Man, Woman, Engineer, Psychologist: Mixed Messages In Research Design

Several years ago an off-hand remark by Professor Karanian, a Psychologist, during a casual conversation with Professor Hopcroft, an Engineer, led to a decision to jointly research the way men and women respond to technical presentations with which they disagree. A working hypothesis was developed, after some discussion about the meaning of the words in the title, and a conceptual plan of study was defined. The plan of study fundamentally involved observing men and women responding to presentations at technical conferences and recording those observations in a standardized format. This paper addresses the communication and procedural difficulties that arose as the two professionals, each competent in their own area of expertise, tried to meld two very different approaches to research into a successful research effort.