Gender Differences in Rumination and Reflection - Research Paper Example

Rumination and Reflection Abstract Psychological disorders and problems have become common nowadays and it has affected both male and female. Apart from various psychological problems, rumination and reflection has increased when compared to the past. These psychological problems lead to various serious issues and consequences. Rumination and reflection have different impact depending on the gender. The aim of the study is to analyze the gender differences among male and female in rumination and reflection. The issues, aftermath and the future problems have been discussed in this paper. Psychological problems have more impact in an individual’s life and one should analyze how to cope up with such problems. Introduction Contemporary psychology aims at determining the relationship between the emotional problems and depression symptoms. In the mechanical world, increase in the work pressure and other family related problems have led to various psychological disorders and problems. As a consequence, the research and analysis regarding these problems increased when compared to the past. Apart from the normal psychological disorders, rumination and reflection have extensively increased. Due to its prominence in recent years, the research and analysis were narrowed down to these two concepts. Rumination and reflection was common in both female and male. Most of the researches were conducted to analyze the gender differences that existed in rumination and reflection. The main aim of this study is to explore the gender differences in rumination and reflection among the men and women. Rumination has been defined as the increase in self-focused attention which is due to distress and excess amount of focus on the distress (Nolen-Hoeksema &Jackson, 2001). It is a state where the depression and depressed mood gets prolonged and in certain cases it gets intensified. This situation may also result in depressive episode where the affected is depressed not for a shorter time but for a longer period of time. Rumination Though many researches have been conducted on rumination, the most prolific theory is the one that revealed the response style of men and women. It received extensive attention and analysis since it revealed the difference in the way men and women respond to a particular situation. The ruminative response style is measured as the cognitive vulnerability and it purely depends on the onset of such depressive period. Each research and study reveals various facts that emphasize on rumination and reflection. A study proved that the distress feeling during depression has reduced an individual’s ability to solve a problem and in turn prevents them from acting immediately to challenge stressors. (McBride & Bagby,2006). Rumination is viewed as a style of responding to distress that involves repetitive and passive focus on symptoms of distress. The possible causes and consequences of these symptoms are taken into consideration. Ruminative behaviors include lack of motivation and thinking about the depressive incidents. In contrast to rumination, reflection is defined as a mental process which involves an internal discovery of one’s self. This is invariably based on an individual’s psychological well being. (Fleckhammer, 2004). Reflection represents a positive action to a problem and the way people react to a particular situation. This helps in determining a person’s character and in turn helps in the process of identifying a person’s depressive state. Most of the literatures and studies establish that depression is more prevalent in women than men and they suffer from major and minor depressive symptoms. Interestingly, women have been observed to ruminate in significantly greater numbers than men. (Butler & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1994). Even laboratory studies and projects contribute to this fact. The findings generally include samples college students and adults. The social status and lifestyle have a greater effect on the study since this decides the character of an individual.(Butler & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1994).In fact, gender difference in rumination has been exhibited in certain studies to mediate the gender difference in depression. The gender differences in rumination are controlled using statistical data and this enables in the easy understanding of one’s problems. Researchers define that rumination is a form of coping with depression and the way in which an individual’s self-focused attention is implied. The studies on women have proved that they tend to get depressed whenever they focus on themselves and they avoid any sort of activity since they get affected emotionally. While most of the men do not react this way as they are not emotionally affected by any of these depressive incidents. (Claridge, 2003). Its theory Rumination theory is based on cognitive-behavioral thinking. It states that gender differences occur due to prolonged depression and as a result stress is exhibited from how they respond to a dsyphoric state. It has been proved that women ruminate for a long time there by leading to negative emotions. Among the various samples among husbands and wives, women are prone to stress for a longer period of time where as men cope up with any sort of stressful situations. Women are more prone to rumination with chronic strain and low mastery and this is more prevalent in women when compared to men. Researchers have suggested that women ruminate to control the environmental distress and their desires. (Almeida & Kessler, 1998).Psychiatrists