Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight
Psychologist Shelly Taylor said "it was like a big light went on" in regards to her model of female coping (Azar, 2000). Taylor et al's 2000 model suggests that while "fight-or-flight" may be the physiological response for both males and females in response to stress, behavior tells a different story. Taylor's model, based in evolutionary psychology, notes that challenges faced by women, especially those with a "maternal investment in offspring", call for different reactions. Taylor's 2000 review provides many animal and human examples of affiliative behavior in animals under stress. A response by Geary and Flinn (2000) does not question the theoretical framework of Taylor's review, but points out that men also show affiliative behavior, and that humans are especially prone to male parental investment, making animal comparisons less important to understanding these patterns.
Several experiments have sought empirical support for Taylor's theoretical model. Ennis et al (2001) found gender differences in the release of cortisol for different kinds of stress. Turton and Campbell (2005) found that women selected tend/befriend options more often than men in a small forced-choice experiment (n = 40). Most recently, Wang et al (2007) used fMRI in conjunction with cortisol-level testing to determine that stress reactions lasted longer in women, and affected different areas of the brain, with women's stress showing greatest activation in the parts of the brain "primarily involved in emotion" (ScienceDaily, 2007).
Honestly, when the "fight" response has kicked in for me, I can't say it's been adaptive. I don't think I've ever picked a fight I could win. It's probably for the best. I'd like to clarify, in case it looks like Taylor is saying that women never have the "fight-or-flight" response; that doesn't seem to be her point. However, Taylor is suggesting that this response is of limited utility, and that another response could be more helpful.
My responses to stress usually piss me off, but in that ever-so-feminine internalizing way. I get more angry with myself for my uselessness than with anything else for thwarting me. Prior to transition, it was rare for me to feel properly angry at all. "Frustrated" was a better description. My relationship with anger has been one of the few emotional changes that I've really noticed since transition, and it's easier for me to deal with it now. That's a good thing, since I'm dealing with it a lot more often.
Several experiments have sought empirical support for Taylor's theoretical model. Ennis et al (2001) found gender differences in the release of cortisol for different kinds of stress. Turton and Campbell (2005) found that women selected tend/befriend options more often than men in a small forced-choice experiment (n = 40). Most recently, Wang et al (2007) used fMRI in conjunction with cortisol-level testing to determine that stress reactions lasted longer in women, and affected different areas of the brain, with women's stress showing greatest activation in the parts of the brain "primarily involved in emotion" (ScienceDaily, 2007).
Honestly, when the "fight" response has kicked in for me, I can't say it's been adaptive. I don't think I've ever picked a fight I could win. It's probably for the best. I'd like to clarify, in case it looks like Taylor is saying that women never have the "fight-or-flight" response; that doesn't seem to be her point. However, Taylor is suggesting that this response is of limited utility, and that another response could be more helpful.
My responses to stress usually piss me off, but in that ever-so-feminine internalizing way. I get more angry with myself for my uselessness than with anything else for thwarting me. Prior to transition, it was rare for me to feel properly angry at all. "Frustrated" was a better description. My relationship with anger has been one of the few emotional changes that I've really noticed since transition, and it's easier for me to deal with it now. That's a good thing, since I'm dealing with it a lot more often.