A. Meaning of Difference and the Meta-analysis technique Gender Comparisons A. Meaning of Difference and the Meta-analysis technique

Meaning of Difference Individual differences within a group (e.g., among females) is often more extensive than differences between groups (e.g., between men and women).

Meta-Analysis Technique Often times research in a particular area will yield contradictory results. In order to resolve conflicts in the literature, literature reviews are written summarizing and evaluating all published studies on the that topic. This is a qualitative review. Or a meta-analysis can be conducted = a statistical technique that allows you to average the results of numerous studies. This is a quantitative index of the overall effect across studies.

Steps in a Meta-Analysis Compile all of the studies regarding your research question. Compute a D statistic for each study. This tells you how big the difference between males and females was relative to the variability of scores for each gender. Also tells you in what direction the difference is. Find the average D for all of the studies. D of .2 is small, of .5 is moderate, and of .80 is large.

Ways in which the D statistic can be misleading Studies may have operationalized the construct differently. Some studies may have poor methodology (garbage in garbage out). File-drawer statistics.

Gender Comparisons B. Communication

Standard English Women, across race and social class use standard English more than males. Trudgill hypothesizes that women use standard English as one of the few avenues available for them to obtain higher status. Thorne and Henley argue that females correct usage reflects less social freedom and independence.

Speech Patterns More hedges and fillers. More intensifiers. More disclaimers of expertise. Longer requests. More tag questions? --Robin Lakoff

Other Differences Women have an extra level of pitch. Affiliative vs. intrusive interruptions. Offering support vs. advice when another is discussing a problem.