The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

382 Chapter 10

whereas unmitigated agency is related to risk-taking

behavior. Communion is unrelated to health, but unmiti-

gated communion is related to poor health behavior and

psychological distress, possibly due to nurturant roles.

Symptom Perception

One explanation of why women suffer greater

morbidity compared to men is that women

are more sensitive to changes within their

body. That is, women have a lower threshold

for noticing and reporting symptoms.

Evidence

There is no hard evidence indicating women

are more able than men to perceive symptoms.

It is important, though difficult, to distinguish

symptom perception from symptom report-

ing. Women may be more likely to report a

symptom once it is perceived. During child-

hood, girls are socialized to report symptoms

and boys are socialized to withhold symptoms.

One area of research aimed at address-

ing symptom perception is pain research.

There are sex differences in pain perception.

The sex differences are most clear in response

to experimentally induced pain. In labora-

tory studies, a pain stimulus is applied to the

respondent at a very low level, and intensity

is gradually increased. These studies tend to

show that women have lower thresholds of

pain, report greater intensity of pain, have

lower tolerance levels for pain, and are bet-

ter able to discriminate different levels of pain

compared to men (Defrin, Shramm, & Eli,

2009; Fillingim et al., 2009). Another piece of

evidence that pain is linked to sex is the fact

that so many pain disorders are more preva-

lent in women than men—fibromyalgia,

rheumatoid arthritis, musculoskeletal pain,

and migraines (Fillingim et al., 2009). Across

and unmitigated communion are important.

When I first became interested in these issues

in my dissertation research, I distinguished

agency from unmitigated agency in a group of

heart attack survivors and found that unmiti-

gated agency was associated with more severe

heart attacks, whereas agency was associated

with less severe heart attacks (Helgeson, 1990).

Since that time, unmitigated agency has been

associated with reckless driving, substance

use, binge eating, psychological distress, and

overall lower levels of well-being (Danoff-Burg

et al., 2006; Ghaed & Gallo, 2006; Yu & Xie,

2008). Although communion is typically un-

related to health, unmitigated communion is

associated with poor health, especially greater

psychological distress, disturbed eating behav-

ior, and poor health behavior (Ghaed & Gallo,

2006; Helgeson & Fritz, 1996, 1998; Helgeson

et al., 2007; Yu & Xie, 2008).

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ When women’s and men’s social roles become more

equal, sex differences in health diminish.

■ One reason for men’s higher mortality rates compared

to women—especially from accidents—is men’s

greater job hazards, greater number of miles driven,

and greater risk-taking behavior. Men take greater risks

during work, driving, and leisure activities. And, risk-

taking behavior is encouraged among males.

■ One reason for women’s greater morbidity rates com-

pared to men is that women are more concerned with

health and more likely to seek the care of a physician.

■ A second reason for women’s greater morbidity rates

compared to men is that women are socialized to take

care of others—or to have nurturant roles. Nurturant

roles lead to exposure to illness, to fatigue, and to taking

care of others instead of the self.

■ Among the gender-related traits, agency is related to

good health behavior and less psychological distress,

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