When Psychology Works

I'm taking a psychology class this semester called "Psychology of Women".  It's probably the least feminist-theory class I can be taking to fulfill my gender and women's studies graduation requirement, plus it's psychology.  Nevertheless, we're still talking a great deal about the social forces which shape female psychology, as well as how they may (or may not) create gender differences.

The most recent topic of conversation was gender differences in conversation.  Generally, women are more deferent than men: more likely to use qualifiers on their opinions, and less likely to interrupt than men (in male-female conversations), among other things.

Our professor posed an interesting theory about why men interrupt more than women: she theorized that men learn early on that if they interrupt, they get the floor: women listen to them.  On the other hand, when women interrupt men, they are ignored, which teaches them that interruption is not productive.

After saying this, she gave us all the assignment to interrupt someone before the next class.  She told the one male in class that day to do it too, and then was about to continue when he said "I just finished my assignment"

"Oh?  What did you do?"
"I interrupted you."
Somewhat taken aback, the professor asked how she responded.
"You listened to me."
"Ohhh phooey."

Thus proving her own theory.

In other news, this post took a while because of this video.  (Video embedding take one)

... Sweet.  A finished post.  I'm gonna go make myself some rice now.  Yay college mid-evening snacks!