Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA.
Department of Psychology, Emmanuel College, Boston, MA, USA.
J Soc Psychol. 2022 Jul 4;162(4):393-406. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2021.1906202. Epub 2021 Apr 9.
This study explored gender differences in competition within friendships of emerging adults. In a sample of 118 same and cross-gender friendship dyads, we used a quasi-experimental design to examine how people competed with friends and reacted to this competition when completing a task in both competitive and noncompetitive conditions. Using an Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling approach to data analyses, we found that in the noncompetitive condition, men and women competed more with same-gender than with cross-gender friends. In the competitive condition, however, both men and women behaved more competitively with male than with female friends. Interestingly, while men reported more stress when competing with cross-gender friends, there was no difference in reported stress for women, regardless of the gender of the friend with whom they were competing. The findings indicate that both the specific and general social context in which competition occurs are important in determining whether gender differences are observed.
本研究探讨了成年早期友谊中竞争的性别差异。在一个由 118 对同性和异性友谊对组成的样本中，我们使用准实验设计，当人们在竞争和非竞争条件下完成任务时，考察了人们如何与朋友竞争以及对这种竞争的反应。通过对数据进行演员-伙伴相互依存模型分析，我们发现，在非竞争条件下，男性和女性与同性朋友竞争比与异性朋友竞争更多。然而，在竞争条件下，男性和女性与男性朋友竞争时都表现出更多的竞争行为，而不是与女性朋友竞争时。有趣的是，尽管男性在与异性朋友竞争时报告的压力更大，但女性无论与竞争的朋友的性别如何，报告的压力都没有差异。研究结果表明，竞争发生的具体和一般社会环境对于观察到性别差异非常重要。