felt that their idea to impose this condition was a failure since women remain struck in rumination. They find it difficult to overcome such situations and this has led to problems related to psychic disorders. Another study by American researchers indicate that who grieve with negative emotions experience difficulties to cope up with loss and they find it more difficult to place themselves at risk in case of long-term emotional difficulties. Studies that aimed to explain gender differences resulted in findings which indicated that women generally report greater feelings of sadness and guilt when compared to men. Women also reported various problems with decision-making, problem solving and task completion. In certain cases, women reported weight loss due to stress and strain. (Fleckhammer, 2004) Most of the studies that involved emotional problems in women examined the control of emotions and emotional variations in relationships. The male and female samples concluded that the variables exhibit certain differences among the genders. This was clearly visible in rumination but it was not evident for reflection. The hypotheses of this study states that women ruminate more than men and in case of reflection, women and men exhibit same levels. All this clearly explains that women score significantly more than men on rumination, social desire problems and distress. Women feel more responsible in emotional relationships and they are likely to react immediately to such situations as they experience emotional problems and disorders more frequently and intensely due to rumination. (Nolen-Hoeksema &Jackson, 2001) The hypotheses strongly state that various factors ascertain the reason for such psychological disorders. Both these hypothesis insist on the fact that rumination and reflection exist in both male and female. Method Any research requires a method based on which a study is conducted. The method defines a way in which the study has to be carried out. It provides a series of steps which lists out the priority of tasks and the sequence in which each task must be performed. The method followed here involves various steps that assist in the easy analysis of rumination and reflection. The research was conducted among the undergraduate students pursuing Psychology as their major. Around three hundred and forty five students were included in this research. The information obtained from them was used to prepare a report on the gender difference between male and female on rumination and reflection. The details were collected from 251 female students and 94 male students. The average age of the female were about 22 and male were 22.64. Since the study involves psychological factors, the age of the participants were also treated as one among the important aspects. The main aim was to find out the reason for such psychological disorders and hence a measure was used to know how many people were affected by these psychological problems. The major component used in this research study was the revised rumination and reflection scale. Rumination and reflection scale is the main component used in studies that involve psychological problems. The earlier version of this scale did not yield the required results for most of the researchers and hence the revised scale was developed. (Thayer et al., 2003) This scale clearly exhibits the internal properties of the units used to prepare this scale. The internal consistency is considerably high when compared to the previous scale. It constitutes of 24 items which also has two separate scales for rumination and reflection. The first twelve items, 1 to 12 are used to measure rumination and the next twelve items, 12 to 24 items are used to measure reflection. These items are in turn divided as sub scales for private and public rumination. The remaining items are allotted for private and public reflection. As the items are divided for each type of rumination and reflection, the process becomes a touch easier. Using this scale the possibility of rumination and reflection was calculated. A procedure was followed to collect the data from the students. The report included the chronological order in which each event was carried out. The students participated in the study were informed about the theory and were given proper instructions according to which they must produce the required information. A questionnaire was prepared which included demographic questions and they were evaluated based on the revised rumination and reflection scale. The questionnaire was distributed among the students. It was accompanied by an information sheet which explained the aim of this study, the type of questions and purpose of this study. The questionnaire included questions that would reveal the person’s attitude and approach towards a situation. The information provided by the students was then used to derive the results. Results The data was collected and it was summarized to form a single report. This report contained the information about the gender difference among male and female in rumination and reflection. The questionnaire helped in collecting the relevant data from the students. The private and public self-consciousness were also calculated based on the public rumination and reflection. The private rumination and reflection also helped in analyzing the personality factors like extraversion, openness, agreeableness and narcissism. The correlation of each data was calculated and based on this the personality factors and consciousness was derived. This process helped in finding out which gender tends to ruminate and reflect when compared to other. Once this was accomplished, the