The Difference Of Stress Effects On Womens Health
The Difference Between Men and Women…
In our last newsletter, mention was made of the effects of stress. For those of you who received it we also ran a story about stress and the fight or flight response in our November eNewsletter, (recently transcribed to our blog page). It was pointed out, by a female staff member at Profitune, that recent research has shown that women actually have a different biological response to stress that buffers the fight or flight effects of adrenaline.
According to research through UCLA, women have a ‘tend or befriend’ response that is driven primarily by oxytocin, which is a hormone that is present in both men and women. However, testosterone – which men produce in high levels when they’re under stress – seems to reduce the effects of oxytocin. Whereas estrogen, which is usually present at significantly higher levels in women, seems to greatly enhance it. (Taylor, S. E., Klein, L.C., Female Responses to Stress: Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight, 2000)
This ancient survival method meant that while the men of the tribe were fighting off the sabre-toothed tiger, the women would have gathered the children together and worked as a group to ensure the safety of all.
It is proposed that this hormonal reaction to stress, leads women to seek affiliative contact with other females. If these relationships are positive and reciprocal then the effects of stress are greatly diminished. If the attempts at creating supportive bonding are negative or rejected then the effects of stress are further increased.
“When she actually engages in this tending or befriending, studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress and produces a calming effect.” says Dr Laura Klein Phd, one of the founding researchers. The important point from a business sense is that work relationships that provide social support appear to improve health.
A 2008 study by Rachael Morrison from the Business Faculty of New Zealand’s AUT University investigated gender differences in the perceived benefits of workplace friendships, and the relationship between friendship factors and organizational outcomes. Four hundred and forty-five respondents from predominantly Western countries including New Zealand, Australia and America completed an Internet based questionnaire which asked them to describe the benefits received from workplace friendships, and which measured these workplace friendships and organizational variables.
Friendship prevalence and opportunities were more strongly correlated with job satisfaction for men. Women were significantly more likely than men to describe the benefits of workplace friendship in terms of social and emotional support in times of stress, while men focused mainly on the benefits friends provided them in their career or in functional aspects of ‘getting the job done’.
Some of the 50-odd symptoms of stress as listed by www.stress.org include;
• Reduced work efficiency or productivity
• Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
• Trouble learning new information
• Forgetfulness, disorganisation, confusion
• Feeling overloaded or overwhelmed
• Lies or excuses to cover up poor work
When you consider this, what strategies could you implement to encourage nurturing relationships in your workplace?
Take Stock Of Your Friends…Now!
Remember though, that the quality of the relationship is key to this research. Over time, the attitudes, thinking, spirits and approach to life of those who are nearest to you can become attached to you and your life.
If problem friends are “glugging” up your life, you have three options:
1. Choose to continue the relationship
2. Try to change the conditions it produces or
3. Separate yourself from the annoyance and find new friends – there are plenty of wonderful, supportive people out there!
Author John Mason would not be the first person to make the following observation:
“My choice to change my closest friends was a turning point in my life.”
Thoughts:
If you can run the company a bit more collaboratively, you get a better result, because you have more bandwidth and checking and balancing going on.
Larry Page
Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
Anais Nin
If we are together nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.
Winston Churchill
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You, too? Thought I was the only one.”
C.S Lewis
