The Development of Masculine Sex Role Stereotypes

Résumé du livre

Male dominance in conversation is encouraged by the adult socialization pattern in which men routinely interrupt the conversation of women and develop a topic out of turn. The purpose of this study was to investigate verbal interruptive behavior by utilizing an experimental approach focusing on children's interruptions and teacher responses to this behavior. Another purpose is to determine if, by the end of the first grade, male students interrupted their teachers more than female students. Two first grade teachers, one male and one female, were used. Each had two years of teaching experience. Classes consisted of 20 boys and 19 girls, all from predominantly White, middle-class backgrounds. There were 15 observation sessions of 25 minutes in each classroom. A frequency count of verbal interactions, interruptions and types of responses was made. These data were put into a contingency table from which the chi-square statistic was calculated as a test for significance. The Yates correction for continuity was used for types of responses. Interaction graphs were constructed to indicate possible trends. Significance was established at the .01 level of significance. The hypotheses tested in the study were: (1) there is no significant difference between male and female teachers in the number of verbal interactions with students, regardless of the sex of the student; (2) there is no significant difference between male and female teachers in the number of verbal interactions with students, regardless of the sex of the teacher; (3) there is no significant difference between male and female teachers in the number of interruptions of the teacher by the students, regardless of the sex of the student; (4) there is no significant difference between male and female teachers in the number of interruptions of the teacher by the student, regardless of the sex of the teacher; (5) there is no significant difference in the types of teachers' responses to interruptions by students, regardless of the sex of the student; and (6) there is no significant difference in the types of teachers' responses to interruptions by students, regardless of the sex of the teacher. Analysis of the data resulted in the retention of all six hypotheses, Trends allowed for extrapolation beyond the observed frequencies in order to support speculation about what could occur with a larger N.A trend emerged which suggested that the female teacher had fewer verbal interactions with the girls in her class than with the boys. There was no trend for differences in number of interruptions. A differential pattern of types of responses to interruptions occurred. One trend suggested female teachers gave more positive responses to boy than to girl students, and another trend suggested that boys received more negative responses from the female teacher than received by the girls. There was also a trend suggesting that the boys received more neutral responses than the girls from the male teacher. There was a trend suggesting that the female teacher used positive responses to boys more often than the male teacher, and a trend suggesting that the boys received more negative responses from the female teacher than the male teacher. There was also a trend suggesting that the female teacher used neutral responses to the girls more often than the male teacher.