need to revise a paper in 3 hours.

11/1/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition

https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781317345046/cfi/6/44!/4/2/2/12/4/2@0:0 1/3

to depression? More recently, it has been found that dysregulated patterns of oxytocin are associated with depression. When levels of oxytocin in the blood were measured in depressed and nondepressed women during two tasks, depressed women showed greater variability in oxytocin than nondepressed women (Cyranowski et al., 2008). The Brain. More recently, researchers have examined whether structural or functional differences in women’s and men’s brains contribute to sex differences in depression. There is some evidence that women and men use different regions of the brain to process emotional stimuli (Robison & Shankman, 2008). When a sad mood was induced among men and women, brain scans revealed greater specificity in brain activation for males than females (Schneider et al., 2000), suggesting that negative emotions might be processed in a more diffuse way among females.

Taken collectively, biological factors alone are not sufficient to explain sex differences in depression. However, more research is needed on this issue. Hormones, in particular, may play a role, but their effect is not a direct one. The role of oxytocin in depression is a promising avenue of research. Hormones probably have their greatest explanatory power when they are examined within the context of environmental events. Research on the brain is relatively new and also may help to identify biological underpinnings of depression in women and men.

Learned Helplessness Learned helplessness is the sense of giving up because we perceive that nothing can be done to alter a situation. If you have ever studied long hours for a class without improving your grade, you might have experienced learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is the product of three events (Seligman, 1992). First, we learn an outcome is beyond our control; second, we respond by giving up or ceasing to respond; third, we generalize this response to new situations—perceive that future responses cannot influence future outcomes. A model of learned helplessness is shown in Figure 13.5. According to the model, the chain of events is set into motion by an environmental event rather than by a characteristic of the perceiver. That is, something happens to lead to the perception of uncontrollability. For example, you exercise daily and eat a healthy diet for six months without losing any weight. Or, with each passing quiz, you increase your studying but your grade declines. After the environmental event occurs, you develop the expectation that future responses will not influence the outcome. This leads to the behavior of giving up. Recall your own experiences of learned helplessness in Do Gender 13.3.

FIGURE 13.5A model of learned helplessness. An environmental event leads to a cognition, which produces behavioral, cognitive, and emotional deficits. Source: Adapted from Seligman (1992).

Is there any evidence that women are more susceptible than men to learned helplessness? Some evidence suggests women receive more “helplessness training” than men. Women are more likely to find themselves in situations in which they do not have control, partly due to their lower status. During childhood, girls learn they cannot influence boys, which is one reason girls play with other girls rather than with boys (Maccoby, 1998). As discussed in Chapter 6, girls receive less attention from teachers, which may teach them that they can do little to influence their environment. The power differential in heterosexual relationships undermines females’ sense of control (Chonody & Siebert, 2008). In a study of 1,000 community residents, women scored lower on feelings of control than men did, and reduced feelings of control were associated with depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, Larson, & Grayson, 1999). The female stereotype includes passivity, dependence, and needing others’ protection, all of which undermine feelings of personal control.

11/1/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition

https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781317345046/cfi/6/44!/4/2/2/12/4/2@0:0 2/3

DO GENDER 13.3 Personal Experience of Learned Helplessness

Review the model of learned helplessness in Figure 13.5. Think about a time when you exerted a response over and over again and found it had no effect on the outcome. Did you give up? After how long? Why? What were the effects of this experience? Specifically, did this lead you to give up on subsequent tasks—related or unrelated to the present one? What were the short-term effects? The long-term effects?

The learned helplessness theory of depression is supported by the fact that other demographic variables associated with a lack of control are associated with depression, such as education. The relation of low education to higher depression is stronger among women than men (Ross & Mirowsky, 2006), possibly due to the fact that women with low education suffer from two sources of low status and lack of control—being female and lacking education. As shown in Figure 13.6, the sex difference in depression is much larger among those with lower levels of education and disappears among those with a college degree and higher. Thus, one reason that increased education decreases women’s rates of depression is that it enhances their sense of control.

Overall, the learned helplessness theory of depression is appealing, but there are not good studies that directly test whether this theory accounts for sex differences in depression. The evidence is largely circumstantial.

Coping Coping refers to the different strategies that we use to manage stressful events and the accompanying distress associated with them. If your girlfriend breaks up with you, you may go talk to a friend about it, you may wallow in self-pity, you may try to figure out what happened, or you may decide to go swimming to take your mind off things. All of these represent different ways of coping.

One distinction that has been made in the literature is between emotion-focused coping and problem- focused coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Problem-focused coping refers to attempts to alter the stressor itself. Finding a solution to the problem, seeking the advice of others as to how to solve the problem, and coming up with a plan to approach the problem are all problem-solving methods. Emotion-focused coping refers to ways in which we accommodate ourselves to the Stressor. There are a variety of emotion-focused coping strategies that are quite distinct from one another. Distracting oneself from the Stressor, avoiding the problem, and denying the problem’s existence are all ways we change our reaction to the Stressor rather than altering the Stressor itself. Talking about the problem to relieve distress, accepting the problem, and putting a positive spin on the problem are also emotion-focused ways of coping.

11/1/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition

https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781317345046/cfi/6/44!/4/2/2/12/4/2@0:0 3/3