fight or flight response

• P: Taylor suggest that, for females, behavioural responses to stress are more characterised by a pattern of tend and befriend than fight or flight

  E: this involves protecting themselves and their young through nurturing behaviours and forming protective alliances with other women. women may have a different system for coping with stress because their responses evolved in the context of being the primary caregiver for their children

  L: this finding suggests that previous research, which was mainly focused on males, has obscured patterns of stress response in females
• P: the physiological responses associated with fight or flight may be adaptive for a stress response that requires energetic behavioural responses.

  E: the problem for modern humans arises when the stress response is repeatedly activated. the increased blood pressure that is a characteristic of SNS activation can lead to physical damage in blood vessels and heart disease

  L: as a consequence, too much cortisol suppresses the immune response, shutting down the process that fights infection and increasing the likelihood of stress-related illness
• P: Gray argues that the first phase of reaction to a threat is not to fight or flee, but to avoid confrontation

  E: he suggests that, prior to responding with attacking or running away, most animals typically display 'freeze response'. this initial freeze response is a stop, look and listen response, where the animal is hyper-vigilant to the slightest sign of danger

  L: the adaptive advantage of this response for humans are that 'freezing' focuses attention and makes them look for new information in order to make the best response for that particular threat