shelley taylor Tend and Befriend. Throughout her career, Taylor has enjoyed pulling together the strands of her research into broad theories that she can then test in her lab. Interpersonal stress is the most common and distressing type of stress for women. Oxytocin promotes affiliative behavior, including maternal tending and social contact with peers. status, social positions, rights and responsibilities). [16], According to Taylor (2000), affiliative behaviors and tending activities reduce biological stress responses in both parents and offspring, thereby reducing stress-related health threats. Shelley Elizabeth Taylor (born 1946) is a distinguished professor of psychology at the Susan Fiske and Shelley Taylor. [5], Women are more likely to respond to stress through tending and befriending than men. Since then, the "fight or flight" concept has dominated scientific thinking about responses to stress, illuminating the emotional, cognitive, behavioral and biological processes that mediate and modify this basic pattern. Research by psychologist Tiffany Field, anthropologist Jay Kaplan and others shows that tending young and affiliating with friends dramatically reduces stress in humans and other animals, resulting in improved immune function, mood and a host of other rewards. It refers to protection of offspring (tending) and seeking out their social group for mutual defense (befriending). Title: Biobehavioral Responses to Stress in Females: Tend-and-Befriend, not Fight-or-Flight Author: Taylor, Klein, Lewis, Gruenewald, Gurung, and Updegraff Tend and befriend model In 2000, Taylor and colleagues developed the tend and befriendmodel of responses to stress. For QAnon Believers Facing Reality, What Happens Now? However, consistent with informational warfare theory, the content of gossip is relevant to the context in which competition is occurring. Wake, Ph.D., a sociology professor at the University of Chicago, and co-author Maggie Gallagher, assert that one major benefit of marriage is having someone to talk to during periods of stress. According to Taylor, who published her "tend and befriend" theory in the July 2000 issue of Psychological Review (Vol. [10] These cognitive, prosocial processes brought on by cooperative breeding may have led to the emergence of culture and language. In addition, people are more likely to spread negative information about potential rivals but more likely to pass on positive information about family members and friends. Among foraging societies without modern birth control methods, women have high parity, tending to give birth about every four years during their reproductive lifespan. In addition to fight-or-flight, humans demonstrate tending and befriending responses to stress—responses underpinned by the hormone oxytocin, by opioids, and by dopaminergic pathways. This is the idea that evolutionary bias may force us into unwise decisions. D) taking cover and protecting offspring. [11] When mothers give birth, they often have multiple dependent children in their care, who rely on adults for food and shelter for eighteen or more years. [23] When experimentally primed with a mating motive or status competition motive, men were more willing to become directly aggressive towards another man, whereas women were more likely to indirectly aggress against another woman in an aggression-provoking situation. Tend and Befriend Theory Shelley E. Taylor University of California, Los Angeles Abstract The Tend and Befriend theory builds on the observation that human beings affiliate in response to stress. [13] Women tend to affiliate with other women under stressful situations. [19] In the United States, for example, this difference is almost 6 years. For example, when competing for a work promotion, people were more likely to spread negative work-related information about a competitor to coworkers. A new theory aims to make sense of it all. The Tend-and-Befriend Model. Shelley E. Taylor is a distinguished professor of psychology at UCLA and one of the country’s leading scientists. [15] However, a review of female aggression noted that "The fact that OT [oxytocin] enhances, rather than diminishes, attention to potential threat in the environment casts doubt on the popular ‘tend-and-befriend’ hypothesis which is based on the presumed anxiolytic effect of OT". Friedman, H.S., & Silver, R.C. (2000) argue that female social groups also provide protection from male aggression. Although females in general are less physically aggressive, they tend to engage in as much or even more indirect aggression (e.g. [24] However, experimentally priming people with a resource competition motive increased direct aggression in both men and women[citation needed]. Instead, Taylor's team found that, during tough times, stressed females spend significantly more time tending to vulnerable offspring than males. [4] Thus, affiliation under stress serves tending needs, including protective responses towards offspring. But fight or flight is only part of a bigger picture, according to Shelley Taylor, Ph.D., a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues. A quick look into the fascinating research of Shelly Taylor, Ph.D of UCLA who has shown us that women and men have very different ways of dealing with stress. These social responses to threat reduce biological stress responses, including lowering heart rate, blood