How do social rules affect a person during a crisis?

Social rules create specific pressures during a personal crisis.

These rules affect how a person feels and acts. Different social rules apply to men and women.

Social rules create strong expectations for people. These expectations can make a crisis feel worse. A person might feel pressure to act a certain way. This pressure can hide true feelings. For men, there is pressure to be strong. A man might feel he must provide for others. Feeling lost can seem like a personal failure. He might hide these feelings with anger or by showing no emotion. For women, there is pressure about life timing. This is called the 'social clock.' A woman might feel she must achieve career, partnership, and family goals at the same time. She might feel a strong need to do these things before it is too late. Feeling lost can then feel like a race against time and expectations.

A manager loses a job. The manager is a man. He feels he must quickly find a new job to support his family. He does not tell his friends he feels sad. Instead, he acts busy and confident. This hides his true feelings of being lost. A student is a woman. She is 30 years old. She feels pressure to finish her degree, find a partner, and start a family soon. She feels very anxious about these things. She feels like she is failing if she does not achieve them all quickly.

More from the same record, pulled by shared topic — not written new for this page.

Social rules create specific pressures during a personal crisis. These rules affect how a person feels and acts. Different social rules apply to men and women.