TEND & BEFRIEND vs.

FIGHT or
FLIGHT
Gender Differences in
Behavioral Responses to Stress
By Grace, Hansol, and Michelle
FIGHT OR FLIGHT MODEL OF STRESS

● Prevailing model of physiological and behavioral stress response from 1932-

2000
● Dr. Shelley Taylor and colleagues (UCLA) introduced the tend and befriend
model (2000)
● Based on the idea that evolutionarily women did not have the same options
to fight or flee
○ Tend: protect self and offspring, decrease distress, promote safety
○ Befriend: create and maintain social networks to help with above goals

(Shelley et al., 2000)

2
STUDY BY TURTON AND CAMPBELL (2007)

● Background: traditional fight or flight model is not adaptive for women due
to smaller size and investment in offspring
● Logic: test this hypothesis in a more ecologically valid way through a
situational questionnaire with 4 response options
● Results: chose an average response for each participant based on
responses; women on average chose a tend and befriend behavioral
response more than men
● Discussion: showed that there are different behavioral stress responses, it
does depend by gender, but it is still early in the research
 STUDY PROPOSAL
- REPLICATED MODEL -

Logic: based on Turton & Campbell model of

situations with 4 answer choices
Method: 3 question survey with 4 answer
choices (tend, befriend, fight, flight)
Analysis: give each participant an average
response choice based on 3 answers
Prediction under our hypothesis: females will
have a tend and befriend average more than
males
Prediction under the null hypothesis: there is
no gender difference
(Turton & Campbell, 2007)
EXAMPLE FROM OUR SURVEY
 KEY TAKEAWAY: Females have a higher
RESULTS COMPARISON likelihood of choosing tend or befriend responses

Predicted Actual
RESPONSE ASSOCIATIONS
DISCUSSION

● Important to understand differing motivations and behaviors under stress

● Suggests changes to treatments for anxiety and stressor related disorders
● Many disorders emerge under stress
○ Diathesis stress model
● Therefore it is important to know
how to help men and women based on
their differing motivations
● Eg eating disorders, intermittent
explosive disorder
PREDICTED RESULTS
UNRESOLVED QUESTION
▫ Is there a generational factor associated
with anxiety-induced responses?

Gather a sample of 100 (split 50/50 by

gender) between the ages of 60 and 70

Present questionnaire similar in design to

current (situations more relevant to subjects)

Hypothesis: Female participants will select the

responses that are affiliated with tend or
befriend at a higher rate than males do
QUESTIONS
Thoughts? Reactions?
WORKS CITED

● Taylor, S. E., Klein, L. C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A., &
Updegraff, J. A. (2000). Biobehavioral Responses to Stress in Females: Tend
and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight. Psychological Review, 107(3), 411-429.
doi:10.1037/ / 0033 295X.107.3.411
● Turton, S., & Campbell, C. (2007). Tend and Befriend Versus Fight or Flight:
Gender Differences in Behavioral Response to Stress Among University
Students. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 10(4), 209-232.
doi:10.1111/j.1751-9861.2005.tb00013.x