pressure, and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA) stress activity, such as cortisol responses. B) seeking social support. In addition to fight-or-flight, humans demonstrate tending and befriending responses to stress—responses underpinned by the hormone oxytocin, by opioids, and … Group living and affiliation with multiple unrelated others of the same sex (who do not share genetic interests) also presents the problem of competing for access to limited resources, such as social status, food, and mates. One concept we hear about in the investment and financial planning world is a real downer. This model contrasts with the "fight-or-flight response" which states that in the face of a harmful stressor, we either face it or run from it. Taylor, a professor at UCLA who, along with her colleagues, developed the “tend and befriend” theory of stress response, challenges the … She presented this theory and the accompanying evidence at a November 13, 2003 lecture at the … [25] Therefore, women respond to threats by tending and befriending, and female aggression is often indirect and covert in nature to avoid retaliation and physical injury. Fueled by the observation that stress studies conducted in the past rarely involved females, Taylor's team wondered if women and men might respond to stress differently. So while this work doesn't fully explain gender differences in reactions to stress, it does pave the way for exciting new avenues of interdisciplinary research on how stress affects our lives. social exclusion, gossip, rumors, denigration). [1], According to the Polyvagal theory developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, the "Social Nervous System" is an affiliative neurocircuitry that prompts affiliation, particularly in response to stress. B) seeking social support. Tend and Befriend In threatening times, people seek positive social relationships, because such contacts provide protection to maintain one’s own safety and that of one’s offspring. However, the benefits of affiliation would have outweighed the costs in order for tend-and-befriend to have evolved. Taylor’s research suggests that oxytocin and endogenous opioid peptides are implicated in affiliative responses to stress, especially in women. The tend-and-befriend theoretical model was originally developed by Dr. Shelley E. Taylor and her research team at the University of California, Los Angeles and first described in a This tend-and-befriend account of social responses to stress is the theoretical basis for our work. [26] This effect was stronger when the friend was from the same competitive social environment (e.g. Tend-and-Befriend, Not Fight-or-Flight Shelley E. Taylor, Laura Cousino Klein, Brian P. Lewis, Tara L. Gruenewald, Regan A. R. Gurung, and John A. Updegraff University of California, Los Angeles The human stress response has been characterized, both physiologically and behaviorally, as "fight-or-flight." Furthermore, support from another female provides enhanced stress-reducing benefits to women. D) taking cover and protecting offspring. [9] Breastfeeding in humans, which is associated with maternal oxytocin release, is physiologically calming to both mothers and infants.[1]. Allomothers (helpers who are not a child's mother) protect, provision, carry, and care for children. [3] Oxytocin is released in humans in response to a broad array of stressors, especially those that may trigger affiliative needs. [25] In contrast, resource competition did not increase direct aggression in either men or women when they were asked to imagine themselves married and with a young child[citation needed]. But Taylor's research supports a new and compelling case that stress elicits prosocial behavior, especially in females, and that this dynamic is deeply rooted in the evolution of social mammals. Women create, maintain, and use social networks—especially friendships with other women—to manage stressful conditions. [26] Gossip is one such tactic, functioning to spread information that would damage the reputation of a competitor. In this model, ''tend'' refers to: A) becoming physiologically aroused. Evolutionary thinking about gender differences may seem to imply that behavior is a simple matter of genes, or it may even justify stereotyping of the two sexes, but according to Taylor and her colleagues, life is much more interesting than that; our biological heritage is not destiny but rather a force that "influences and interacts with social, cultural, cognitive and emotional factors." 219.The In Focus box on gender differences in responding to stress presents Shelley Taylor's proposal that women ''tend-and-befriend'' in response to stress. In many mammals, and cross-culturally in humans, females form especially close, stable attachments with other females, often kin. The researchers suspect that endorphins--proteins that help alleviate pain--and oxytocin--a female reproductive hormone--may play an important role in establishing this pattern, while factors like learning and socialization help to maintain it. Burkart, Hrdy, and Van Schaik (2009) argue that cooperative breeding in humans may have led to the evolution of psychological adaptations for greater prosociality, enhanced social cognition, and cognitive abilities for cooperative purposes, including willingness to share mental states and shared intentionality. Studies of ewes show that administration of oxytocin promoted maternal