Paper 2 Flashcards
Paulsen et al (2003)
Aim: to See if a longer intervention including fear arousal Could promote Smoking cessation and prevent relapse
procedure:
-Heart patients randomly allocated to treatment group and control group
- offered group counseling sessions: Patients in control group only receive Counseling and patients in treatment control also got personal, advice from trainer nurse, and information material Stressing the risks of continued smoking (fear arousal and advantages of cessation)
They were advised to stop smoking and nicotine, Therapy was offered to those with cravings, nurses contacted patients in treatment group by, telephone 9 times after they came home to encourage Cessation and Stressed negative aspects of smoking, on their conditions
Results:In the intervention group 57 %, control group, 37% had Stopped smoking at end of program, fear arousal is Controversial, Justified since more Stopped smoking. results Indicate Cues to action and perceived, Threat can predict behavioral change, by offering them a medication to stop craving and by asking the spouses to stop smoking
Kiekolt-Glaser 1984
Aim-
The aim of the research was to see if the stress of important exams could lead to a decrease in immune function.
procedure -
The sample was made up of 26 female and 49 male first-year medical students from the Ohio State University College of Medicine. The sample was a self-selected (volunteer) sample. All participants had to be free of any health problems in order to participate. The study was a natural experiment in that the independent variable - the stress of examinations - was “naturally” occurring and was not manipulated by the researcher. The participants were tested for their level of stress before the experiment began. One month prior to exams, the participants were given the Social Readjustment Rating Scale to account for life changes that occurred within the last year that would raise their level of stress.
findings-
As a result of this test, the participants were divided into two groups: a high stress and a low stress group. Levels of loneliness were also measured and the participants were also divided into two groups: high loneliness and low loneliness.
A blood sample was then taken. A second blood sample was taken after students had completed the first two examinations.
Natural Killer cell (NK) activity was measured in the students’ blood sample. NK cells are lymphocytes which provide rapid responses to viral-infected cells. A low level of NK activity indicates a poorly functioning immune system.
conclusion-
There was a significant decrease in NK cell activity between the first blood test and the second blood test - which was taken during the stress of examinations. Those participants in the “high stress” group were more likely to have lower levels of NK than those in the “low stress” group. This means that stress experienced previous to the exams played a role in their immune systems’ ability to cope with the stress of examinations. In addition, those participants in the “high loneliness” group had lower levels of NK than those in the “low loneliness” group. This confirms the role of social support as a protective factor for better health.
Kiecolt-Glaser concluded that stress has a direct effect on the immune system by suppressing NK cell activity.
evaluation-
The research seems to support the General Adaptation Model proposed by Selye. As our body continues to cope with stressors, it eventually becomes “exhausted.” In this exhausted stage, this is when we are most likely to become ill. Up until Kiecolt-Glaser carried out this study, much of the research carried out on stress’s role on the immune system had been carried out on animals. For example, Rasmussen (1957) demonstrated that stress could increase susceptibility to herpes simplex virus in mice. It is a strength that the study was carried out on humans in a way that was ethically sound.
Another strength of the study is that it was a repeated measures design - that is, an individual’s NK cell count was compared before and after the stress of examinations. This eliminated the problem of participant variability, as each person’s “post-stress” NK cell count was compared to their “low-stress” baseline NK cell count.
Unlike Cohen’s study, Kiecolt-Glaser actually used biological markers to determine the effect of stress, rather than simply observing whether someone gets ill or not. But even with this, the cause and effect relationship is still rather difficult to fully establish. As it was a natural experiment, the controls over the experiment were not as good as would be in a laboratory experiment. For example, it is not known how the participants cope with stress. Some of the participants may have better coping strategies which would better regulate their stress response. This may have affected the results. However, the study is naturalistic and has high ecological validity. It also seems to reflect the personal experience that many students experience with regard to illness during and immediately following exam experiences.
Finally, one of the problems of the experiment is the age of the participants. Students are often used in psychological research because they are easy to find and usually willing to participant in research studies. However, younger people usually have stronger immune systems than older people. Therefore, it is difficult to generalize the findings to older people. In addition, the stress of exams is an acute stressor. It is not like poverty or constant noise pollution. More research needs to be done on the extent to which the nature of the stressor itself may - or may not - have an effect on the immune system.
Speisman (1964)
Aim-
Speisman et al (1964) carried out a study to test the theory of cognitive appraisal in emotions.
The aim of the study was to test the role of cognitive appraisal on the stress response. test the Two Factor Theory of emotion to see if the manipulation of cognitive appraisal would lead to different emotional outcomes.
procedure -
Two different samples were used in order to make it possible to generalize the findings more broadly. The sample included 56 undergraduate psychology students and 42 middle-level airline executives.
The researchers had participants watch a film of an indigenous circumcision ceremony which involved the cutting of the young boys’ genitals. While showing this film, one of three sound-tracks was played.
