biological - stress

Question 1

keicolt glaser - procedure

Answer 1

natural experiment with 75 medical students
blood samples taken before and during exams
immune system functioning was assessed by measuring t cell activity in blood samples
students-questionared to see other factors like loneliness and life events

Question 2

kiecolt-glaser- findings

Answer 2

t cell activity in blood sample was reduced during exams. it was most reduced in students who had high levels of loneliness and occurrence of life events

Question 3

keicolt-glaser evaluate

Answer 3

ungeneralisable- study only used medical students- similar age- unrepresentative
particualr type of stress- exam stress
natural experiment- iv not manipulated -confoudning variables- can’t conclude team stress caused reduce activity in NK cells. -exams in summer- immune system more likely to be active in winter-more pathogens about (seasonal fluctuation)
supported by other research from malarkey- carers for alzhemiers also showed reduced immune system functioning between stress and health outcomes supported- showing results can be generalised beyond the original sample.

Question 4

cohen et al- procedure

Answer 4

394 participants completed questionnaires about stressful life events they’d had and negative emotional feelings (i.e depression) and stress levels- the scores were combined to form a stress index.
particpants were exposed to a common cold virus
7 days later participants were asked to return and the number of clinical colds were measured (DV).

Question 5

cohen et al- findings

Answer 5

82 % pps became infected with cold
correlation between those with high levels of stress and those who developed the cold
conclusion- stressful life events and negative emotions reduce the effectiveness of the immune system.

Question 6

cohen et al- evaluation (weaknesses)

Answer 6

correlational- no certain cause and effect relationship- did not manipulate stress levels- could be a thrird variable confounding the results(e.g lifestyle or genes) causes both the stress levels and the susceptibility to getting a cold.
unethical- cohen fails to protect pps from physical harm as he exposes them to a cold virus (researcher did not actually ensure that all pps were healthy prior to the experiment.
self report techniques used to measure stress-social desirability- rating their own negative emotions and stess- reducing internal validity.

Question 7

cohen et al - evaluation (strengths)

Answer 7

supported by kiecolt-glaser
Evans and Edginton found that negative events predicted likelihood of getting a cold- Cohen’s finding have been replicated. TRIANGULATION- other types of evidence measuring different things.

Question 8

acute stressors

Answer 8

short-term stressors like doing an arithmetic task/ presentation. increase natural killer cells. Up regulation- natural immunity is a fast response system that’s activated by immediate onset of stressors.

Question 9

Brief naturalistic stressors

Answer 9

taking exams for example.
no overall effects (Kiecolt-glaser found there was however but there was no evidence for a shift from cellular immunity towards hummoral immunity

Question 10

chronic stressors

Answer 10

long terms e.g caring for someone with a disability/ having a long-term illness.
down regulation- leaving people susceptible ill- consistent effects across age and gender.

Question 11

what did segerstrom and miller(meta-analysis) do and find??

Answer 11

meta-analysis of 293 studs in order to summarise the effects of stressors of differing duration on the immune system. only found impaired immune functioning with chronic stressors, brief overall stressors had no effect on immune response. (more reliable than kiecolt glaser’s results)
found-that acute stressors boost the immune system in general while chronic stress generally reduces immune activity.

Question 12

holmes and rache

Answer 12

made the social readjustment rating scale (SRRS) which measures life change units.
Rahe tested this with the navy by giving them the military version of the SRRS. Rahe noticed that there was a positive correlation between the amount of LCU of some soldiers and the level of illness over the next few weeks.

Question 13

what life events are high up on the SRRS?

Answer 13

death od spouse
divorce
death of family member
marriage

Question 14

holmes and rache findings

Answer 14

There was a positive correlation of +0.0118 between Life Change scores and illness scores. Although the positive correlation was small (a perfect positive correlation would be +1.00), it did indicate that there was a meaningful relationship between Life Change Units and health

Question 15

evaluation of the SRRS

Answer 15

The SRRS does not take individual difference into consideration. The scale assumes that each stressor affects people the same way. Not necessarily true e.g. for some people divorce is extremely stressful while for others it can be amicable or even a relief.
Most people experience major life events very infrequently. Therefore a better measure of stress might look at the stresses and strains of daily life. These are called “daily hassles”, e.g. such as losing your keys.

