Gender Differences in Coping with Stress (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

Gender differences & stress management

• Research suggests that males and females respond differently to acute stress, and that each gender copes differently with chronic stress and that each gender prefers different types of social support during stress

Response to stress

• Under acute stress, males will show a fight or flight response while females will show a tend and befriend reaction

  • A biological stress response theory that suggests, especially in females, stress can lead to behaviours focused on:

    • tending – nurturing and protecting offspring or vulnerable individuals

    • befriending – seeking social support from others (especially other women) to form protective alliances

  • A biological explanation is that females produce more oxytocin, a hormone released from the pituitary gland that promotes nurturing and co-operation

  • A social learning theory explanation is that females are socialised to take care of family and friends in circumstances that seem to pose a risk 

Coping strategies

• If the stress becomes chronic, females will favour emotion-focused coping

• This means females aim to manage their emotional response to the stressor rather than change the stressor itself. These strategies might include:

  • seeking social support

  • engaging in relaxation or self-care

  • using distraction, venting, or reframing thoughts

  • practising mindfulness or emotional expression

• Males tend to favour problem-focused coping

• This involves direct action to eliminate or reduce the source of stress. These might include:

  • identifying practical solutions

  • taking control of the situation

  • making plans or setting goals

  • seeking information or resources

Social support

• Females tend to prefer an empathetic listener, while males often prefer practical assistance and information

• Generally, females also have more social support networks than males, which is linked to their tend-and-befriend response

• The distinction between problem- and emotion-focused coping was first made by Lazarus and Folkman (1984)

Research which investigates gender differences in coping with stress

• Matud (2004) conducted a large survey of 2816 people and found that women scored significantly higher than men in chronic stress, appraised their stress as less controllable than men did and engaged in more emotion-focused coping than men

• Ptacek et al. (2014) found that females used more social support and emotion-focused coping strategies with an achievement-related stressor (giving a lecture in school before a large audience) than males, who used more problem-focused coping strategies

Evaluation of gender differences in coping with stress

Strengths

• Understanding the gender differences in coping with stress allows us to investigate their efficacy further (as the personal control men take over stressors is effective, but so is women’s use of social networks) and select the best coping strategies from each

• Research supports the theory that men and women use different coping strategies

Limitations

• Dividing the way that people cope with stress by gender ignores individual differences and may create self-fulfilling prophecies where people react in the way they think they ought to because of their gender

• Findings of gender differences in coping strategies are often based on self-report measures that may show participant bias and therefore need validating by method triangulation

Issues & Debates

• Traditional research into stress is gender biased, as it often focuses on male participants and treats the male response as the norm

  • This leads to androcentrism, with theories like fight-or-flight failing to reflect female stress responses.

  • The tend-and-befriend model offers a more balanced view, recognising biological and socialised differences in female stress behaviour

• Research into gender differences uses a nomothetic approach, seeking general laws about how men and women cope

  • This may overlook individual differences, as not all men favour problem-focused strategies and not all women prefer emotional support

  • This shows the benefit of combining nomothetic research with idiographic insight for personalised stress interventions