The trauma condition: participants could hear the noises of the surgery and they were also told just how painful this surgery is;
The intellectualization condition: the participants heard a voice-over by an anthropologist explaining the history of the tradition
The denial condition: the overall tone of the presentation was about the celebration of these young boys becoming men.
There was also a control group in which the film was shown but without sound.
While participants watched the film, researchers measured their heart rate and galvanic skin responses. Immediately after the film was complete, the participants were asked to fill in questionnaires that evaluated the participants’ feelings of stress.
findings-
The results showed that the trauma condition showed much higher physiological measures of stress than the participants in the other two conditions. Emotional responses, which were self-reported in the questionnaire, were stronger for those that were in either the control group or the trauma group. The study shows that we gather information from our environment to determine how we react to a situation.
evaluation-
The experiment was highly controlled and thus can infer a cause and effect relationship between the cognitive label and the displayed stress response. The study has high internal validity.
The study is ethically problematic. Watching the video was highly stressful for the participants.
The study is highly artificial and thus lacks ecological validity.
Emotional responses are self-reported and therefore not objectively measured. They are also open to demand characteristics.
The physiological measures and the questionnaire responses were compared using a single blind design in order to eliminate researcher bias.
Lowe et al (2004)
Aim-
Lowe et al (2004) investigated the potential role of social cognitive theory in promoting healthy eating in British school children - with the specific goal of increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables.
procedure -
The sample was made up of 749 children, aged 5 - 11 years old, in two inner-city London primary schools. One school served as a control; the other school underwent the experimental intervention known as the Food Dudes Program.
At the start of the study, the level of fruit and vegetable consumption was measured in order to establish a baseline. To establish this baseline, the researchers used three key measures. First, children in both schools were given the option of consuming fruit and vegetables at lunchtime. Their choice of foods was observed and recorded on a five-point rating scale. In addition, the younger children (ages 5 - 7) received fruit at snack time. The weight of the fruit consumed was recorded. Finally, questionnaires were given to their parents, asking them to recall the eating behaviours of their children. Consumption levels would again be measured during the intervention and four months after the completion of the program.
Over 16 days children watched video adventures featuring the Food Dudes. The Food Dudes are young superheroes who are involved in saving the world from the “Junk Punks,” who plot to take destroy the world by depriving it of fruit and vegetables - and thus, its key energy force. The Food Dudes not only continue to beat the “Junk Punks,” but they are seen eating a range of fruit and veg, explaining how wonderful they taste - and showing that they are the key to their power in defeating the bad guys. This is an important part of social cognitive theory - giving the children models whose behaviour they may imitate.
After watching the six-minute videos, teachers read aloud a letter “from the Food Dudes” to the students. The letters explained the need to fight the Junk Punks, the benefits of eating a healthy diet and gave information about prizes for eating well. In addition, the children were given a “Food Dudes’ Home Pack” which encouraged them to eat more fruit and vegetables at home - and having their parents record what they were eating. This is the second important part of social cognitive theory - helping the children to develop a sense of self-efficacy - explaining to them that they can “help,” and then giving them a plan to do so.
After 16 days, there were no more videos and the rewards for eating these foods were less frequent.
findings-
The researchers found a significant increase in fruit and vegetable consumption both at school and at home among children in the experimental condition. The greatest increase was seen in the children who at the beginning of the study had shown the lowest consumption rates of fruit and vegetables. For example, during snack time, these children went from eating just 4% of the fruit they were given, to eating 68% of it after watching the Food Dudes series. Four months later, they were still eating twelve times as much fruit as they had originally, and four times the quantity of vegetables. In the control school, where the same fruit and vegetables were offered to students, but without the Food Dudes intervention, there was no change in their interest in consumption rates.
Koch (2008)
Aim-
the role of family stress on childhood obesity. Koch et al wanted to see if stress in the family household could be correlated to obesity in children.
procedure -
-7000 Swedish families
The families were asked to fill out structured questionnaires to measure their level of stress related to four domains: serious life events, parenting stress, lack of social support and general anxiety/worry. A composite stress score was obtained, as well as individual scores for each of the domains.
findings-
In the sample, 4.2% of the children were obese.
The composite measure of psychological stress, measuring the additive effect of stress across all four domains at age 5 showed that high stress in the family was related to childhood obesity at age 5.
This cross-sectional finding was supported by the longitudinal finding of a relationship between high stress in the family at age 2 and childhood obesity at age 5.
Newcomer et al (1999)
Aim-
Newcomer et al (1999) studied the effects of stress on verbal declarative memory. The aim of the research was to investigate whether high levels of the stress hormone cortisol interfere with verbal declarative memory.
procedure -
All participants were employees or students at the Washington University Medical Center. All participants were given a clinical interview with a physician. They were excluded from the sample if they were pregnant, had a history of mental illness, had suffered head trauma, or had suffered from an illness that had been treated with corticosteroids.
