Abnormal Psychology Exam 2 Practice

The main concept here is how demographic factors relate to the risk of developing a stress disorder after trauma. The strongest and most consistent finding is that women are more likely than men to develop PTSD following exposure to a traumatic event. This holds even when accounting for differences in how often each gender experiences trauma, and it helps explain why the gender difference shows up across many studies. Part of this disparity is that women are more likely to experience certain high-impact traumas (such as sexual assault and domestic violence), which carry a higher risk for PTSD, but there are also potential biological and psychosocial factors that contribute to the higher vulnerability. Stress disorders can develop at any age, not just in late adulthood, so that option isn’t accurate. Differences by race/ethnicity or income exist in various ways but don’t show the clear, consistent pattern described in the other statements, and they don’t outweigh the robust gender difference. So, the statement that women are more likely than men to develop a stress disorder best reflects the well-supported demographic pattern.