Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Tending Instinct: Women, Men, and the Biology of Nurturing
    Unavailable
    The Tending Instinct: Women, Men, and the Biology of Nurturing
    Unavailable
    The Tending Instinct: Women, Men, and the Biology of Nurturing
    Ebook460 pages8 hours

    The Tending Instinct: Women, Men, and the Biology of Nurturing

    By Shelley E. Taylor

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A groundbreaking work that reveals how the instinct to "tend and befriend" is vital for human society.

    In times of crisis and upheaval, our responses to stress become especially important. We have long heard about the "fight or flight" response, but renowned psychologist Shelley E. Taylor points out that hardwired in females -- both humans and those of other species -- is an instinct that can transcend "fight or flight." Their "tend and befriend" response is not only demonstrable but, as Taylor deftly explains in this eye-opening work, a key ingredient in human social life.

    With great skill and insight, Taylor examines stress, relationships, and human society through the special lens of women's biology. She draws on genetics, evolutionary psychology, physiology, and neuroscience to show how this tending process begins virtually at the moment of conception and literally crafts the biology of offspring through genes that rely on caregiving for their expression. Taylor also examines what drives women to seek each other's company, and to tend to the young and the infirm -- acts that greatly benefit the group but often at great cost to the individual.

    The Tending Instinct will forever change the way we view ourselves, and will revolutionize our understanding of the role of women and nurturing in maintaining a stable society.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMay 20, 2014
    ISBN9781466871755
    Unavailable
    The Tending Instinct: Women, Men, and the Biology of Nurturing
    Author

    Shelley E. Taylor

    Shelley E. Taylor is a professor of psychology at UCLA. A world-renowned expert on stress and health, Taylor is the author of more than 200 scientific papers, as well as the book The Tending Instinct: Women, Men, and the Biology of Nurturing. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Scientific Contribution Award in Health Psychology, the Donald Campbell Award in Social Psychology, Yale University's Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal, and the prestigious Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association. Taylor lives in Los Angeles.

    Related to The Tending Instinct

    Related ebooks

    Social Science For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Gene Pull

      Feb 16, 2020

      When Robert Plomin made himself the first guinea pig for his “polygenic” mapping – scoping people’s genetic make-up to see how prone they are to various traits – he learnt something no one wants to hear: he was in the 95th percentile for obesity. Tho

      11 min read

    • Article

      Tracking The Anti-science Wave: Commentary On The Roots Of Distrust

      Jul 31, 2020

      Distrust in science is widespread in the United States. Perhaps the solution is to have scientists more openly involved in politics.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Entering the PANIC YEARS

      Jun 10, 2021

      Entering the PANIC YEARS
      7 min read

    • Article

      Stanford Scientist, After Decades Of Study, Concludes: We Don't Have Free Will

      Oct 19, 2023

      Before epilepsy was understood to be a neurological condition, people believed it was caused by the moon, or by phlegm in the brain. They condemned seizures as evidence of witchcraft or demonic possession, and killed or castrated sufferers to prevent

      8 min read

    • Article

      SEX, SCIENCE & STEREOTYPES

      Oct 11, 2020

      It has a provocative title and dedication (“For everyone who blocked me on Twitter”), but your book is evidence-based, nuanced and compassionate. Why did you, a liberal “sex positive, non-traditionalist gay rights supporter”, write a book that delves

      6 min read

    • Article

      From The Inside Out

      Mar 29, 2023

      From The Inside Out
      5 min read

    • Article

      Always Different, Always the Same

      Feb 22, 2022

      The superb science journalist Sharon Begley, who wrote a regular column for Mindful until her untimely death in early 2021, was fond of studies of personality: the different types, how much they’re influenced by our environment and our relationships,

      9 min read

    • Article

      ‘The Case Against The Sexual Revolution’: How Feminism Let Women Down

      Sep 9, 2022

      Louise Perry didn’t believe there was anything controversial about her new book, “The Case Against the Sexual Revolution.” On a video call, she laughs and admits, “I’ve been proven wrong on that front.”  The British author, a columnist for the left-l

      7 min read

    • Article

      Better Life Outcomes

      Jul 18, 2021

      Maria English and Impact Lab seek to deliver positive, culturally appropriate and evidence-based support to ensure the best life outcomes for the most at-risk and vulnerable New Zealanders (“Smarter data”, July 3). To understand why 15% of us use 50%

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Mother Of All Compassion

      Jun 16, 2022

      The Mother Of All Compassion
      4 min read

    • Article

      Gina Rippon

      Sep 6, 2019

      Gina Rippon
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Birth Of A Mother

      Jul 7, 2023

      The Birth Of A Mother
      3 min read

    • Article

      Can You Change Who You Are?

      Oct 28, 2019

      In the last decade of his life my Canadian father-in-law became so averse to change that he would not contemplate moving a piece of furniture from one side of the room to the other. I know that elderly people can get this way – stubborn, fixed – but

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Story Of A Self

      Sep 1, 2020

      IT TAKES TIME for a self, with all its flaws and peculiarities, to bend itself out of the universe. It begins with us recognizing our image in the mirror. Our caregivers tell us stories about the past and the present, what’s happening around us, and

      7 min read

    Reviews for The Tending Instinct

    4/5

    9 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Interesting book focusing on our "other" response to stress: "tend & befriend" in addition to "fight or flight." For years Taylor has studied stress and our physical, mental, & emotional reactions/consequences to stress, when she discovered that we have long made the assumption that "fight or flight" is our only response to stressful events. This assumption has led to other assumptions--ie, individualism, being out for oneself, the "selfish gene" hypothesis, aggression as dominance, economic self-sufficency theory, etc. However,the latest neuroscience research shows how important the "tending instinct" also is to human development, esp. given how vulnerable human babies are right after birth, and also how long their development period is. Other topics covered: "talking" as "social glue," women's networking & social skills, oxytocin, EOPs, size of neocortex related to the size of our social connections (Dunbar), "social intelligence" drawing from separate parts of brain as compared to "general intelligence", "affiliative neurociruitry."