Question 16

daily hassles are

Answer 16

minor everyday annoyances causing stress

Question 17

daily uplifts are

Answer 17

positive everyday experiences protect against stress

Question 18

kanner et al- dailt hassles scale

Answer 18

Aim: Kanner et al (1981) were interested in investigating whether it is daily hassles, rather than major life events that are the most stressful. They developed a 117 item hassles scale and a 135 uplifts scale to examine the relationship between hassles and health.

Procedure: An opportunity sample of 100 American participants, including 52 women and 48 men, all white, well-educated and middle class were asked to circle the events on both scales that they had experienced the previous month and rate each according to severity (for the hassles) and frequency (for the uplifts). 
`

Question 19

examples of daily hassles

Answer 19

concerns about weight
misplacing/losing keys
too many things to do
health of a family member
home maintenance

Question 20

daily hassles unlikely to have an effect n stress-realted illness on their own…..

Answer 20

they often originate or become worse from pre-existing stress-realted illness/chronic stressors for example coping with grief will axacerbate the stress of daily hassle
divorce

Question 21

bouteyre supports daily hassles as a source of sterss

Answer 21

daily hassles score for students (during the transition period to uni) were found to be significant risk factor for depression. so this suggests that hassles may cause stress. The link is additionally supported by studies from kanner et al.

Question 22

Bouteyre

Answer 22

did a study which involved students going through the transition between school and university. He gave them a depression inventory and a hassles questionnaire and found that there was a positive correlation between the level of depression and the number of hassles that they were going through daily. Also more than 40% showed signs of depressive symptoms because of the transfer between school and university.

Question 23

Johansson- describe

both workload and control

Answer 23

14 finifhsers 10 cleaners in a Swedish sawmill
finshers-high skilled, stressful, you work influecnes others wages, machine paced, but repetavive
tested- adrenaline levels when at work and when not at work.
tested- absenteeism (behaviour) higher in finishers

Question 24

types of workload that have an impact on stress

Answer 24

quantitative- too much work, management of time
too little work- not in many jobs but it would get tressful- not pulling your weight, not having purpose etc
qualitiave- too difficult- not rained, haven’t the skills
too much responsibility- others relying on you

Question 25

control has an impact on stress

Answer 25

low control over what you do i.e low decision latitude=no control
little influence over the company less stressed- if they have some control

Question 26

marmot et al

control

Answer 26

conducted a study which involved civil servants, he gave them each a questionnaire to fill out on job control and workload. After a few years, he found that people who have low job control were more likely to get a cardiovascular disorder than those people that have high job control. He also found no link between the workload and the risk of getting a cardiovascular disorder

Question 27

dewe (workload)

Answer 27

self report study which asked people what factors stressed them out at work- workload was the biggest factor

Question 28

type A behaviour

Answer 28

time pressured, competitive, angry

Question 29

type B behaviour

Answer 29

unhurried, uncompetatvie, calm

Question 30

what is the significance of behaviour type in stress?

Answer 30

a person who displays type A behaviour is more vulnerable to stress related illness such as coronary heart disease.

Question 31

how are behavioural types measured

Answer 31

by structured questionaires that measure the 3 elements of these types- i.e time pressuredness, competitiveness and level of anger implied. the would be items designed to tap into those sub variables. an item might be a statement that pops are invited to scale value- strongly agree, agree, neutral etc

Question 32

who developed the behaviour types and why/how

Answer 32

Friedman and Rosenman cardiologists observed patients with heart conditions in a waiting room- worn out chairs- they labelled them type A and type B. originally called type A and B personality but now conceptualised to a group of behavioural patterns associated with the types

Question 33

how did they test their hypothesis?

Answer 33

longitudinal study (8 years) to test their hypothesis that type A behaviour could predict heart disease.
questionnaires to establish who was A and B. Huge sample size so were able to match them for lifestyles -e.g smoking. Type A were nearly twice as likely to develop CHD than type B. raised blood pressure- A's more likely to have their flight ot fight response set off by their env.

Question 34

limitations of FandR

Answer 34

external validity (population) only male- studies carried out on women have not shown such a major difference between the two types and subsequent health- maybe suggesting that coping strategies are just as important as personality.

Question 35

strengths of FandR

Answer 35

ablle to control for the other important variables such as smoking and lifestyle- thesis good as it makes it less likely that such extraneous variable could confound the results.

Question 36

found in further research of FandR type behaviours

Answer 36

hostility element of type A is the best predictor of CHD