This book addresses two lively and active research communities, those concerned with issues of gender and those dealing with nonverbal behavior. The wide range of professional and popular interest in both these topics convinced us that presen tations of current work by researchers who bring these two areas of research together would prove stimulating. These presentations not only address the state of current work on gender and nonverbal behavior, but also suggest new avenues of investigation for those interested primarily in either topic. In other words, the questions that nonverbal communication researchers address when considering gender bring new directions to gender-related research and a like effect can be expected when the questions raised in gender studies are applied to research in nonverbal behavior. Dispersion of ideas may take another form as well. Both gender and nonverbal behavior research are notably interdisciplinary. Perhaps because of their pervasive nature, both topics have attracted the attention of a diversity of scholars. Most of the contributions in the present volume are by psychologists, but their intended audience is broad. Linguists, sociologists, and anthropologists are among those who share similar research interests. Moreover, the ideas presented here are of interest to practitioners as well as scholars. From corporations to clinics, people are interested in the subtle expression and negotiation of sex roles through non verbal communication.

Inhalt

I. Assessing the Research Findings.- 1. Nonverbal Behavior: Barrier or Agent for Sex Role Change?.- Evidence for Nonverbal Barriers.- Evidence for Nonverbal Supports for Change.- Conclusion.- 2. Gender Patterns in Touching Behavior.- Who Touches Whom? Gender Differences in Patterns and Frequency of Touch.- What Does Touch Mean?.- How Does Touch Feel? Gender Patterns in Reactions to Being Touched.- Understanding Gender Differences in Touch.- Implications for Future Research.- 3. Women and Nonverbal Leadership Cues: When Seeing Is Not Believing.- The Head of the Table: A Nonverbal Leadership Cue.- Leadership and Sex-Role Stereotypes.- Stereotypes and Unconscious Perceptual Bias.- Cues in Conflict: The Head of the Table vs. Sex Role Stereotypes.- Method.- Results.- Discussion.- Summary.- 4. Visual Behavior and Dominance in Women and Men.- Encoding Studies.- Decoding Studies.- General Conclusions and Implications.- 5. Sex Differences in Body Movements and Positions.- Study I: Naive Impressions of Nonverbal Sex Differences.- Study II: Movement Analysis of Sex Differences.- A Comparison of the Technical Nonverbal Observations and the Naive Judgments.- Implications and Applications.- II. Androgyny: Promises and Pitfalls.- 6. Sex-Role Influences in Dyadic Interaction: A Theoretical Model.- Masculinity, Femininity, and Androgyny: Orientations toward Social Interaction.- A Model of Sex-Role Influences in Dyadic Interaction.- Research Evidence Relevant to the Model.- Additional Derivations and Implications.- 7. Gender Gestures: Sex, Sex-Role, and Nonverbal Communication.- Gender Gestures Are Variable.- The Social Psychology of Gender Gestures.- Issues in Conceptualizing Gender Display.- Evidence Relevant to Gender Display.- 8. Gender, Androgyny, and Conversational Assertiveness.- Gender or Something Else?.- Present Research.- Recommendations.- 9. A Feminist Critique of Androgyny: Toward the Elimination of Gender Attributions for Learned Behavior.- III. The Uncharted Frontiers of Development and Change.- 10. The Development of Sex Differences in Nonverbal Signals: Fallacies, Facts, and Fantasies.- Popular Assumptions about Nonverbal Behaviors.- Developmental Questions.- Overview and Organization of the Chapter.- The Facts: Where Early Sex Differences Occur.- Expressiveness in Infancy and Childhood.- The Development of Interaction.- Summary, Integration, and Conclusions.- 11. The Seven Ages of Woman: A View From American Magazine Advertisements.- Infancy and Childhood.- Adolescence.- Young Adulthood.- Middle Age.- Old Age and Senility.- The Future of Women in Magazine Advertisements.- 12. Nonverbal Behavior and Lesbian/Gay Orientation.- Courtship Patterns.- The Effects of the Feminist Movement on Nonverbal Behavior and Stereotypical Sex Roles.- Suggestions for Research.- 13. Nonverbal Processes in Feminist Therapy.- Origins of Feminist Therapy.- What Is Feminist Therapy?.- Power in Therapy.- Power in Gender.- Change in Clients and Therapists.- Feminist Therapy and Lesbianism.- Questions for Research.- Author Index.