Pam Fishman's research concentrates on the way speech is produced by men and women in advanced societies.
Her findings show that women tend to use more phrases intended for confirmation, such as "yes?" or "you know?". She argues that these phrases are not a reflection of women having less clear thoughts. Instead, it is an adaptation due to men being less communicative. Women tend to utter more of these phrases as a way to confirm that the men are still paying attention to what they are saying.
This is an example of a social situation (men and women having different speech patterns) as having an impact on the individual (the adoption by a woman of that type of language).