Sex Differences in the Judgment of Interpersonal Verbs

Abstract

In the present study, male and female college students were asked to make judgments concerning the affective and control connotations of 71 sentences describing interpersonal relationships. Each sentence described a relationship between two people, using a different interpersonal verb (e.g. “likes,” “takes care of,” “humiliates,” etc.). Subjects were asked to judge the affective positivity and negativity of each relationship as well as the implication for interpersonal control. The results indicated an overall pattern in which females judged interpersonal relations to be more extreme in affect than did males, while males judged the same relations to be more extreme in control than did females. These results were interpreted within the framework of agency and communion, and their implications for communication problems between individuals of opposite sex were discussed.