Gender Differences In Physiological Stress Responses

Gender Differences in Physiological Stress Responses

Caleb Reese

Kennesaw State University

Gender Differences in Physiological Stress Responses

The sympathetic nervous system has long been known to be involved in the preparation of the organs for a “fight-or-flight” response to stress and this response has been long understood by researchers and the general public as a universal one. Not until recently, with the study in 2000 by Taylor et al., were the ideas proposed that men and women physiologically and behaviorally differ in terms of how they respond to psychosocial stress factors and that previous studies on this topic had only involved male rats. Taylor et al. (2000) suggested that, while men still react with the “fight-or-flight” response, women will favor a “tend-and-befriend” response. The women’s responses will be more apt to protect themselves and any offspring in a nurturing way and to either create or call upon members of their social network during any distress (Taylor et al., 2000). Moreover, Taylor et al. (2000) found in

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