Friday, September 05, 2008

His Brain, Her Brain #4

Our topic today is Problem Solving.

Men are linear thinkers.
Women think in clusters.

Men compartmentalize.
Women churn things over until the problem is solved

Men are emotionally divorced from problem solving.
Women are emotionally involved in the process.

Men are solitary.
Women are communal.

Men give space.
Women wants a hug.

Men want answers.
Women want support.

For men, help means failure.
Women want to help.

This will be the last installment. I hope you've found the posts interesting, and perhaps useful.

And, now that we've explored some of the differences, here's someone else's take on His Brain, Her Brain. It might be a comedy routine, but now that we've looked at the evolutionary reasons for these differences, you might see how much is grounded in fact. That is, assuming I've managed to figure out how to upload it to this post. If it doesn't work, here's the link.


12 comments:

Joan Reeves said...

Mark Gungor is hilarious. Thanks for the video clip.His Brain, Her Brain reminds me of that old Kevin Bacon movie: He Said, She Said.

Terry Odell said...

No problem, Joan. I was most impressed that I managed to get the clip into my blog!

Savanna Kougar said...

Terry, Great presentation of the tale of two brains, one from Venus, one from Mars.

Donnell Ann Bell said...

Terry, I'm on the phone with my critique partner and I read her your cited differences. She said, "Why did God do that?" I think that's a great topic for your next blog :)

Terry Odell said...

Donnell -- I'm not sure I want to go there. ;-)

But bottom line, is that those characteristics worked for survival eons ago, and we're changing much faster socially than we are physiologically.

At least that's my view, FWIW. But yeah, guys who can say "I'm sorry" without tossing it back in your face would be a good thing.

Donnell Ann Bell said...

Okay, I'll stop spreading the word about you doing the *On High* blog. LOL. Back to writing. Good posts!

Ray said...

I really enjoyed the series. Thank you for putting the clip in your blog. Mark Gungor's take on the subject is pretty interesting. Humor is a good way to approach a controversial subject. The controversy is in the eye/ear of the beholder. I can hear the guys now. "He doesn't know what he is talking about." Your disclaimer that there are individual differences is really the bottom line.

I can see similarities and differences in my own thought processes.

The topic has held my interest for years.

Are you familiar with Edward T. Hall's study of "Proxemics?" The study of personal vs social space in different cultures? I read a book on the subject years ago and if not for Google I never would have remembered the word for the subject. All I remembered off the top of my head is that People who grew up in England found privacy in their own minds whereas Germans not crowded into a small country find privacy behind physical barriers.

One experiment was to watch someone sitting in the library who is facing away from other patrons. Sit across from them and they go into panic mode, more than likely they will get up and move.

Humans are really interesting. No wonder they were studied by the apes in Planet of the Apes.

Ray

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for these posts, Terry. One of the most challenging parts of writing romance is male pov - getting it right. Your two liners (i.e. Men are solitary; women are communal) are great clips to show the differences.

Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Hi Terry. I forgot to check your blog but have done so now. Thanks for being so industrious and sharing your notes. They are fabulous. I shall keep them for reference.

Terry Odell said...

Ray --
No, I'm not familiar with that study, but living in a tourist mecca, it's interesting to watch the differences in personal space among the various nationalilites. What's "in your face" to one culture is natural to another.

Just watch the seats in any US theater or auditorium. Most people leave at least one seat between themselves and the next person. (Which explains why the Disney folks are always having to tell people to close ranks, so they can get the requisite number of folks into each show.)

Terry Odell said...

Deb - glad you've gleaned something useful. I started paying a lot more attention to how my hero and heroine behaved after Tracy Montoya's workshop at the Southern Lights conference. As a matter of fact, it's coming in handy in the chapter I'm working on now.

Terry Odell said...

Anita --
That's the beauty of these blogs. The posts may scroll down, but they never go away. I got an email from a reader who explained how to add a 'subscribe' option, so now you can stay up to date!