Tend and Befriend

    Inspired by this week’s reading, Just A Walk On By, I decided to explore the differences of fear in women and men, specifically their psychological responses. The definition of fear is as follows: an unpleasant emotion abused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. When faced with fearful situations, it’s previously been believed that men and women react the same way; a common reaction known as the fight or flight response. This is a process triggered by the perception of threat and prompt the body to either fight the danger source or flee the scene entirely. Now, that belief is starting to change with more and more research about the psychological responses to fear.

 
    Shelley Taylor, a psychology professor at UCLA, proposed that there’s another behavioral response that only exists in women. Tend and befriend. It’s a process that states that women are biologically predisposed to respond to the threat by nurturing and protecting offspring and seeking social support and attention. This phenomenon is connected to the caregiving behavioral systems that prevail in women. Researchers believe that this response is a safety mechanism that might explain why women tend to live longer than men. Fight or flight puts men at risk for physical danger triggered by fight and also keeps them under heightened levels of stress triggered by flight. Seeking out social support, talking, and tending to their offspring helps women feel less stressed.

    Although scientific evidence has said that men show fight or flight and women show tend and befriend, these are only tendencies and reactions vary for each person. As society continues to change, it’s possible for these stress responses to continue to change themselves and new fear-inflicted behaviors to develop.