Is there any psychological benefit to worrying and do women worry more than men on average?

There are no benefits at all, that I know of, from worrying. But being a mother whos son is only 65 miles away right now, I can understand! It’s natural to worry especially when a child is involved! Plus it’s not like her daughter is next door where she can run and get her if something goes wrong!

Endocrinologist Hans Seyle’s work showed that there is a kind of stress that is positive, eustress, which comes from positive, but demanding experiences. Distress, the most common type of stress and the one that seems to be at play here, is not beneficial in terms of personal health, although it was likely integral to our survival as a species.
At least, that is what I learned in psychology class

If men worry more than women they don’t show it directly. You have to be pretty nifty to spot worrried men. But otherwise women do worry more than men.

I don’t know if worrying can help, but people should be able to judge themselves when a situation is out of their hands. But if you think of it, even if it was, they wouldn’t exactly be taking a chill pill. I guess worrying is a part of our human nature and thus in moderate doses may even be necessary to our normal funtioning.

I think men worry more and that’s why they die sooner.

@hungryhungryhortence – Indirectly they might, but sociologically speaking men die of all the risky behaviour their social role expects from them. Rough-housing, fast-driving, living in the fast lane. I also read somewhere that men drink and smoke more than women do.

OMIF! Is this something else I need to worry about?!?

@hungryhungryhortence I think men worry more, but work hard at not showing it. Double stress. That’s why they die sooner.

The advantage to worrying is that you might remember to do something about it, and yes, women do worry more than men. And they worry more deeply about more important things. [My GF is watching me write this one….]

My wife worries more than me. It’s a good thing she does. She thinks out the possibilities and all I have to do is “Make it so.”

Well I can add to the pot and say being a women myself I really don’t worry that much. Other people around get worried and I tend to have ability to brush things off. Now my mom and I had a conversation a while ago about this. Men worry so much because they still have the same thought pattern as they did 70 years ago or more. They used to head of the household and the provider that’s why guys worry about the house, not enough money to eat, basic head of house hold worries.
But for me the only thing that crossed my mind when I didn’t have my stuff together was career and not to get prego cuz that would ruin me.

Now that I’m on the right track I really could careless, because I live more in the moment. I don’t now when my time will come so bring on life.

I’m not sure about normal-level worrying, but women do develop anxiety disorders more often than men.

In my experience, worrying has the psychological benefit of getting me off my ass to take care of whatever is worrying me.

The psychological benefits to worrying are that it can help an individual appreciate a scenario/other/happiness to a greater extent and sometimes said worrying is justified (that is, it encourages action when such is to the persons benefit).
@TinkBandit But those are your attributes as an individual and thus cannot be generalised to the entire female sex. Equally I could state that I am male and worry rather rarely.
This is simply an educated guess based upon discussions I have had with friends regarding this matter but I would speculate that females are generally more stressed due to an innately increased sense of care (this being amplified when having had children) while males are generally less stressed but when stressed tend to feel it particularly intensely but only temporarily.
As an interesting side note I read a study recently in which the different reactions of the sexes when presented with a stressful decision were observed. The general findings were that while males tended to take greater risks as stress was increased females took less risks. I’ll see if I can find the study online should anyone be interested.

@Nially_Bob: Is this the paper you’re thinking of?

Acute Stress Increases Sex Differences in Risk Seeking in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task

@nikipedia That is indeed the study I was referring to. You possess some formidable research skills my friend.

@Nially_Bob: Nah, just dumb luck. My adviser sent it to me last week and I had a copy on my desktop.

@nikipedia It is very recent research but still, quite the co-in-key-dink.