How did Shelley Taylor define the tend and befriend response?
The tend and befriend instinct contrasts with the fight or flight instinct, and was originally outlined by psychologist Shelley Taylor. While the fight or flight instinct encourages people to flee or become aggressive in stressful situations, the tend and befriend instinct encourages people to reach out to others.
What is fight or flight response psychology?
The fight or flight response is an automatic physiological reaction to an event that is perceived as stressful or frightening. The perception of threat activates the sympathetic nervous system and triggers an acute stress response that prepares the body to fight or flee.
What is the female version of fight or flight?
Recently, a new stress response was proposed, called “tend-and-befriend.” This response is supposed to be the female version of the classic “fight-or-flight” response in dealing with stress.
What does the phrase tend-and-befriend refer to?
Tending involves nurturant activities designed to protect the self and offspring, to promote a sense of safety, and to reduce distress, and befriending is expressed in the creation and maintenance of social networks that aid in this process.
What is tend-and-befriend and why is it so important?
The word ‘tend’ refers to tending to your offspring, and ‘befriend’ refers to seeking out social support during times of stress. It’s interesting to know that while a lot has changed, the tend-and-befriend response to stress still serves as positive a purpose to women and their children now as it did before.
What nervous system is fight or flight?
The sympathetic nervous system functions like a gas pedal in a car. It triggers the fight-or-flight response, providing the body with a burst of energy so that it can respond to perceived dangers. The parasympathetic nervous system acts like a brake.
Why are females more stressed than males?
Dr Mohring said stress among women frequently related to pressure on them to fill many different roles – but there were also body image and other pressures.
What is tend and befriend and how is it related to the fight or flight response?
Definition of Tend-and-Befriend Psychlopedia defines the Tend-and-Befriend Model (or bonding response) as the: “Stress response model saying that females are biologically predisposed to respond to the threat by nurturing and protecting offspring and seeking social support and attention.”
What is meant by the phrase Fight or flight?
The term “fight-or-flight” represents the choices that our ancient ancestors had when faced with danger in their environment. They could either fight or flee. In either case, the physiological and psychological response to stress prepares the body to react to the danger.