Part B - Stress Flashcards
Briefly explain Cannon’s Fight or Flight Theory (1930’s).
When faced with a stressor, the body is aroused and motivated to act via two systems: the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system.
The two physiological systems interact to mobilise organisms to fight against or flee the danger.
What are the strengths of Cannon’s (1930’s) Fight or Flight Theory?
Measuring stress hormones gives an objective measure of stress. The biological reactions to stress have been clearly identified.
The Fight/Flight response has been observed in all mammals in response to threats.
Who developed the General Adaptation Syndrome theory?
Selye (1956)
Who developed the Fight or Flight model of stress?
Cannon (1930’s)
Describe Selye’s (1956) General Adaptation Syndrome.
A three stage model: alarm, resistance and exhaustion.
Physiological resources of the body are mobilised to deal with an impending threat (the nature of the stressor is unimportant).
The body recognises that not all of the mobilised resources are needed; thus continues with only necessary resources.
The body realises it’s physiological resources are depleted and a second attempt to mobilise is made. If this second attempt doesn’t neutralise the threat, may lead to permanent damage of organism = disease of adaptation. Results in illness!
Selye assumed an equal response to physical and psychological stressor.
What are the strengths of Selye’s (1956) General Adaptation Syndrome?
He showed the significance of the role of the HPA axis in stress.
He identified the importance and the effects of stress medically and in diseases whereas other researchers have not been able to properly prove the negative effects of chronic stress.
What are the weaknesses of Selye’s (1956) General Adaptation Syndrome?
He did not pay much attention to the SAM system and its role in stress and did not really understand the link or relationship of the HPA and SAM.
Selye’s idea that stress always produces the same physiological pattern was extravagant as a researcher called Mason compared the responses to varying stressors with differences of how much fear, uncertainty or anger they created. The varying stressors produced different patterns of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol secreted in the body.
It must also be criticized that Selye used non-humans (rats) for his research on human response to stress. This could have lead to some of his errors as rats may not respond in the same psychological way as humans. He may have used rats for ethical purposes and even if humans were used for the research, it could be argued that it was for medical purposes so it could not have been unethical anyway.
The tests Selye carried out may not necessarily have the same outcomes in pattern for all people as all people have individual differences. Therefore the way in which one person reacts to one stress may vary from the way another person may react to the same stressor. Different levels of hormones may be produced and the patterns may differ with different people due to how they perceive and cope with the stress.
Who developed the Life Events Theory?
Holmes and Rahe (1967)
Describe Holmes and Rahe’s (1967) Life Events Theory.
This theory considers the social and psychological causes of stress. Assumes that stress arises as a consequence of the life events that an individual experiences.
The more events experienced, the greater degree of stress, and subsequently, the greater risk of illness.
Holmes and Rahe created the Life Events Inventory, and assigned a rating between 0 and 100 to each event according to their severity. The events were “Life Events” and “Daily Hassles”.
Life events included: Death of a spouse - 100 Divorce - 73 Marriage - 50 Son or Daughter leaving home - 29
Daily Hassles included:
Too many things to do
Job Dissatisfaction
Not getting enough sleep
What are the strengths of Holmes and Rahe’s (1967) Life Events Theory?
Many studies have found an association between the number of life events, their severity and the onset of physical and mental illness.
What are the weaknesses of Holmes and Rahe’s (1967) Life Events Theory?
The impact of life events on physical illness is small and accounts for little of the variance in illness reporting (Lin et al., 1979). Which may be a consequence of their infrequency.
It may be more important how many minor stressors or daily hassles the individual experiences. The cumulative effects of such minor events may contribute more to the stress process than less frequent life events. E.g. continuously feeling dissatisfied at work and feeling too much responsibility/not enough time, may be more stressful to someone than their child leaving home. This is supported by Kanner et al (1981)
Two further weaknesses also apply to Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (1956):
- Doesn’t attempt to understand the emotional experience of stress
- Can’t explain why some people may experience the same events or stress but have different emotional and health outcomes. Makes no effort to explain processes intervening between external events and emotion and illness.
*It is clear that internal processes are central to both the experience of stress and it’s health consequences.
What are the similarities between Cannon and Selye’s theories?
Both theories assume an automatic response to external stressors.
Stress is uni-dimensional.
Stress reaction is proportionate to the degree of stress.
No role for perception and interpretation of environmental influences.
Who developed the Transactional Model of Stress?
Lazarus and Folkman, 1984.