next step of calculating the mean and standard deviation was implemented. After the data collection, the mean and standard deviation for the rumination and reflection for men and women were calculated. The mean and standard deviation were compiled using the descriptive data collected from the participants. The maximum and minimum value of mean was also declared to be 60 and 12 respectively. The mean of rumination for men summed up to 38.37, while the standard deviation was around 4.35. The mean of reflection in men was 43.13 where as the standard deviation was found out to be 4.38. The results of women were also calculated and recorded. The mean value of rumination among women was 42.89 and the standard deviation was calculated to be 5.21. In the same way, the mean for reflection summed up to 43.13, while the standard deviation was 4.52. Once the data collection was over, the details pertaining to men and women were segregated and then calculation was carried out. Since mean and standard deviation would provide the average value of rumination and reflection, they were calculated by considering the values from the participants as the descriptive data. The result extensively supports the hypothesis that women ruminate more than men. The second hypothesis has also been proved as men reflect more when compared to women. Discussion The main aim of the study is to find out the gender differences in rumination and reflection. The first hypothesis was to prove that women ruminate more than men. The next one was to prove that there would be no difference in reflection among men and women. The hypotheses were supported with a method to evaluate it and its results clearly revealed that there is no difference on reflection since men and women had similar scores in reflection. The next hypothesis was proved that women tend to ruminate more when compared to men. This was clearly evident from the mean and standard deviation value of the descriptive data. These results were compared with previous researches and studies to check whether the obtained results are satisfactory. The hypothesis differed in certain studies and most of the researches exhibited similar results. When compared to the previous researches, there was a gradual increase in the number of women who ruminate more than men. This was due to their lifestyle and the level of public self-consciousness was comparatively high.(McBride & Bagby, 2006). Each and every factor of this study was compared to that of the previous research. In this process, various results were obtained. The ratio of women who agree for this sort of a study has increased when compared to the past. The previous researches revealed that the number of women who participated in studies which reveal their character were comparatively less. The level of response has comparatively improved in this research. Another important difference in the gender was, men responded more precisely and clearly that women. The response style among men and women was completely different as women hesitated to reveal their true selves. Though the study revealed the facts and differences among men and women, there are certain limitations. The study was conducted among the students in the age group of approximately 20 to 25. The research did not cover adults whose lifestyle and problems are entirely different when compared to students. As the participants were students, the questions were not too personal. Future researches can be conducted with adults so that the level of rumination and reflection among the adults can be derived. I would give a more global perspective and acceptance to this research. The gender difference will also be clearly evident if the study is conducted exhaustively with adults as participants. The study revealed various facts accompanied by descriptive data which proved the hypotheses. The goal of exhibiting the difference among the men and women was achieved. References Claridge, G. (2003). Personality and Psychological Disorders. U.S.A: Arnold Publishers. Harvey, A. (2004). Cognitive Behavioral Processes Across Psychological Disorders. New York: Oxford University Press. Almeida, D. M., & Kessler, R. C. (1998). Everyday Stressors and Gender Differences in Daily Distress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 670-680. Butler, L.D., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1994). Gender Differences in Response to Depressed Mood in a College Sample. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 30, 331-347. Fleckhammer, L.E. (2004). The Revised-Rumination and Reflection Scale. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Melbourne: Swinburne University. Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Parker, L. E., & Larson, J. (1994). Ruminative Coping With Depressed Mood Following Loss. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 92-104. Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Jackson, B. (2001). Mediators of the Gender Difference in Rumination. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25, 37-47. McBride, C., & Bagby, M. (2006). Rumination and Interpersonal Dependency: Explaining Women’s Vulnerability to Depression. Canadian Psychology, 47, 184- 194. Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Larson, J., & Grayson, C. (1999). Explaining the Gender Difference in Depressive Symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1061-1072. Thayer, J. F., Rossy, L. A., Ruiz-Padial, E., & Johnsen, B. H. (2003). Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Emotional Regulation and Depressive Symptoms. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 349-364. Read More