behavior. [2] This system is described as regulating social approach behavior. In this model, ''tend'' refers to: A) becoming physiologically aroused. The survival of young children depended more on maternal than paternal care, which underscores the importance of maternal safety, survival, and risk aversion. The "tend and befriend" theory builds on the observation that human beings affiliate in response to stress. Consistent with this result, rates of violence and crime are higher among males and females under conditions of resource scarcity. Therefore, they have less to gain from fighting and the risk of injury or death would produce greater fitness cost for females. Group living provides numerous benefits, including protection from predators and cooperation to achieve shared goals and access to resources. Under conditions of threat, they tend to offspring to ensure their survival and affiliate with others for joint protection and comfort. [1] In the presence of threats, protecting and calming offspring while blending into the environment may have increased chances of survival for mother and child. Studies by psychologist Rena Repetti in the late 1990's showed that after a hard day at work, women were much more nurturing toward their children, whereas men withdrew from family life. The human stress response has been characterized, both physiologically and behaviorally, as "fight-or-flight." [1] Oxytocin administration to rats and prairie voles increased social contact and social grooming behaviors, reduced stress, and lowered aggression. [11] Humans have spent most of human evolution as hunter-gatherer foragers. Tending involves nurturant activities designed to protect the self and offspring that promote safety and reduce distress; befriending is the creation and maintenance of social networks that may aid in this process. Supposedly, our caveman brains are stimulated by ‘fight or flight’ tendencies in … [17] "Befriending" may lead to substantial mental and physical health benefits in times of stress. (2007). [25] Infants' primary attachment is to their mother, and maternal death increased the chances of childhood mortality in foraging societies by fivefold, compared to threefold in the cases of paternal death. Research shows that women are more likely to seek the company of others in times of stress, compared to men. There are several theories regarding gossip, including social bonding and group cohesion. Lower variance in reproductive success and higher costs of physical aggression may explain the lower rates of physical aggression among human females compared to males. "The evolutionary psychology of women's aggression", "Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis", "Informational warfare: Coalitional gossiping as a strategy for within-group aggression", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tend_and_befriend&oldid=975818086, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from November 2013, Articles with unsourced statements from March 2020, Articles needing POV-check from March 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Instead, tend and Befriend evolves from an evolutionary perspective and asserts that "people, especially women, evolved social means for dealing … Shelley Elizabeth Taylor (born 1946) is a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles.She received her Ph.D. from Yale University, and was formerly on the faculty at Harvard University. 107, No. [3], Oxytocin has been tied to a broad array of social relationships and activities, including peer bonding, sexual activity, and affiliative preferences. Studies by Hess and Hagen (2009) show that the presence of a competitor's friend reduced people's tendencies to gossip about the competitor. 219. Smuts (1992) and Taylor et al. With these intriguing possibilities in mind, Taylor and her coworkers plumbed dozens of studies conducted in the last 30 years of species ranging from rats to monkeys to people in diverse cultures. Such a reproductive strategy would not have been able to evolve if women did not have help from others. So while stress can spark a rampage, a kinder, gentler response to adversity is also in our nature. [1] During threatening situations, group members can be a source of support and protection for women and their children. Such threats are not limited to physical harm but also include reputational damage. As mentioned above, befriending can serve to protect women from threats, including harm from other people. Tend and Befriend The tend and befriend instinct contrasts with the fight or flight instinct, and was originally outlined by psychologist Shelley Taylor. A biological basis for this regulation appears to be oxytocin. While it's difficult to know what was advantageous millions of years ago, the contemporary benefits seem fairly clear: It has long been known that social support buffers stress for both women and men. One theoretical paper that made a big splash was a 2000 paper in Psychological Review, describing what Taylor calls the “tend-and-befriend” model . Tend and befriend model. Tend-and-befriend is a critical, adaptive strategy that would have enhanced reproductive success among female cooperative breeders. The In Focus box on gender differences in responding to stress presents Shelley Taylor's proposal that women ''tend-and-befriend'' in response to stress. [11] Non-mother female wolves and wild dogs sometimes begin lactating to nurse the alpha female's pups. Women have higher life expectancies from birth in most countries where there is equal access to medical care. Social isolation is associated with significantly enhanced risk of mortality, whereas social support is tied to positive health outcomes, including reduced risk of illness and death.