Gender Differences in Intentional Physical Contact During Co

A detailed Summary of Gender Differences in Intentional Physical Contact During Co

The differences in gender and initiating intentional physical contact during communication were investigated. Fifty college-age dyads who engaged in conversation were observed between 30 and 60 seconds to see which gender instigated physical contact with a person of the same or opposite gender. It was hypothesized that females would initiate touch more often with males than any of the other 4 gender situations. Results showed that males initiated physical contact with males more often than either gender on both opposing ends (34%), typically when greeting one another. Despite the significance of all gathered data, these findings are contradictory with prior research done on same-sex and opposite-sex contact (Crawford 1994).

Gender Differences in Intentional Physical

Many times, physical contact is initiated by one person when communicating with another. Often times, we do not pay attention to who initiates this contact or even realize it is happening. Touch is very important to communication in our society, revealing the strength of a relationship by frequent contact or the weaknesses of a relationship by lack thereof. Touch can relay to the public the closeness of two individu

As with most experiments, limitations were found. One reason male to male contact may have been dominant over females is because the observed ratio of males to females was 29:21, giving males an advantage with greater observed frequencies. Another limitation was the amount of time each conversation was observed. If maximum conversation time allowed was lengthened exceeding 60 seconds and the 30 second minimum level were not applied, perhaps more physical contact may have been observed. Along with this limitation, if participants had been observed in a different setting allowing more time for conversations (rather than 10 minutes to and from classes) this may also have attributed to higher frequencies of physical contact. This may also be responsible for the high frequency in greeting contact as opposed to mid-conversation (conversations were no longer than 60 seconds) and closure (most contact occurred in passing, therefore not allowing for conversation closure).

In our experiment the independent variable was gender, while the dependent variable was touch and point of time of touch in the conversation. College students were observed engaging in conversation with acquaintances on their way to and from classes. Participants were observed in 3 different locations in order to ensure external validity. Each time 15 minutes elapsed the observation was moved to a new location. First was in the food court by Sbarros in the Mountain Lair, second was in front of the Mountain Lair on the concrete benches on University Avenue, and third was across the street from the Mountain Lair on the concrete benches at the top of the stairs in front of Armstrong Hall on University Avenue.

Though all results were significant, if future replications were conducted with more time permitted and a more appropriate setting, conclusions would more than likely differ from those recorded.

Each observation was recorded onto a data s

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