Stress : Gender Differences & Social Support Flashcards
What did Taylor say about gender differences?
Taylor (2000) has suggested that men and women have completely different stress responses.
- As a consequence of our evolutionary history males respond to stress through aggression or denial; this is known as “fight or flight”.
- Responding in this way would not be evolutionarily beneficial for females, as the survival of their offspring would be put at risk.
- Instead, women are more likely to respond in a protecting, nurturing, calming way to a stressor, known as the tend and befriend response.
What is oxytocin
Oxytocin is released during “tend and befriend” and is described as a “love and friendship” hormone. This hormone is produced in both sexes, and promotes feelings of goodwill, and affiliation towards others, so encouraging bonding behaviour.
What does female oestrogen do?
The female hormone oestrogen seems to increase the effect of oxytocin, in males testosterone rises which has a dampening effect on oxytocin,.
As a result, the stress response is reduced in women, and oxytocin effects do not last as long as in men.
So women may be better protected from stress than men.
They may also be more likely to seek social support to help
them cope with stress.
Hence men may not tend and befriend but become more aggressive and females seek closeness to others becomes of unrepressed oxytocin
What did Lazarus and Folkaman suggest ?
suggested there are two types of coping responses emotion focused and problem focused, with women using more emotional focused strategies
What is emotion-focused?
Copying involves trying to reduce the negative emotional responses associated with stress such as embarrassment, fear, anxiety , depression, excitement and frustration.
What problem - focused
Coping targets the causes of stress in practical ways which tackles the problem or stressful situation that is causing stress, consequently directing reducing stress
Evaluation for gender differences?
A reason for gender differences may be due to the different types of stressors men and women face.
Problems at work are better tackled by problem-focused techniques, whereas problems such as relationships with family members are better dealt with by emotion-focused techniques.
Therefore, gender differences are a response to different types of stressor, rather than a fundamental difference in the way men and women cope with stress.
Gender socialisation has led to women engaging in fewer unhealthy behaviours e.g. less risk-taking behaviour.
Men are more likely to drink and smoke to excess.
Men tend to socialise through involvement in aggressive or
competitive sports and going to the pub.
All of which, have been shown to increase rather than decrease stress levels
What is social support
Social support refers to the help given by friends and family members to assist a person in coping with a stressful situation.
What did Schaefer identify for social support?
- Schaefer et al (1981) identified three types of social support, which can be provided by a person’s social network of friends and family.
- The three different types will overlap, depending on exactly what the friend or family member is doing to offer support (for instance, providing a ‘shoulder to cry on’). They can also be provided without physical presence, for example through social networks, talking on the phone, being sent gifts, and so on.
What is instrumental support?
- Practical support, such as giving a lift to the hospital, lending some money, giving information to the person about an illness, and so on.
- Tangible aid and service. supporter empathises, understands, offers opportunity for emotional release.
- Instrumental: supporter offers practical assistance in coping.
What is Emotional support?
- Providing comfort through statements such as ‘I’m really sorry for what you’re going through’, ‘if there’s anything you need, I’m here for you’. It means expressing empathy and warmth for the person in order to make them feel better.
- Supporter informs person, gives advice, guidance.
- Fawzy Fawzy _et al _1993) found that cancer patients who were randomly allocated to a support group for six weeks, which provided emotional support, were more likely to have better NK cell functioning, and more likely to be free of cancer six years later, than a control group. This supports that social support helps to reduce the effects of stress and illness.
What is Esteem support?
- Trying to raise the person’s self-confidence, so that they believe they can cope with the demands of the stressor. For example, saying things like ‘I know you can get through this’, or pointing out examples of times they have dealt with challenging situations in the past.
- Esteem/Appraisal - Information that is useful for self-evaluation. supporter helps to build person’s confidence and bolsters self-esteem
What are the cultural differences in social support
- A study comparing Asian and European Americans found that Asian Americans were much less likely to seek social support when stressed (Tayler et al, 2004). This means that the role of social support may apply differently to different cultures.
What was the Cohen study on stress related problems (aim)
TO SEE IF PHYSICAL CONTACT (HUGS) PROTECTED AGAINST STRESS-RELATED HEALTH PROBLEMS
What was the Cohen study (method)
- 404 healthy adult participants were contacted by phone each day for 14 days to measure the amount of hugs they received each day.
- They also completed a questionnaire to assess perceived social support, and stress was measured by assessing the daily personal conflict experienced by participants.
- Participants were exposed to the common cold virus and were monitored for signs of illness.
- Participants who experienced more interpersonal conflict were more likely to get ill, however those who reported more social support had a reduced risk of illness.
- Participants who received hugs more frequently were less likely to get ill, and those who did get ill had less severe symptoms if they received more hugs.
- This suggests that social support does act as a protector against the effects of stress
