Withdrawal under stress is claimed to be a characteristically male pattern requiring space rather than pursuit.
The researched construct is the demand-withdraw pattern, in which one partner presses for discussion and the other disengages, and it predicts relationship distress. The role assignment correlates with sex weakly and with who is seeking change strongly, so a couple that reverses the demand also reverses the withdrawal.
In practice
- A partner pressing for a conversation and one leaving the room are locked in a pattern that reverses when the topic does.
- A manager who presses harder as an employee disengages is producing the disengagement they are responding to.
- Possible explanations
- One explanation is physiological, that withdrawal follows arousal that takes longer to settle. Another is the structure of the demand: the partner asking for change presses, and the partner who would have to change disengages, which assigns the roles without reference to sex.
- In its favour
- The withdrawal pattern itself is real and well documented as demand-withdraw, and it predicts relationship distress.
- Against it
- The pattern occurs in both directions and tracks who wants change rather than who is male, and the sex difference measured in that research is modest, smaller than the gendered version implies.
- Standing
- The withdrawal pattern is real and documented as demand-withdraw, which occurs in both directions and tracks who wants change rather than sex. The sex difference measured in that research is modest, and smaller than the gendered version implies.
- Subject
- Sociology & Culture
- Essay
- Proverbs that recur across cultures