Literature Review on Gender Differences in Coping Strategies of Human Beings

Many caregivers are elderly themselves, and the heavy physical and mental toll of caregiving can compromise their own health, resulting in two elderly persons needing assistance. Several years ago, Mr. and Mrs. C, another couple in their late 80’s, moved to a Senior Living Community offering different levels of care including Independent Living, Assisted Living, and a Dementia Care Unit. They were in an Independent Living apartment and on a waiting list for an Assisted Living apartment to become available. Although they have adult children close by, Theresa was the primary caregiver for her husband who has

Although, according to Williamson, “many caregivers adapt quite well to their role” (Williamson). Before my pap started losing his memory, I didn’t realize how hard it was to watch a loved one with this disease, let alone care for a patient with Alzheimer’s. According to an article that explains a few coping strategies for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease, “caregivers of people with dementia experience high rates of clinically significant anxiety and depression” (Cooper). This article explains various emotion-focused strategies, problem-focused strategies, and dysfunction-focused strategies for those caring for a person with Alzheimer’s. An experiment was conducted on caregivers of patient who have Alzheimer’s that explains which of these strategies were

The article “Roles and Coping Strategies of Sons Caring for a Parent With Dementia” addresses the specific demographic of sons caring for a parent (or parent-in-law) with dementia and explores the roles and coping strategies of these individuals as well as the emotional impact that care giving has on them. The participants were recruited through information about the study that was provided to group participants and health care providers as well as paper and online flyers. The data was gathered using a semi-structured interview either over the phone or in person and these interviews were conducted over a two year span (from 2011-2013).

Providing care for a family member can cause a tremendous strain for the primary caregiver in many areas of his/her life including financial, physical, and psychological which often results in both increased emotional needs and physical complications for the caregiver (Eun-Jeong Lee, DeDios, Fong, Simonette & Lee, 2013). As disabled older adults live longer lives, there is now an increasing need to rely on others to assist them with their day-to-day activities and activities of daily living (ADL), and that role often falls upon the spouses of the impaired or close family members (Barbosa, Figueirdo, Sousa & Demain, 2010). Research data provided by the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) estimated that there were approximately 44 million caregivers age 18 and over, with one third of those caregivers being male, whom were providing care to adults age 50 and above (National Alliance for Caregiving, 2015). These

According to Milne et al. (1993), helping carers to develop and improve their ability to cope is one of the most useful of all interventions. To do this effectively, however, requires a comprehensive and individualised assessment of the type of stresses carers face, the coping efforts they employ and how successful these are perceived to be (Carers UK 2016). Although a number of general coping indices exist which look broadly at life stresses, it is recognised that these are of limited use in helping identify the specific stresses that carers face (Hinriden and Niedireche

In my opinion, females rely on social support because we are often open-minded to receiving help from an outside source. Society has also made it acceptable women to be vulnerable, as opposed to men who have to always appear masculine and put

The coping strategies used by different age groups are different even when they are faced with similar situation .The older adults more like to use cumulative experience of dealing with the same situation. The young adults tend to rely on defensive coping strategies. The middle aged people are more like to use interpersonal strategies such as information seeking when they are facing chronic diseases unlike older

Chrisler, J. C., & McCreary, D. R. (2010). Handbook of gender research in psychology (Vol. 1). New York NY: Springer.

Morris, R. G., & Woods, R. T. (1992). The use of a coping strategy focused support group for carers of dementia sufferers. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 5(4), 337.

Women with strong masculine traits often receive similar criticism; women are expected to behave differently than men. One study found that in professional business environments women were more likely to disclose chronic illness and find social support, while men were expected to maintain composure and not stray from the task at hand (Munir, Price, Haslam, Leka, & Griffiths, 2006). To further highlight this difference between genders on the disclosure of personal information, women who score high in feminine traits are more likely to become emotionally invested and disclose personal information about themselves in conversations with acquaintances (Shaffer, Pegalis, & Cornell, 2001).

Baron and Cohen (2002) suggested, in their E-S theory, that male hunters gained an evolutionary advantage systematising over women who were much more empathetic. With their theory they suggested that during stress responses, men tend to be adapted for flight or fight, whereas females are not. Shields (1975) suggested that men and women evolved to have roles that complemented each other, in order for both genders to survive. This is supported by Ennis et al 2001) who found that men show a better ‘fight or flight’ response, as during exams men’s cortisol levels are higher than women’s during the same time period. However, evolutionary explanations may partially explain why gender roles have developed but the fact that gender roles can differ globally would imply social factors are also involved, so the evolutionary explanations cannot fully explain gender roles.

Many people have tried to study the psychological differences between genders and found that there are very few. One such study, conducted by Janet Shibley Hyde, used meta-analysis to compare men’s and women’s reactions to certain social situations. Using the equation difference is equal to the mean score for males minus the mean score for women divided by the within-gender standard deviation, Shibley Hyde found that most differences were close to zero, difference was equal to or less than .1, and very few were large dissimilarities, where difference was above .66 (Shibley Hyde). She also found that differences varied according to social context.

This essay discusses coping, a complex process exercised by people to suppress, change, or eliminate stress or threat. This essay also discusses copers, that is, people who exhibit certain personality characteristics, known as distress resistant personality patterns, which can significantly influence whether they stay healthy or become ill. Also covered are coping strategies, -strategies people draw upon to solve life’s stressors, some

Coping strategies refer to the specific efforts, both behavioral and psychological, that people employ to master, tolerate, reduce or minimize stressful events. There are two general coping strategies which have been distinguished. Problem-focused strategies are efforts to do something active to alleviate stressful circumstances, where as emotion-focused coping strategies involve efforts to regulate the emotional consequences of stressful or potentially stressful events. Typically, people use both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping in their stressful episodes, which suggests that both types of coping are useful for most stressful events (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980).

The objective of this study is to determine whether there is an association between nervous breakdowns experience by various people and their gender. Nervous breakdown is a condition which appears in individuals who are stressed and depressed and it greatly affects their actions until this condition is treated. It is characterized with deprivation of sleep, overworking and violence among many other symptoms which normal persons cannot present. This condition is greatly influencing human labor hence serving as a disaster to various economies in the world. This study will be based on the information of various studies that have been conducted which are related to nervous breakdowns after which I will integrate the relevant information so that I may come with one conclusion about my topic.