Chapter 5: Gender and Communication

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Robin Lakoff theorized that gender differences in communication stem from ______.

A. women and men’s innately different biology

B. the differences in women and men’s abilities to communicate

C. gender roles and the relative power those roles have

D. the differences in the values they hold

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Tentativeness

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Which of the following is a pattern of tentative speech, according to Lakoff?

A. hedges

B. interruptions

C. evading

D. passiveness

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Tentativeness

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. Inferring that women using more tentative speech in communication is a negative quality, rather than inferring that tentative speech reflects better interpersonal communication is an example of ______.

A. an underappreciation of women’s qualities

B. a female deficit interpretation

C. a male as the norm interpretation

D. an affiliative speech interpretation

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Tentativeness

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Tannen claimed that gender differences in communication stem from the different goals that men and women have when they communicate. Her position is called the ______.

A. gender cultures theory

B. difference in communication hypothesis

C. different cultures hypothesis

D. gender difference in conversation theory

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Affiliative Versus Assertive Speech

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. “I’ve felt that way, too,” is an example of what type of speech?

A. assertive speech

B. tentative speech

C. relational speech

D. affiliative speech

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Affiliative Versus Assertive Speech

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. Based on the research regarding interruption, a feminist would infer that interruption in communication is related to ______.

A. androcentric culture

B. power and status

C. intersectionality

D. the persistence of traditional gender roles

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Interruptions

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Mulac (2006) conducted a series of studies in which the speech of men and women is transcribed, masked as the identity of the speaker, and then presented to college students to see whether they can tell whether the speaker was male or female. If Tannen’s hypothesis is correct, the task should be ______.

A. easy

B. moderately difficult

C. very difficult

D. impossible

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Gender-Linked Language Effect

Difficulty Level: Hard

8. In a study done by Thomson (2006) in which participants posted to an electronic bulletin board, researchers found that ______.

A. women used more hedges and intensifiers when the topic was gender neutral

B. women expressed more emotion when the topic was gender neutral

C. men issued more directives when the topic was gender stereotyped

D. men issued more directives when the topic was gender neutral

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Nonverbal Communication

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. Ogletree et al. (2014) found that ______ was more strongly linked to emoticon usage than ______.

A. gender; femininity

B. androgyny; gender

C. femininity; gender

D. gender; masculinity

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Nonverbal Communication

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. Meta-analysis tells us that women convey nonverbal messages or cues ______ men do.

A. less accurately than

B. more accurately than

C. the same as

D. more frequently than

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Encoding and Decoding Nonverbal Behavior

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. In an experiment by Deutsch et al. (1987), women who did not smile were rated ______ than women who did smile.

A. more negatively

B. as more competent

C. as more professional

D. as more serious

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Smiling

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. Research on interpersonal distance indicates that there is the smallest distance between ______.

A. male–male pairs

B. female–female pairs

C. homosexual pairs

D. female–male pairs

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Interpersonal Distance

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. What do researchers’ interpretations of interpersonal distance suggest?

A. Gender differences in interpersonal distance have more to do with gender than gender roles.

B. There are few gender differences in interpersonal distance.

C. Gender differences in interpersonal distance have more to do with gender roles than gender.

D. Our interpersonal distance depends on our gender more than the gender of the other person.

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Interpersonal Distance

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. A woman on public transportation may take a contractive posture in order to ______.

A. make herself more sexually attractive

B. protect herself from men looking at them

C. appear more masculine

D. appear less feminine

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Posture: Expansive or Contractive?

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Research by Carney et al. (2010) in contractive and expansive poses found that ______.

A. those in the contractive pose felt more submissive

B. men in the expansive pose showed hormonal changes associated with power

C. women in the contractive pose showed hormonal changes associated with maternal instincts

D. men and women in the expansive pose showed hormonal changes associated with power

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Posture: Expansive or Contractive?

Difficulty Level: Easy

16. Men are more likely to use a(n) ______ posture and women are more likely to use a(n) ______ posture.

A. elongated; shortened

B. contractive; expansive

C. expansive; contractive

D. endogamous; exogamous

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Posture: Expansive or Contractive?

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. “Power posing” refers to ______.

A. men posing

B. expansive posture

C. women posing

D. contractive posture

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Posture: Expansive or Contractive?

Difficulty Level: Easy

18. Charlotte is a trans woman. Someone refers to her as “he.” This is an instance of ______.

A. sexism

B. misgendering

C. stereotyping

D. discrimination

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Misgendering

Difficulty Level: Easy

19. What can you infer about people using more euphemisms for the word “woman” than for the word “man?”

A. The word “woman” is used less frequently and causes some discomfort.

B. The word “woman” implies low status and power, so it is used less frequently.

C. The word “woman” is intimidating to people.

D. The word “woman” is often associated with negative connotations.

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Euphemisms

Difficulty Level: Hard

20. The words “chick,” “shorty,” “honey,” and “ho” are examples of ______.

A. euphemisms for transgender women

B. sexualizing women

C. euphemisms for the word “woman”

D. sexism and discrimination

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Euphemisms

Difficulty Level: Medium

21. Use of terms such as “girl” or “baby” to refer to women is an example of ______.

A. androcentrism

B. the different language used by women

C. infantilizing

D. female deficit

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Infantilizing

Difficulty Level: Easy

22. In language, compared with men, women typically ______.

A. use fewer intensifiers

B. are infantilized

C. interrupt more

D. are misgendered

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Infantilizing

Difficulty Level: Easy

23. Using masculine nouns and pronouns to refer to all people in a gender-neutral sense is called ______.

A. masculine generics

B. ethnocentrism

C. chauvinistic language

D. overgeneralization

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Male as Normative and Female as the Exception

Difficulty Level: Easy

24. The infant typically begins to sit-up around 6 months of age; he may begin crawling at about that same time. This sentence is an example of ______.