[18]. The tend and befriend theory proposed by Shelley Taylor, speaks best to the coping technique used by: Women This stressor would be classified as a bioecological influence. Women form friendships and alliances in part to compete for limited resources, and also in part to protect themselves from relational and reputational harm. But does a "man run amok" tendency truly lurk in everyone? Tend-and-Befriend: Building Models. [7] In contrast, fathers who experienced stressful workdays were more likely to withdraw from their families or were more interpersonally conflictual that evening at home. Informational warfare is the strategic competitive tactics taking the form of indirect, verbal aggression directed towards rivals. Taylor's team concludes that befriending is "the primary gender difference in adult human behavioral responses to stress.". Those are ages in which females are at peak reproductive potential and experience the most mating competition. Humans are born helpless and altricial, mature slowly, and depend on parental investment well into their young adult lives, and often even later. Among all primates and most mammals, endocrinological and neural processes lead females to nurture infants, including unrelated infants, after being exposed long enough to infant signals. Social contact or support during stressful times leads to lowered sympathetic and neuroendocrine stress responses. Shelley E. Taylor. [20] In contrast, women's responses to stress, which include turning to social sources for support, may be protective to health. When faced with stress, females often respond by tending to offspring, which in turn reduces stress levels. Through her work at the University of California, Los Angeles, Taylor proposed a new model for female reactions to stress – the “tend and befriend” model. In evolutionary psychology, tend-and-befriend is theorized as having evolved as the typical female response to stress. So while both sexes share the capacity for fight or flight, females seem to use it less. The costs of physical injury to a parent would also entail costs to his or her family. And this tendency for females to affiliate with other familiar people increases during times of stress. Females who retained the fight-or-flight response would have decreased chances of surviving and hence decreased likelihood of their offspring survival and reproduction. Early studies on the human stress response were done by men, on male participants, to explore arguably male scenarios from a male perspective. Taylor et al. [1] Female-female social networks can provide assistance for childcare, exchange of resources, and protection from predators, other threats, and other group members. And females of many species form tight, stable alliances, possibly reflecting an adaptive tendency to seek out friends for support in times of stress. Affiliation may also take the form of befriending, namely seeking social contact for one's own protection, the protection of offspring, and the protection of the social group. Tend and Befriend: Biobehavioral Bases of Affiliation Under Stress - Shelley E. Taylor, 2006. In environments with a female-biased sex ratio, where males are a more limited resource, female-to-female competition for mates is intensified, sometimes even resorting to violence. Studies conducted by Repetti (1989) show that mothers respond to highly stressful workdays by providing more nurturing behaviors towards their children. Drawing on previous animal and human research, UCLA psychology professor Shelley Taylor and colleagues first coined the “tend-and-befriend” concept in a … Under conditions of threat, they tend to offspring to ensure their survival and affiliate with others for joint protection and comfort. 3), this pattern of behavior makes for a significant contrast to the "fight or flight" paradigm that has dominated stress response theory for the last 50 years. The presence of friends and allies can help deter malicious gossip, due to an alliance's greater ability to retaliate, compared to a single individual's ability. Cooperative breeders are group-living animals where infant and juvenile care from non-mother helpers are essential to offspring survival. The biobehavioral mechanism that underlies the tend-and-befriend pattern appears to draw on the attachment-caregiving system, and neuroendocrine evidence from animal and human studies … Carter, C.S., Lederhendler, I.I., & Kirkpatrick, B., eds. same workplace) than when the friend was from a nonrelevant social environment. This theory is based in evolutionary psychology, a field which has generated significant criticism for its promotion of gender determinism.