Psychology Faculty Publications

Tall College Women's Social Dynamics Relating to Height

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Journal Title

Qualitative Research in Psychology

Volume

9

Issue

3

First Page

210

Last Page

230

Abstract

We conducted in-depth interviews with 24 tall college females for the present phenomenological, qualitative research study. As tall females in our study described the impact of height on their social lives, three key height-related outcomes emerged. First, participants reported experiencing connections with other tall females because of mutual understandings, shared experiences, and self-perceptions of “fitting in” more when socializing with these tall friends. In addition, the women gave similar accounts of unintended intimidation resulting from their height that tended to occur mostly as they met new people. Furthermore, females had similar personal, height-related dating convictions, such as strict no-short-guys policies and their frustrations regarding what they creatively labeled as “wasted space.”

Keywords

height, phenomenological, qualitative research, social development, tall

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