Fight or Flight Versus Tend and Befriend
The dominant model of the human responses to stress has been the fight or flight response. In response to threat, humans (and other animals) can become aggressive and confront a stressor (fight) or flee either literally or through avoidant coping, such as social withdrawal or substance abuse. From the standpoint of human beings, however, this analysis of stress responses is incomplete. Another tendency is to affiliate, that is, to come together in groups in threatening times. This tend and befriend response refers to the fact that people often manage threats by caring for offspring and seeking social support in time of stress.
Read more about this topic: Tend And Befriend
Famous quotes containing the words fight, flight and/or tend:
“And everybody praised the Duke
Who such a fight did win.—
But what good came of it at last?
Quoth little Peterkin.—
Why that I cannot tell, said he,
But ‘twas a famous victory.”
—Robert Southey (1774–1843)
“Here I am.... You get the parts of me you like and also the parts that make you uncomfortable. You have to understand that other people’s comfort is no longer my job. I am no longer a flight attendant.”
—Patricia Ireland (b. 1935)
“In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)