Support for the Tannen model only was found after additional research was done, and a new questionnaire was given that scored recipient's self-perception in terms of feminine and masculine characteristics and inculcation into traditional gender roles. Individuals with strong gender self-images were more likely to fall in line with the Tannen model of women perceiving nurturance and males perceiving conflict in relatively neutral scenarios and seeing men in general as less cooperative.
This study is provocative on several levels, not the least of which in its stress upon the individualized nature of gender norms and the lack of inherent biological tendencies towards perceiving nurturance and conflict. It suggests the need to more carefully screen subjects in terms of individualized communication styles, and also when researching the concept of 'face' and loss thereof, to examine aspects of the individual's self-concept, based in gender, but also perhaps based in culture. Or would individuals from less individualistic cultures than the United Sates exhibit a less wide gender range of self-associations than other nations? Future research and greater study of conflict perceptions both in terms of culture and gender is necessary...
"You Need to Understand My Gender Role: An Empirical
Test of Tannen's Model of Gender and Communication." Sex Roles. 50.7/8 (2004):
491-504. Research Library. ProQuest. 30 Oct. 2008 http://www.proquest.com/
Oetzel, John G. & Stella Ting-Toomey. "Face concerns in interpersonal conflict."
Communication Research. 30.6 (2003): 599-624. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest.
30 Oct. 2008. http://www.proquest.com/
Tannen, Deborah. You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. New York:
Harper Paperbacks, 2001.
Ting-Toomey, Stella. "Cross-Cultural Face-Negotiation: An Analytical Overview."
David See-Chai Lam Centre for International Communication Pacific Region
Forum on Business and Management Communication
Presented on April 15, 1992. 30 Oct 2008. http://www.cic.sfu.ca/forum/ting-too.html
Whitham, Chris. "Face - Negotiation Theory." Communication 3000. Communication Theories.
The University of Arizona. 30 Oct 2008. http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~cw619696/face.htm
