WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 2 • Reading and Writing in College and Beyond 39
general, including “living in a noisy neighborhood, commuting to work
in heavy traffi
c, disliking one’s fellow workers, standing in long lines, and
worrying about owing money.” The Web site Diabetes at Work gives a list
of the “Top 10 Daily Hassles,” among them illness of a family member,
home repairs, too many things to do, and crime. Neither of these sources
mentions gender differences in the types of hassles reported.
Gramling and Auerbach list many symptoms of stress. These
include nail biting, cold or sweaty hands and feet, dry mouth, and
increased heart rate. Diabetes at Work adds muscle tension, upset stom-
ach, shortness of breath, and back pain to the list of physical symptoms
and forgetfulness, trouble concentrating, trouble making decisions, and
short temper to the psychological symptoms. Again, though, neither
source mentioned gender differences.
To these sources, I added interviews with eight friends — four men
and four women — who all reported these top fi ve daily hassles: worries
about money, transportation problems, waiting in lines, unfair bosses,
and automated phone systems that take forever and never get you an
answer.
The only signifi cant difference in the kind of hassles reported by
the men and women I talked to was that several women (but not men)
mentioned worries about physical safety (for example, while traveling
home from school at night). When I asked my friends to report how
they dealt with their stress, they seemed to confi rm the Hockenburys’
claim that women’s stress spills into the family and men tend to with-
draw. Two men reported no psychological symptoms of stress, whereas
the remaining six people (four women and two men) emphasized both
psychological and physical symptoms.
These sources suggest that there might be some gender differences
in the hassles that people experience and the symptoms that result
from these hassles, but they might not be as major as the Hockenburys’
passage led me to expect. Most of the stresses mentioned seem to be
caused by having to do too much in too little time. Perhaps this is a
comment on the quality of modern life, which affects both men and
women equally.
Works Cited
Gramling, Sandra E., and Stephen Auerbach. “Stress (Psychology).” MSN
Encarta: Online Encyclopedia. Microsoft, 2007. Web. 4 Sept. 2007.
Hockenbury, Don H., and Sandra E. Hockenbury. Discovering Psychology.
New York: Worth, 2007. Print.
United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services. National Diabetes
Education Program. Diabetes at Work. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human
Services, 27 May 2007. Web. 31 Aug. 2007.
ANK_02_ch02_pp022-044 r8tr.indd 39ANK_02_ch02_pp022-044 r8tr.indd 39 5/20/09 3:31:41 PM5/20/09 3:31:41 PM