Description:

Interview two males and two females on the following topic: Are there differences between men and women in communication styles? Your interviews may be informal. They do not need to be very long: 5 or 10 minutes of good thoughtful discussion is adequate for each interview, although of course you may talk longer if you like. One possibility is to begin each interview with the general question ("do you think there are any differences in the way males and females communicate?"), and discuss it with the interviewee until you are sure you understand his or her views. After this general discussion, you might be prepared with more specific detailed questions. Examples of more detail you might explore include: "do you think men and women are different in the way they talk about ....." filled in with different topics, different situations, what people like to talk about, non-verbal as well as verbal communication, positive vs. negataive communication, intimate vs. surface communication, etc.

Throughout the interview, it might be useful to (a) repeat back what the person says in order to clarify and be sure you understand; and (b) ask for specific examples to clarify and expand what is being said.

To help you prepare for this, re-read pages 26-27 in the text, on sex differences in communication. You also may wish to re-read the other parts of the text that talk about communication (see the text index).

Make brief handwritten notes on each interview. (These are for your own use and are not to be submitted to me.)

When you are done with the interviews, submit a paper that describes:

- a brief summary of what you did

- a very brief summary of what the interviewees said. DO NOT give me long verbatim quotes. All I am asking is that you summarize a few key points. You may describe any comments you thought were particularly interesting, and MAY wish to include one or two brief quotes if you thought they were particularly powerful or interesting.

- a brief description of your own views, with evidence for them if you have any.

DO NOT exceed the two-page limit for this homework assignment. One page is acceptable; two pages is maximum.

9/27/05