Gender differences (man and cop)

• Men tend to use problem-focused methods

  • Lazarus and Folkman:
  • Suggest problem-focused methods reduce stress by tackling root causes in a direct, practical and rational way
  • Eg = taking control to remove or escape from stress, learning new skills such as time management or relaxation techniques
• women tend to use emotion-focused methods

  • Lazarus and Folkman
  • Suggest emotion-focused methods reduce stress indirectly by tackling the anxiety associated with a stressor
  • Eg = various forms of avoidance such as keeping busy and using cognitive appraisal to think about the stressor more positively
• research on problem/emotion focused

  • Peterson et al
  • assessed coping strategies of men and women diagnosed as infertile
  • Men = more likely to use practical problem-solving = a problem-focused approach
  • Women = more likely to accept blame and use various avoidance tactics = an emotion focused approach
• tend and befriend response in women

  • Taylor et al = argue from an evolutionary perspective that fight or flight is disadvantageous for females because confronting or fleeing from a predator makes it hard to protect one‘s offspring
  • Difference response has evolved in females:
  • Tending = protecting, calming and nurturing offspring, blending in with the environment
  • Befriending = involves seeking support from social networks at times of stress in order to cope
• tend and befriend research

  • Luckow et al = review of 26 studies, women very strongly favour befriending in stressful situations
  • But it is used selectively, tend to be with other women
  • Lewis and Linder = found most female pps preferred to wait for female support during a stressful experience rather than seek it from a man
  • this might have evolved as a mechanism for protecting females and offspring against threatening males
• tend and befriend response driven by oxytocin

  • Oxytocin = mainly a female hormone = it promotes feelings of goodwill and affiliation with others, and helps the body recover more quickly from physiological effects of stressors
  • Taylor et al = found higher levels of oxytocin linked with lower cortisol levels only in female pps
  • Female sex hormone oestrogen increases effects of oxytocin, but male hormones (eg testosterone) reduce them = so oxytocin effects are stronger in women, creating reduced stress response
• Limitation = distinction between emotion and problem focused

  • Peterson et al = found that men and women used coping methods that could not be easily categorised as emotion-focused or problem-focused
  • Eg = social support can be both and women and men used it extensively to seek information (problem) and to feel better (emotion)
  • Suggests that the distinction is unworkable and that it is not valid to conclude that women mostly use one and men the other
• strength = support for tend and befriend in females

  • Tamres et al = carried out meta-analysis of 26 studies of coping
  • women were more likely than men to seek social support (tend and befriend)
  • women create and use social networks to promote caring for offspring, a side effect is support in stressful times
  • Suggests that there are gender differences in social support/tend and befriend, with this response being more prevalent in females
• Counterpoint to support for tend and befriend

  • Taylor et al = females can be aggressive (‘fight’) to protect offspring and men’s coping response can be tend and befriend in some cases
  • Suggests that the distinction between men and women in the use of social support/tend and befriend is in fact blurred and complex
• limitation = studies of emotion-focus involve retrospective recall

  • De Ridder = found the expected gender differences in coping when pps recalled retrospectively (women used emotion-focus more than men)
  • BUT = there was no gender difference when a concurrent methof (ecological momentary assessment) was used and pps reported coping as it happened
  • => the gender difference in coping focus may depend upon what pps can remember
• extra evaluation = gender or stressor

  • Men and women differ in coping because of biological differences (eg hormones testosterone, oestrogen and oxytocin) = men respond with fight or flight, women tend and befriend
  • BUT = perhaps men and women may use different methods because they face different stressors = eg more relationship-related for women, so emotion-focused coping is more suitable
  • Suggests that differences in coping strategies may not depend on gender-related biological differences but on the nature of the stressful situation