Gender Differences In Coping With Stress

Question 1

What is the strategy that females have adopted to cope with stress?

Answer 1

Tend and befriend

Question 2

What did Taylor find that higher levels of oxytocin were linked with?

Answer 2

Lower cortisol levels in female participants only. There was also a quicker recovery of the HPA system after exposure to stressful task. Oestrogen increases effects of oxytocin, but male hormones (androgens) reduce them. Oxytocin effects are stronger in women.

Question 3

What does oxytocin promote?

Answer 3

Feelings of goodwill and affiliation with others, and plays a role in the formation of the mother-infant attachment bond.

Question 4

Who conducted research into tend and befriend?

Answer 4

Luckow

Question 5

What research did Luckow do into tend and befriend?

Answer 5

Reviewed 26 studies of gender differences in ‘seeking and using social support’ as a way of coping with stress. Women were much more likely to use this method in 25 of these studies.

Lewis and Linder preferred to wait for female support rather than seek it from a man. This may in part have evolved as a mechanism for protecting females and their offspring against threatening males, even close family members.

Question 6

Who conducted research into gender and different coping methods?

Answer 6

Peterson

Question 7

What research did Peterson conduct into gender and different coping methods?

Answer 7

Assessed coping strategies of men and women who had been diagnosed as infertile. Used several measures including Ways of Coping questionnaire. Gender differences emerged. Women more likely to accept blame and use various avoidance tactics (emotion-focused approach). Men more likely to use planful problem-solving (problem-focused approach).

Question 8

Who came up with the idea of tend and befriend?

Answer 8

Taylor