The Dominance Approach

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  • Created by: essalenko
  • Created on: 16-01-14 18:54

The Dominance Approach, Zimmerman & West

Dominance is an approach whereby the female sex is seen as the subordinate group whose difference in style of speech results from male supremacy and also possibly an effect of patriarchy.

This is the theory that in mixed-sex conversations men are more likely to interrupt than women. It uses a fairly old study of a small sample of conversations, recorded by Don Zimmerman and Candace West. Zimmerman and West produce in evidence 31 segments of conversation. They report that in 11 conversations between men and women, men used 46 interruptions, but women only two. Zimmerman and West conclude that, since men interrupt more often, then they are dominating or attempting to do so.

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