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Psychology 320: Gender Psychology

Lecture 32

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Friendship:

1. Are there sex differences in friendship? (continued)

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Self-disclosure among females is not influenced by gender. However, among males, masculinity is negatively correlated with self-disclosure and femininity is positively correlated with self-disclosure in same-sex friendships.

Research suggests that males are less likely to self-disclose than females because self-disclosure among males is less socially desirable:

Are there sex differences in friendship? (continued)

3. Self-disclosure (continued):

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1. Derlaga and Chaikin, 1976

• Asked male and female participants to read a case study and evaluate the target character’s level of adjustment and likeability.

• The stories manipulated the sex of the target character and the level of self-disclosure that the target character engaged in with respect to a recent traumatic event.

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5.1

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Nondisclosure

Disclosure

Male Target

Female Target

Psychological Adjustment as a Function of Level of Disclosure and Sex of Discloser

(Derlaga & Chaikin, 1976)

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• Also found that self-disclosure was associated with higher likeability scores among females but not among males.

2. Collins and Miller, 1994

• Conducted a meta-analysis of studies examining the relation between self-disclosure

and likeability.

• Found a stronger relation between self-disclosure and likeability for females (female disclosers vs.

female nondisclosers, d=+.30) than males (male disclosers vs. male nondisclosers, d=+.11).

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Other variables that influence self-disclosure among females and males:

Marital status: Married males are least likely to self-disclose.

Culture of origin: Sex differences are greater in individualistic cultures than collectivistic cultures.

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4. Shared activity:

Males engage in a greater number of shared activities (playing games, fantasy play, telling jokes, playing a sport, playing cards) with friends than females.

Sex differences in shared activity appear in childhood and are consistent across age groups.

9“Batman and Robin”

“Lone Ranger and Tonto”

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Mean Shared Activity Scores in Same-Sex Friendships for Women and Men

(Sheets & Lugar, 2005)

3.6

3.8

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United States Russia

Women

Men

Sha

red

Act

ivity

Sco

res

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5. Perceived closeness:

The relative closeness of same-sex friendships among males and females has been hotly debated:

“Woman is an eminently unsociable being and refrains from forming unions on the basis of like interest, remaining centered in the kinship group based on sexual relations and the reproductive function. Associations created or even joined by women on equal terms with men are rare and must be considered weak imitations of the exclusively male associations.” (Schurtz, cited in Tiger, 1969, p. 128)

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Friendship closeness in same-sex friendships has been assessed using the Rochester Interaction

Record (RIR).

The RIR requires that participants record details related to social interactions of 10 minutes or more.

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Sample Copy of a Rochester Interaction Record

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Wheeler et al., 1983

• Asked female and male participants to complete the RIR for 2 weeks.

• Assessed “meaningfulness” of interactions with same-sex friends and same-sex best friend by summing the intimacy, self-disclosure, other-disclosure, quality, and satisfaction scores of participants’ interactions.

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• Found that male same-sex friendships scored lower than female same-sex friendships on intimacy, self-disclosure, other-disclosure, quality, satisfaction, and meaningfulness.

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Subjective interaction index Friends Best friend

Intimacy Males Females

3.344.19

3.684.57

Self-disclosure Males Females

3.033.74

3.384.05

Other-disclosure Males Females

3.193.93

3.534.30

Quality (i.e. pleasantness) Males Females

4.774.97

4.995.25

Satisfaction Males Females

4.174.45

4.194.53

Overall meaningfulness Males Females

18.5021.28

19.7722.70

Note: Sex differences significant at p < .01

Sex Differences in Interaction Indices for Same-Sex Friendships (Wheeler et al., 1983)

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• Also found that:

although males obtained lower scores than females on the five interaction indices noted above, they were not more lonely than females.

femininity was negatively correlated with loneliness among females and males; masculinity was not correlated with loneliness

among females and males.

loneliness was negatively correlated with amount of time spent with females, but not correlated with amount of time spent with males.

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Friendship:

1. Are there sex differences in friendship? (continued)