Model for Stress and Disease Flashcards
What are the 2 separate categories of stress?
-stressors –> causal factors
-stress –> responses to the stressors
What is the equation of stress?
Stressors x ME = stress
-we are the defining variable in the equation;
-our management of stress significantly impacts the effects of stress [leading to diseases]
What is the Stress-Diathesis Model?
-diathesis is your vulnerability
-diathesis form in the womb, cannot always control them
-stress on the fetus predicts stress for the whole life (diathesis are set)
What is the example of diathesis?
-I am a link chain and there are 2 people pulling me at either end [stress]
-where along the chain is it going to break? Where it is weakest aka Diathesis
What are the 3 groupings of risk factors when looking at disease?
-Biological (family history; race; gender/sex)
-Psychological (hostility/anger; anxiety; depression)
-Environmental (psychosocial stress; physical stress; dietary factors)
Who is protected from cardiovascular disease and why? Who is most and least likely to develop a cardiovascular disease?
-women are protected from cardiovascular disease until menopause because estrogen is a protective factor, but this doesn’t apply to black women because of racism/discrimination
-most likely: black men; least likely: white women; middle: black women and white men
What factors can affect how an individual reacts to the disease?
-those that have a family history of disease tend to have more hostility/anger?
-experience with racism affects a lot of the psychological factors, emotional impact effects how they react to the disease
What is the most significant risk factor?
-hostility
What are the 2 mechanisms of disease development?
-Psychophysiological Reactivity Model
-Health Behaviours Model
How does the Psychophysiological Reactivity Model work?
-exposure to stressors –> physiological response –> disease
-ex: repeated and extended exposure to stressors lead to damage to organs [heart]; many tears form on blood vessels and cortisol repairs these tears; the repair of the damage can cause bigger damage (heart attack)
What is the Health Behaviours Model?
-when I am under stress, I do not take good care of myself
-people tend to eat more of the bad foods; body craves them in stressful moments
-stress increases unhealthy behaviours and decreases healthy behaviours (less likely to workout)
Why did stress research looking at hostility have non-significant results?
-the issue with the study is that they weren’t inducing hostility/anger
-the math task was not enough to get them mad
-to make them more mad they used interpersonal conflict [harassment protocol]
What additional factors can be considered when studying stress?
-family history of cardiovascular disease
-dietary factors (salt)
[under harassment and non-harassment]