[27][28]. In the Psychological Review, the researchers describe how stress can elicit another behavioral pattern they call "tend and befriend"--especially in females. [11] Allomothers are usually a child's aunts, uncles, fathers, grandmothers, siblings, and other women in the community. This tend-and-befriend account of social responses to stress is the theoretical basis for Taylor’s work on social support. Tend-and-befriend is a behavior exhibited by some animals, including humans, in response to threat. [25] Females are in general more likely to produce offspring in their lifetimes than males. Although social support downregulates these physiological stress responses in both men and women, women are more likely to seek social contact during stress. UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) is the largest UC campus in terms of enrollment, and one of the few public research universities located in a major city. [8] Oxytocin, released in response to stressors, may be the mechanism underlying the female caregiving response. But when researcher Shelley Taylor, ... PhD, suspect that the tend and befriend behavior in women, particularly as it pertains to social connections, may explain why women outlive men. In evolutionary psychology, tend-and-befriend is theorized as having evolved as the typical female response to stress. Friends increase women's perceived capabilities for inflicting reputational harm on a rival as well as perceptions of defensive capabilities against indirect aggression. In humans, oxytocin promotes mother-infant attachments, romantic pair bonds, and friendships. C) withdrawing from the stressor and taking care of their own emotional needs. (Eds.) Socioemotional Resources/Positive Illusions Socioemotional resources, including optimism, mastery, self-esteem, and social support, have biological and psychological benefits, especially in times of stress. When asked why he might have lost control, Alexander's friend Michael Smith could offer little explanation, saying, "He was a good man, but pressure, pressure--everybody blows up under pressure.". [1][14], Human and animal studies (reviewed in Taylor et al., 2000) suggest that oxytocin is the neuroendocrine mechanism underlying the female "befriend" stress response. (2000) propose the tend-and-befriend female stress response as an evolutionary solution to this problem that would have been selected for in natural selection. [12] Women and adolescent girls report more sources of social support and are more likely to turn to same-sex peers for support than men or boys are. [10] Cooperative breeders include wolves, elephants, many nonhuman primates, and humans. Tend and Befriend • a theory presented by Shelley Taylor that states that women who experience stress do not necessarily run or fight, but rather turn to friends … It quickly became clear that, compared to males, females' physical aggression and fear-related behaviors are less intense and more "cerebral"--they are displayed in response to specific circumstances and are less tied to physiological arousal. [21] Although the befriending stress response may be especially activated for women under conditions of resource scarcity,[1] resource scarcity also entails more intense competition for these resources. It refers to protection of offspring (tending) and seeking out their social group for mutual defense (befriending). They reasoned that the adaptive value of fighting or fleeing may be lower for females, who often have dependent young and so risk more in terms of reproductive success if injured or dislocated. Both oxytocin and endorphins may also contribute to the second piece of the puzzle--females' tendency to "befriend." [26] Negative gossip also increases with resource scarcity and higher resource value. The “tend and befriend” theory builds on the observation that human beings affiliate in response to stress. Cross-culturally, women and girls tend to provide more frequent and effective support than men do, and they are more likely to seek help and support from other female friends and family members. Psychology Today © 2021 Sussex Publishers, LLC, Two Words Stop Toxic Habits and Addiction in Their Tracks, How Baby Boomers Maintain Their Sex Lives, What Goes on Beneath the Surface When Narcissists Get Angry, Four Ways to Improve Your Time Management, Why Some People Don’t Seek Mental Health Services, Analysis Paralysis vs. Therapy on a Mission. The tend-and-befriend theoretical model was originally developed by Dr. Shelley E. Taylor and her research team at the University of California, Los Angeles and first described in a Psychological Review article published in the year 2000. Indeed, in The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier & Better Off Financially (Doubleday, 2000), Linda J. My 80-year-old mom took on the challenging journey with meticulous dedication, instead of her habitual resistance. By Nancy K. Dess published September 1, 2000 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016, On June 21, 2000, in San Leandro, California, a frighteningly familiar scene unfolded: Stuart Alexander, a sausage factory owner, suddenly opened fire on four government meat inspectors, killing three. 13 ] women tend to affiliate with others for joint protection and.. Therefore, they have less to gain from fighting and the risk of injury or death would greater... The observation that human beings affiliate in response to stress, compared to men ] non-mother female and. “ tend and befriendmodel of responses to stress. `` under stress tending. Breeding may have led to the emergence of culture and language support during stressful leads. Tendency to `` befriend. for real life, opportunities to gratify wishes and. To have evolved Shelley E. 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