differences in the genders. Simma Lieberman addresses these differences in her article, “Better Communication Between Men and Women in the Workplace: Some Useful Tips”. Men tend to think that women take things too seriously, are slow in getting down to business, and try to be “one of the boys”. A complaint that women give about men is that they are being labeled names such as: “girls”, “honey”, and “darlin”. Other complaints are that men make women into objects, making decisions about work with other men and not including the women, and using expressions that only use sports, violence or sexual connotations s...
Language is a multifaceted topic. It seems that language cannot be discussed without also discussing the differences that occur within speech. One of the most obvious differences exists between the speech of men and women. This paper describes the existence of “women’s language” and “men’s language.”(O’Barr and Atkins 1980) More specifically, this paper will discuss how these so-called languages differ in the way they address power in a formal situation. These gendered differences in speech occur in the way topics are brought up, what words are chosen, how hedges are used, and how intonation is utilized. (Holmes 1986;O’Barr and Atkins 1980) I will address how male language tends to be more assertive and confident in situations that affect power, while female language tends to be more apologetic and tentative when asserting information. (Kiesling 1997;O’Barr and Atkins 1980) I hypothesize that these differences do not reflect natural inclination or ability of the two genders. These differences in male and female language occur because they have been socialized in America by the construct of gender roles and respective expectations of genders. (O’Barr and Atkins 1980) I will analyze this hypothesis with sources of third parties and with my research.