Tend and Befriend Versus Fight or Flight: Gender Differences in Behavioral Response to Stress Among University Students

Abstract

Taylor et al. (2000) proposed that female behavioral responses to stress are characterized better as "tend and befriend" than "fight or flight." Q methodology was adopted to investigate different responses to stress. A Q set of 61 statements was sorted by 40 participants (18 male, 22 female) using principal components factor analysis. Four factors were extracted, accounting for 53.5% of the total variance. The 4 factors corresponded with fight, flight, tend, and befriend stress responses. Females were more likely to portray a tend-and-befriend response to stress. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to past research that has been conducted with participants, predominantly of a single gender and for future stress research studies.

An Analysis of Social Behaviors in Stressful Situations Using Q-Sort Data

“…We do see a somewhat clearer pattern of distancing in male participants, which is consistent with other work that suggests that males report less utilization of social support than do females (Turton & Campbell, 2005).…”

“…Women tend to have larger social networks than men (McLaughlin, Vagenas, Pachana, Begum, & Dobson, 2010). Women are likelier than men to report engaging in tending and befriending behaviors, whereas men are likelier to report engaging in fight or flight behaviors in times of stress (Turton & Campbell, 2005). Women are likelier to exhibit more supportseeking than do men, both in general (Felsten, 1998) and in the wake of a significant stressor (Norberg, Lindblad, & Boman, 2006).…”

“…This procedure thus limits the number of descriptors a respondent can place in the extreme categories. Turton and Campbell (2005) developed a four-factor Q-sort instrument to examine specifically the fight, flight, tend, and befriend behavioral response patterns. Other Q-sorts, such as the Riverside Behavioral Q-Sort (Funder, Furr, & Colvin, 2000;Furr, Wagerman, & Funder, 2010), while not designed explicitly for the sole purpose of assessing social support, also contain items relevant to social support and tending-and-befriending.…”

Gender Differences in the Association Between Cyberbullying Victimization and Perpetration: The Role of Anger Rumination and Traditional Bullying Experiences

“…Therefore, the second hypothesis was confirmed. Given that males have been found to exhibit more aggressive behaviors than females (see Bettencourt and Miller 1996 for a review) and are more likely to react to stressful events (e.g., conflicts) using a direct confrontation approach over avoidance (Taylor et al 2000;Turton and Campbell 2005), it might be the case that those male victims who tend to ruminate about past angry episodes are more likely to fantasize about revenge (Sukhodolsky et al 2001), and that such hostile thoughts might lead to a greater probability of actual retaliation.…”

“…With regard to anger, males have been found to have a higher tendency of exhibiting direct forms of aggression and confrontation when facing a stressful event, whereas females are more likely to respond to stress with a Btend and befriend^reaction, which urges avoidance (Taylor et al 2000;Turton and Campbell 2005). According to previous studies, the most common response to CB is anger (Camodeca et al 2002;Ortega et al 2012).…”