The researchers carried out a double blind laboratory experiment in which the participants were matched for age and gender to one of three conditions:
Condition 1 - high level of cortisol: The participants in the high-level cortisol group were given a tablet containing 160 mg of cortisol on each day of the four-day experiment. This dose of cortisol produces blood levels similar to those seen in people experiencing a major stress event.
Condition 2 - low level of cortisol: The participants in the low level of cortisol group were given a tablet containing 40 mg of cortisol per day. This dose is similar to the amount of cortisol circulating in the bloodstream of people undergoing minor surgical procedures such as having stitches removed.
Condition 3 - placebo group: The participants in this condition were given placebo tablets - that is, a tablet that looked like the other tablets but with no active ingredient. This was done in order to have a control group.
All participants were asked to listen to and recall a prose paragraph. Each day they were given a different piece of prose with the same level of difficulty and in one variation of the study, were asked to recall the information either 30 minutes. They were tested three times.
All participants were first tested before taking any cortisol. The finding was that there was no significant difference between groups. This is an important control to make sure that at baseline, individual differences will not be a confounding variable for the study.
The participants were tested again one day after taking the pill and then again four days later. There was a test again six days later to make sure that there were no long-term effects of the treatment on the participants.
findings-
The results indicated that high cortisol levels impaired performance in the memory task since the participants who received the highest level of cortisol also showed the worst performance in verbal declarative memory. The researchers were also able to verify that the effect was not permanent; the performance of participants in the high cortisol condition returned to normal after they stopped taking the hormone tablet. According to the researchers, these results demonstrate a clear link between levels of cortisol and remembering.
conclusion-
It appears that high levels of cortisol interfered with the recall of the prose passage, whereas moderate levels of cortisol may have actually assisted in the recall of the passage. This makes sense as there are cortisol receptor sites on the hippocampus, which is responsible for the transfer of information from STM to LTM and vice versa.
evaluation-
Since this study was experimental, the researchers could establish a clear cause and effect relationship between the IV and the DV.
The researchers carried out a baseline test in order to eliminate the possible confounding variable of individual differences between groups.
The experiment ran over several days and the participants were not in the lab the whole time, so the researchers did not have full control over extraneous variables - for example, individual stressors in the lives of the participants. In spite of this, there was a clear relationship between the amount of cortisol ingested and the performance on the memory test.
Different texts were used for days 1 and 4. However, the researchers counterbalanced the use of the texts to act as a control that the difficulty of the text did not play a role in recall.
Memorizing a piece of prose is perhaps not the most authentic memory experience. Although it may explain student exam stress, the ability to generalize the results to other situations may be limited.
There are ethical considerations in the study. The participants ingested cortisol which affected their memory negatively. However, the participants had signed an informed consent form and the damage was not permanent.
Joseph (2015)
Aim-This study was done to assess the awareness of health hazards, consumption pattern of fast foods and to find out its association with overweight among high school students.
procedure -
-cross-sectional
-sample of 300 high school boys from three private schools.
-Using a semi-structured self-administered questionnaire: asked about the frequency of fast food meals, years of fast food consumption, awareness of health hazards, time spent in fast food restaurants and parental food consumption patterns. In addition, the boys were asked about the type and frequency of physical activity. Finally, their height and weight were measured, and their height and weight from two years previous were obtained from the school register.
findings-
- 16.4% of the boys were either overweight or obese.
- 97.3% were fast food users
- 14.4% consumed fast food every day
- parental consumption of fast food had a significant influence on their children’s eating habits.
Wakefeild et al
Wakefield et al (2013) carried out a literature review of the role that media plays in smoking behaviour. The research suggests that the media plays a key role in shaping social values about smoking. The media does this by providing models which teenagers may seek to emulate as well as providing information about the nature of smoking. This information may either promote or discourage smoking behaviour. Some of the key research findings included:
Awareness and liking of cigarette advertising are associated with smoking initiative among teenagers, independent of peer, sibling, or parent smoking behaviour.
Brand-specific exposure to cigarette advertisements was correlated with the type of cigarette smoked by new smokers.
Ownership of cigarette promotional items is linked with later smoking initiated
To what extent do biological, cognitive and socio-cultural factors influence health-related behavior?
Newcomer: Cortisol levels caused stress which caused an issue with recall.
Spiesman: Shows how
Lowe et al:
Evaluate psychological research relevant to health psychology.
Spiesman (1964)- Shows cognitive appraisal
Lowe et al (2004)- Social cognitve theory
Paulsen et al (2003)- Health belief model
Describe stressors.
Spiesman (1964)
Kienkolk-Glaser (1984)
Discuss physiological, psychological and social aspects of stress.
Spiesman (1964)-
Newcomer (1999)- Hormones like cortisol cause stress
Koch (2008)
Evaluate strategies for coping with stress.
Allen et al (1999)
Jamieson et al (2011)
Explain factors related to the development of substance abuse or addictive behavior.
Johnson and White
Wakefield et al
Examine prevention strategies and treatments for substance abuse and addictive behavior.
Johnson and White
Wakefield et al
Paulsen et al
