The effects of gender‐role expectations upon perceptions of communicative competence

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of sex‐role expectations upon perceived communicative competence. Two research questions were posed. Are traditional male stereotypic communicative behaviors perceived as more communicatively competent than female stereotypic behaviors? Secondly do male and female participants have differential communicative expectations of others due to their sex? A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was employed to investigate these questions. The first factor was sex‐role expectations and was operationalized by two scenarios, one describing “male” stereotypic communicative behaviors, the other describing “female” stereotypic communicative behaviors. The second factor was target gender, operationalized by the name “Valerie” or “Michael” being ascribed to the two scenarios. The third factor was sex of the subjects. Analysis of variance indicated a main effect for sex stereotypic communication style. The male style of self‐assured “aggressive” and instrumentally controlled was perceived as more competent than the female style of reserved, emotionally expressive and concerned for others. Additionally a three‐way interaction was observed suggesting differential sex‐role expectations for male and female participants. Implications for communicative competence and suggestions for future research are discussed.