ABSTRACT
The notion that men and women constitute different gender cultures (Johnson, 2000; Tannen, 1990; Wood, 2000 b) has captured both popular and scholarly imaginations in recent decades. One of the core positions of the different cultures thesis (DCT) is that men and women live in different emotional worlds. In particular, proponents of the DCT assert that men and women are fundamentally different with regard to the provision and receipt of emotional support (Bate & Bowker, 1997; Tannen; Wood, 1996). According to the DCT, women tend to value close relationships for their expressive qualities, whereas men value relationships for their instrumental features. Thus, in support situations, women should appreciate efforts that explicitly validate their feelings and perspectives, whereas men should value attempts to fix the problem or shift attention away from upset feelings (Tannen; Wood, 2005). An important corollary is that men and women are supposed to be particularly biased toward, and responsive to, their sex's own way of enacting emotional support.
