Abstract

A questionnaire was distributed to 20 male and 20 female subjects concerned with the theory that gender roles have an affect on the reported intensity of emotional experience. The questions required an indication of both intensity and frequency from 1 (less common/weakest) to 15 (most common/strongest) to be circled on both a personal and general scale. No significant correlation was found between the reported intensity of individuals on a personal basis or the intensity they assumed for the whole gender. Nevertheless, females did have a greater intensity of feeling than men and correctly assumed that this would be the case.

Sex differences in the intensity of emotional experience

It has been reported and propagated in popular culture, media and literature that women are the more emotional gender than men. It is then worth studying whether or not this is conclusion is actually true, and from where it may have actually arisen.

Research by Grossman & Wood (1993) suggests that women report greater intensity of both positive and negative emotions due to their 'awareness' of social roles. That is, differences in emotional intensity between men and women stem from the roles that men and women play in society. It is this awareness that prompt men and women to respond and feel the way they do in certain emotional situations.

In the same vein, this report will explore whether social roles influence the intensity of emotional experience. If so, then subjects own emotional experiences should be consistent with their normative beliefs about men and women's emotions and their intensity. It was therefore hypothesized :
1) That females intensity of feeling will not differ from their ratings of the typical females intensity of feeling.
2) That males personal intensity of feeling will not differ from their ratings of the typical males intensity of feeling.
3) That females intensity of feeling is greater than males
and, 4) That females will assume that the typical female expresses a greater intensity of feeling than the typical male.

Method

Subjects

20 male and 20 female undergraduate students at Deakin University, Burwood, participated as a part of a requirement in their introductory psychology courses.

Materials

A ten page questionnaire (Appendix A) which asks the subject to rate on a fifteen point scale their response to questions on frequency (1 - Almost never, to 15 - Almost always) and intensity (1 - Very mild, to 15 - Very strong) of the five chosen emotions (Joy, Sadness, Love, Fear and Anger) and how frequently and intensely they were expressed.

Procedure

A ten page questionnaire (Appendix A) was distributed to first year psychology students at Deakin University. Each student was instructed to read the Plain Language Statement (Appendix B) which explains to the subject how adults rate their emotions and differences of emotional expression so that Informed Consent (Appendix C) could then be obtained. Subjects then completed the ten page questionnaire which asked them to rate how intensely and frequently they experience the emotions (love, anger, fear, joy and sadness) themselves and how intensely and frequently these emotions are then expressed to others. The questions then went on to ask subjects to report their stereotypical beliefs concerning these emotions and how intensely they may be felt and expressed by males and females. A Debriefing Statement (Appendix D) was then provided which outlined the purposes of this study.

Results

Little correlation could be found between a male or female's rating of intensity of feeling and their reported conception of the typical male or female's intensity.

However, women reported a greater intensity of feeling on a personal level than did men, and also judged women to experience a greater intensity of emotion than men in general.

Discussion

Both the initial two hypotheses have been found to be statistically invalid. We can then assume that no noteworthy correlation exists between what is reported as the intensity of what males and females feel emotionally on a personal and general level. Therefore, it seems that the normative beliefs concerning gender roles do not have any effect on the actual intensity of the individual. The fact that this 'trend' reached beyond the boundary of gender itself, in that both males and females achieved the same result, is further evidence of the validity of the outcome. If a difference had of existed, that is, perhaps men had actually achieved some correlation where women hadn't, this may then suggest that some other variable was at play, or that normative social ideals only have an effect on one specific gender. A peculiar result that, as speculated above, would have suggested that further investigation was necessary. But this is not the case, and we can therefore assume such a result to have some definite validity.

The following two hypotheses, however, proved to have an existing correlation. First, that women have a greater intensity of emotional experience than do men. However, it seems we must now assume that this is not due to any existing correlation with gender roles. Unless we study the final result, that is, that women will judge females to have a greater intensity of emotional response than the typical man. How is such knowledge gained if not by an existence of particular beliefs concerning female response to emotion? In other words, how can such a conclusion be reached without the existence of the aforementioned discernment of normative gender roles?

We may assume that some error has occurred in the collection of data or that a methodological flaw exists within the procedure carried out for this study, however, I would not consider this to be the case here in that this exercise has been carried out previously under slightly different conditions and resulted in a generally supportive conclusion. I could postulate that perhaps the individual personalities of the subjects themselves have effected the result. Assume that the subjects were of the mind to somehow disregard normative social roles, or by merely having knowledge of their existence affect their translation within the study.

Overall, the results of this investigation refutes the prior research done by Grossman & Wood (1993) in that we cannot say with any particular certainty what actually causes a difference in the reported intensity of emotional intensity since the theory of social roles affecting such beliefs is no longer valid. Further research in this area will therefore be concerned with finding other causes for a difference in intensity of feeling between the sexes.

References

Grossman, M., & Wood, W. (1993). Sex differences in intensity of emotional experience: A social role interpretation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(5). 1010-1022