Sex differences in the vocabulary of college students |
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| Authors: | Dorothy Singer Jill Avedon Robin Hering Annie McCann Cindi Sacks |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Professor of Psychology , University of Bridgeport , Bridgeport, Connecticut, 06602;2. Student at the University of Bridgeport , |
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| Abstract: | The present study replicated Jastrow's 1891 experiment concerning differences between male and female vocabulary. Participants were 20 male and 20 female Caucasian middle‐class college students. They recorded up to 100 nouns in a 15‐minute period. Results indicate that women have increased their use of unusual words compared to women in 1891. Males used more scientific words and more body part words than females. In contrast to the previous study, there are no significant differences between the sexes in use of animal, nature, and food words. Females used more clothing words than males in this study, as in the previous study, and produced more different words than males. Vocabulary changes appear to reflect changes in the social structure of the society. |
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