PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Teresa Holzinger

MA-Research
August 1995

Gender Differences in Collaboration Styles and the Negotiation of Mutual Knowledge

    The intentions of this study were twofold: (a) to investigate whether there were gender differences in collaboration strategies, and (b) if these differences exist, to examine whether the detection of mutual knowledge is affected.  Seventy undergraduate students (38 males and 32 females) were recruited from the subject pool.  The study was a 2 X 3 factorial mixed design.  Eight Tangram figures were presented in three trials.  Two same-gender dyads were analyzed for group differences by performing analyses of variance (ANOVAs).
    Analyses showed that women directors used more words, fewer definite references, and a lower proportion of definite references to total words during negotiations than men.  Contrary to the hypothesis that men would use the definite reference earlier than women, the results showed that men took longer to use the definite reference in the first trial.  However, they used the definite reference earlier than women, as expected, in subsequent trials.

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