B1: Stress

Question 1

What is stress?

Answer 1

A physiological and psychological state of arousal that arises when we believe we do not have the ability to cope with a perceived threat (stressors).

Question 2

What are life events?

Answer 2

Significant and relatively infrequent experiences/occasions in people’s lives that cause stress. They are stressful because we have to expend psychological energy coping with changed circumstances.

Question 3

Holmes and Rahe (1967)

Answer 3

Developed the social readjustment rating scale (SRRS) to measure the effects of life events.

Question 4

Life events: Strength: Lietzen et al. (2011)

Answer 4

Found a moderate but significant positive correlation between life events stress and onset of asthma which could not be explained by other influences such as the presence of smokers in the home.

Question 5

Life events: Weakness: Turner and Wheaton (1997)

Answer 5

Found that negative events accounted for most of the stress measured by the SRRS, therefore, the life events scale may not be valid because it gives us an overall measure of stress.

Question 6

What are daily hassles?

Answer 6

The relatively minor but frequent aggravations and annoyances of everyday life that combine to cause us stress.

Question 7

What are daily hassles?

Answer 7

The relatively minor but frequent aggravations and annoyances of everyday life that combine to cause us stress.

Question 8

What is the primary appraisal when we experience a daily hassle?

Answer 8

Think about how threatening the stressor is to our health.

Question 9

What is the secondary appraisal when we experience a daily hassle?

Answer 9

Think about how well-equipped we are to cope with the stressor.

Question 10

Daily hassles: Strength: Ivancevich (1986)

Answer 10

Found that hassles were stronger predictors of poor health, poor job performance and absence from work than life events so it is everyday stressors that have the greatest impact on health.

Question 11

Daily hassles: Weakness: Retrospective recall

Answer 11

Participants recall the hassles they have experienced over a certain period of time but, because they are minor and frequent, hassles are easily forgotten or, alternatively magnified, so people may well under or over estimate how many they experience.

Question 12

The workplace - what is intra-role conflict?

Answer 12

Two competing demands whilst trying to fulfil a single role. (E.g. a line manager who requires something vs a co-worker who needs support)

Question 13

The workplace - what is inter-role conflict?

Answer 13

Two competing demands from two different roles. (E.g. employee vs parent)

Question 14

Two main stressors in the workplace?

Answer 14

Temperature and noise

Question 15

The workplace: Strength: Bosma et al. (1997)

Answer 15

Found that employees who reported low job control at the start of the study were more likely to have heart disease 5 years later even after lifestyle factors were accounted for.

Question 16

The workplace: Weakness: Gyorkos et al. (2012)

Answer 16

Reviewed earlier research studies and found that lack of job control is considered stressful in individualist cultures but control was seen as less desirable in collectivist cultures.

Question 17

What is the hardy personality?

Answer 17

Kobasa (1979) proposed that a hardy personality can protect against stress and ill health. She described three components: commitment, challenge and control.

Question 18

Type A vs. Type B personality

Answer 18

Friedman and Rosenman argued that Type A people (competitive, time urgently and hostile) are more likely to experience CHD than Type B people (relaxed, laid back and tolerant of others).

Question 19

Personality: Strength: Egido et al. (2012)

Answer 19

Found that participants who had a stroke were more likely to have Type A personalities and this finding could not be explained by traditional lifestyle factors such as smoking in diet.

Question 20

Personality: Weakness: Hull et al. (1987)

Answer 20

Psychological research suggests that a sense of control is central to wellbeing so he argued that researchers should focus on control and commitment and abandon challenge altogether.

Question 21

What is the general adaptation syndrome?

Answer 21

Selye (1936) argued that humans respond to all stressors in the same way physiologically, it is a response which aids survival (adaptation) and it is a cluster of symptoms (syndrome).

Question 22

Three stages of the general adaptation syndrome?

Answer 22

Alarm reaction, resistance, exhaustion

Question 23

Stage one of GAS: Alarm reaction

Answer 23

Hypothalamus triggers adrenaline for fight or flight

Question 24

Stage two of GAS: Resistance

Answer 24

If the stressor continues the stress response uses up the body’s resources

Question 25

Stage three of GAS: Exhaustion

Answer 25

Resources are depleted which leads to illness

Question 26

What is adrenaline?

Answer 26

A hormone produced by the adrenal glands which is part of the human body’s acute stress response. It is also a neurotransmitter.

Question 27

What is the difference between acute and chronic stress?

Answer 27

Acute: a threat requiring immediate response
Chronic: a threat that continues over weeks and months

Question 28

Sympathomedullary (SAM) system

Answer 28

The body’s response to an acute stressor. The hypothalamus triggers the sympathetic nervous system which causes the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline and noradrenaline. This is the fight or flight response.

Question 29

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system

Answer 29

The body’s response to a chronic stressor. The hypothalamus triggers the pituitary gland to release the hormone ACTH which in turn stimulates the release of cortisol from the adrenal cortex.