Sex differences in emotional awareness

The present study examined sex differences in the complexity and differenti ation of people's representations of emotional experience. Female participa nts from seven different samples, ranging in age, scholastic performance, s ocioeconomic status, and culture , scored higher on a performance test of e motional awareness than did male participants. Women consistently displayed more complexity and differentiation in their articulations of emotional ex periences than did men, eva when the effect of verbal intelligence was cont rolled. Together the findings suggest that a sex difference in display of e motional awareness is a stable, highly generalizable effect. Implications o f these findings are presented.