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:
“To fight without hope is to fight with grace,
The self reconstructed, the false heart repaired.’”
—Sir Herbert Read (1893–1968)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“Men have their own questions, and they differ from those of mothers. New mothers are more interested in nutrition and vulnerability to illness while fathers tend to ask about when they can take their babies out of the house or how much sleep babies really need.”
—Kyle D. Pruett (20th century)