an explanation for gender differences in expressing emotions

snorlax

i found this article on gender differences regarding expression of emotion. my question is do men and women experience the same amount of emotion but have different ways of expressing it. or is it true that women in general are more reactive to emotion? is there a physiological/ genetic basis for the gender difference in expression, or is it caused by the environment and a child's upbringing?

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/communication/soojin.htm

solicitous

snorlax wrote:

i found this article on gender differences regarding expression of emotion. my question is that do men and women experience the same amount of emotion but just have different ways of expressing it. or is it true that women in general are more reactive to emotion? is there a physiological/ genetic basis for the gender difference in expression, or is it caused by the environment and a child's upbringing?
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/communication/soojin.htm

Good thread Snorlax, only just seen it now.
I would be inclined to believe that we can only answer that -situation dependant, because all the above are true in one sense or another.

I've come close to people who deal with things very differently, male and female.

In general, yes - women are more receptive to emotion and tend to react on it more on impulse than men. women have the ability to shock men into reality, before they've realised things themselves.

There are exceptions these days, and I wont brand any man with that. The newer the generation, the more open men are to expressing their feelings, excepting their sexuality one way or the other etc.

My family were like the Brady bunch (without all the corny)
we talk to each other at ever turn. If there is a problem, we talk about it.
An ex of mine, his family are the complete opposite and it shocked me how pre-historic the communication was with the family!

It ironed out a few doubts I had about my ex's thoughts on me let me tell you! Won't get into it, but life experiences make us aware of the differences - so I thought I would throw in an example.

Other opininons please!

lazydaisy

That article was interesting. Im wondering though if the article focuses more about public expression of emotion than of the emotion itself. And wouldn't it depend on what emotion you're talking about? Im sure it's different for sorrow, jealousy, joy, despair, love, rage, lust, fear, etc etc... and what is acceptable in a society, family or social context and what is permissable or dangerous to express.

Im not sure its fair to say that men feel less than women do, but perhaps more fair to say that it manifests differently. Sometimes it seems that men are better at separating their feelings out, like putting them aside when they need to focus on something else, an enviable quality I think.

At the risk of having some feminists tar and feather me, there are hormonal considerations in some circumstances, like PMT or post natal depression or arguably ovulation, when you supposedly have an extra dose of va va voom in your step, which could confirm that notion that women are "more emotional."

Here's an interesting quiz to find out your brain sex. Apparantly your brain has a gender, according to BBC Science.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml