DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN FACTS AND OPINIONS

Directions: Read the selection below and then answer the questions that follow.
Conflict and Gender
Not surprisingly, research finds significant gender differences in interpersonal conflict. For
example, men are more apt to withdraw from a conflict situation than are women. Its 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 research on 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. Another difference is that women are more apt to reveal their negative feelings than are
men. Women have been defined as conflict feelers and men as conflict thinkers.
Much research, however, fails to support these stereotypical gender differences in conflict style
the differences that cartoons, situation comedies, and films portray so readily and so clearly.
For example several studies dealing with both college students and men and women in business
found no significant differences in the ways men and women engage in conflict.
Joseph A. DeVito. The Interpersonal Communication Book, 11th ed. (Boston: Pearson Education/Allyn & Bacon,
2007), 292.

Postscript: New findings on gender differences continue to emerge, so update this discussion by
logging on to Research Navigator (www.researchnavigator.com) or other databases and search
the communication, psychology, and sociology databases for current research on gender and
conflict.

Questions for Reading Exercise: Conflict and Gender (10 points each)
1. What is the topic of the passage?

2. What is the central message of the passage?

3. Is the author stating a particular viewpoint in this passage? If so, what is it?

4. Do you think the information is mostly fact, mostly opinion, or a combination of both?
Provide specific examples to back up your response.

5. Do you think the article is unbiased? Why or why not?

6. Could someone read this passage with little knowledge of gender differences? Log on to
Research Navigator (www.researchnavigator.com) and list resources from the database that
either support or refute this article.

7. Based on this reading, define feelers and thinkers.

8. From the last paragraph in this selection, what conclusion does the author draw from this
study on gender differences?

9. Do you agree with the authors conclusion? (See question 8.) Why or why not?

10. State a possible question that comes to mind from reading this passage. How does your

reading give you a possible answer to this question?