The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Mental Health 501

Investigators frequently suggest that

women cope with stressful events by en-

gaging in emotion-focused strategies and

men cope by engaging in problem-focused

strategies. Although the conceptual distinc-

tion between problem-focused coping and

emotion-focusing coping is a useful one, this

distinction may be less useful when studying

gender. When coping strategies are placed

into these two broad categories, sometimes

expected sex differences appear (i.e., women

are more emotion focused, men are more

problem focused), sometimes no sex differ-

ences appear, and sometimes sex differences

problem, and coming up with a plan to ap-

proach the problem are all problem-solving

methods.Emotion-focused copingrefers 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.

Elementar

y School

Some High SchoolHigh School Degree

Some CollegeCollege DegreeMaster

’s Degree

PhD/Professional

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

Depression

1.8 Female Mean

Predicted

Male Mean

Predicted

FIGURE 13.6 Rates of depression for women and men across educational

level. The figure depicts the actual means for females and males at each edu-

cation level as well as the regression lines showing the predicted means. The

sex difference in depression is large among those with lower levels of educa-

tion and disappears among those with a college degree and higher.

Source: Ross and Mirowsky (2006).

M13_HELG0185_04_SE_C13.indd 501 6/21/11 12:55 PM