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Sudent X

Ms. Storkey

ENG 3CI/4CI

July 3, 2014

Summary written by a Student

The social roles theory suggests that social contexts have different
gender role expectations and those gender role expectations can maximize or
minimize gender differences. For instance, there are three competing
hypotheses as to why and in what situations certain people hold doors for
others. The gender neutral stance hypothesizes an equal amount of door
holding would consistently be done by both sexes for both sexes. Chivalry is
associated with male roles and is another hypothesis that predicts that men
hold doors open for women as an act of helpfulness. Yet another stance looks
at male dominance and how it is expressed in door holding behavior. This
stance adds to the social role theory hypothesizing that door holding
behaviors will be different depending on the emphasis on gender roles in the
social context. The research done by Yoder, Hogue, Newman, Metz and
LaVigne (2003) looks at door holding behavior in a dating situation as
opposed to everyday life situations, predicting that males will hold open doors
more often during a dating situation than in an everyday life situation. Seven
hundred and sixty-nine mixed-gender, college-age, male-female pairs were
unobtrusively observed in 16 different locations. The locations selected were
places where either dating or non-dating couples were most likely to be found.
These locations included shopping malls, universities and fast-good
restaurants, for non-dating couples, and sit down restaurants and skate rinks,
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for dating couples. The amount of door holding for the other, either male of
female, was measured. In an everyday context 55.2% more women, in the
couples observed, held the door open for men than men did for women. In a
dating context the reverse was found, 66.8% more men, in the
couples observed, held the door open for women than women held the door
open for men. This study contradicts studies done about 20 years ago, which
suggests that door holding practices and gender roles have changed
somewhat over the years in everyday life scenarios but remain similar in
dating scenarios. Applying these results to the social role theory also suggests
that door holding behavior may be different in dating versus everyday life
scenarios because gender roles are more prominent in dating scenarios.

Original Article Source :

Yoder, J. D., Hogue, M. Newman, R., Metz, L. & LaVigne, T. (2003). Exploring
moderators of gender differences: Contextual differences in door-holding
behavior. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 1682-1686.