Gender, peer relations, and intimate relationships

Abstract

It is popularly believed, by researchers and laypersons alike, that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. When it comes to relationships, however, men and women are more similar than they are different (Burn, 1996; Hyde, 2005). Both sexes develop attachments to close others throughout the life span (Bowlby, 1980; Hazan & Shaver, 1987), and both are largely dependent on relationships for their psychological well-being (Berscheid & Reis, 1998). Nonetheless, researchers and the media tend to focus on gender differences, however small, at the expense of similarities.