A. feminism

B. euphemisms

C. infantilizing

D. androcentrism

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Male as Normative and Female as the Exception

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. Federal officials referring to the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, as the “female governor,” while referring to a male governor as “governor” is an example of ______.

A. euphemisms

B. female as the exception

C. misgendering

D. ethnocentrism

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Male as Normative and Female as the Exception

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. What are the implications of genderless languages?

A. less gender equality

B. less limits on language

C. more gender equality

D. more confusion

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Gendering of Language

Difficulty Level: Easy

27. Having a preference for social hierarchy and inequality of equality is known as ______.

A. system-justifying beliefs

B. social hierarchy orientation

C. social dominance orientation

D. systemic hierarchy beliefs

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Does Sexist Language Actually Matter?

Difficulty Level: Hard

28. In Hyde’s research on children’s responses to the gender-neutral occupation, “wudgemaker,” the results indicated that ______.

A. males preferred to be a wudgemaker when they grew up, but females preferred not to be

B. girls said they would like to be wudgemakers but felt incompetent to do so

C. children assumed wudgemakers were male

D. women were rated as significantly more competent at being wudgmakers when the wudgemaker was referred to as “she,” rather than “he”

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Does Sexist Language Actually Matter?

Difficulty Level: Hard

29. Using the word “police officer” rather than “policeman” is an example of ______.

A. sexist language

B. nonsexist language

C. gendered language

D. male-as-the-normative language

Learning Objective: Summarize how to achieve nonsexist language.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Toward Nonsexist Language

Difficulty Level: Easy

30. Research indicates that when a woman is speaking, ______ speech seems to work best when the audience is male and ______ speech seems to work best when the audience is female.

A. tentative; assertive

B. assertive; tentative

C. institutional; utilitarian

D. utilitarian; institutional

Learning Objective: Summarize how to achieve nonsexist language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Language and Careers

Difficulty Level: Hard

True/False

1. Campbell and Robnett (2011) conducted a meta-analysis to examine the evidence for gender differences in the four forms of tentative speech. Overall, they found large gender differences in three of the four forms of tentative speech, with women using more tentative language than men.

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Tentativeness

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Men are slightly more likely than women to use affiliative speech.

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Affiliative Versus Assertive Speech

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Gender is constructed in social interactions and gender patterns depend heavily on social context.

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Electronic Communication

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. The gender difference in smiling among adolescents is small, d = −.10.

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Smiling

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Research shows that when women use expansive posture, they feel more powerful.

Learning Objective: Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Posture: Expansive or Contractive?

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. Misgendering a transgender person can threaten their sense of identity.

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Misgendering

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Countries with grammatical gender languages tend to have more gender equality relative to countries with natural gender languages or genderless languages.

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Gendering of Language

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. Sexist language and sexist attitudes go hand in hand.

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Does Sexist Language Actually Matter?

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. According to a nonsexist language perspective, if a person’s transgender or cisgender status is not relevant, it should not be identified.

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Toward Nonsexist Language

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. The phrase “he or she” is considered to be gender-neutral language.

Learning Objective: Summarize how to achieve nonsexist language.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Language and Careers

Difficulty Level: Hard

Short Answer

1. Discuss the different types of interruptions and explain why it is not entirely accurate to say that men interrupt conversations more than women do and that these interruptions are expressions of male dominance.

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Application | Analysis

Answer Location: Interruptions

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Explain Mulac’s gender-linked language effect. What do Mulac’s findings demonstrate regarding his theory? (i.e., is the theory supported?)

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication. | Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Application | Knowledge

Answer Location: The Gender-Linked Language Effect

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. Explain the clinical implications of gender differences in language. In other words, how are the gender-linked language effect and other gender differences in verbal communication relevant?

Learning Objective: Explain what we know about gender and verbal communication. | Describe the role of gender in nonverbal communication.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Clinical Applications

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. Explain why Dr. Karl Menninger’s book titled Man Against Himself is an example of masculine generics. What are the implications of using masculine generics in language?

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Application | Analysis

Answer Location: Male as Normative and Female as the Exception

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Differentiate between natural gender languages, grammatical gender languages, and genderless languages. What does the research say about the connection between the type of gendered language and countries’ societal gender equality?

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Analysis

Answer Location: Gendering of Language

Difficulty Level: Hard

6. Rewrite the following sentences in order to eliminate the bias and sexist language:

Faculty and wives are invited to a reception at the President’s house.

Each student should turn off their cell phone before class begins.

Dr. Abramson is the chairman of the department.

The girls on the University volleyball team are really athletic.

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Gendering of Language

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Explain why titles such as Mr., Miss, Mrs., and Ms. can be problematic.

Learning Objective: Summarize how to achieve nonsexist language.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Toward Nonsexist Language

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. What does the research say regarding sexist language in job descriptions? What implications does this create for a company that is wanting to become more diverse?

Learning Objective: Summarize how to achieve nonsexist language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Application

Answer Location: Language and Careers

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. Feminists have objected to a number of features of the English language. Explain what these features are and why feminists object to them. Then describe any empirical psychological studies that have been done that could be used as evidence to back the feminist position.

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Application | Analysis

Answer Location: How Women and Nonbinary People Are Treated in Language

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Define the Whorfian hypothesis. What are the implications if this hypothesis is true? What would the Whorfian hypothesis predict about practices like the use of masculine generics on bias and inequality? Based on Hyde’s research, does this apply to adults only or does it apply to children as well? What does this say about the importance of the language we use? What is one way we can deal with this issue?

Learning Objective: Evaluate how women and nonbinary are treated in language.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Comprehension | Application | Analysis

Answer Location: Does Sexist Language Actually Matter?

Difficulty Level: Hard