Describe the Transactional Model of Stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
A coherent and influential model of stress.
The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping Theory is a framework which emphasises appraisal to evaluate harm, threat and challenges, which results in the process of coping with stressful events.
Transactional (interaction) occurs between a person and the environment.
Describes the cognitive precursors to the negative emotions that are associated with stress and strategies used to reduce them.
Describes stress as arising from the appraisal that environmental demands are taxing individual resources - threatening well-being.
When faced with external demands, we engage in two types of appraisal: primary and secondary.
Primary appraisals consider the potential threat carried by the situation, if the situation is considered as threatening, then the secondary appraisal comes in.
Secondary appraisals consider how well we are able to cope with this threat. If we think the situation is threatening and that we lack the resources to cope effectively, we will experience some degree of stress.
Coping:
Internal options - e.g. will-power, inner strength.
External options - e.g. peers, professional health
Problem based coping attempts to change negative emotions/stress.Used when we feel we have control of the situation, thus can manage the source of the problem.
Possible strategies could include: defining the problem, generating and evaluating alternative solutions, learning new skills to manage the stressor, reappraising, by reducing our ego involvement.
Emotional based-coping is used when we feel we have little control of the situation, thus we can’t manage the source of the problem. This involves gaining strategies for regulating emotional distress, e.g. avoiding, distancing yourself from the emotion, acceptance, seeking emotional support from your partner, selective attention, alcohol, venting anger.
What are the strengths of the Transactional Model of Stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984)?
It considers cognitive approaches, which the fight-flight and general adaptation syndrome models do not.
It is a dynamic model - i.e. if factors in the ability for the individual to change their appraisal and thus their response.
It caters for individual differences, they way we appraise and cope varies a lot.
Identifies alternative methods for managing psychological responses to stressors.
What are the weaknesses of the Transactional Model of Stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984)?
Lack of empirical evidence.
Overlap of primary and secondary appraisals, they are interdependent.
Difficulty to label factors that determine stress.
Who thought of stress as an emotion?
Lazarus - 1990’s.
What does Lazarus (1990’s) mean by stress is an emotion?
Emotions are our response to ‘relational meaning’. Just like anger is a response to a demeaning offence and anxiety is a response to an uncertain existential threat.
What causes the stress reaction is not just the environmental demand but the significance is appraised by the individual.
There’s ‘good’ and ‘bad’ stress. (Lazarus, 1999)
Eustress - arousal with positive outcome, individual feels in control.
Distress - arousal with negative outcome, individual feels out of control.
What are the strengths of Lazarus’s (1990’s) theory that stress is an emotion?
Understanding sociocultural influence allows for high ecological external validity.
Acknowledges social and cognitive rather than just biological.
What are the weaknesses of Lazarus’s (1990’s) theory that stress is an emotion?
Reductionist theory in reference to emotions. It assumes that emotions mean the same to everyone. Individual differences.
Which type of personality is ‘cancer prone’?
Type C (Eysenck, 1994).
- suppression of negative emotions
- hopelessness and helplessness in the face of stress
- passivity
Who devised what model as a counterpart to Lazarus?
Hobfoll’s (1989) ‘Stress as a lack of resources’.
Describe Hobfoll’s (1989) ‘Stress as a lack of resources’.
Hobfoll’s conservation of resources theory (COR) states that the level of stress an individual experiences is a consequence of the extent to which their resources are lost, threatened with loss, or are invested without subsequent resource gain.
Central to this theory is the idea that resources are quantifiable and changes to them carry consequences.
Resource loss is more problematic and therefore more motivational to avoid resource loss than seek resource gain.
Resources - internal factors (knowledge and skills) and environmental and social factors.
*Relates well for work stress.
What are the similarities between Hobfoll’s (1989) Conservation of Resources theory and Person-Environment Fit Theory?
Both approaches examine the interaction between the person and the environment and the degree of correspondence between demands, the environment and individual’s resources to deal with those demands.
What are the differences between Hobfoll’s (1989) Conservation of Resources theory and Person-Environment Fit Theory?
P-E Fit Model focuses mostly on people’s perceptions of fit, whereas COR theory incorporates more objective indicators of actual fit.
What is Resource Spiralling, according to Hobfoll (1989)?
Resource spiralling is when individuals lack resources to deal with stressful events, they are not only more vulnerable in that situation but also “loss begets further loss” of resources.
King et al. (1999) found evidence of resource spiralling in personnel in Vietnam struggling to cope with PTSD, reducing opportunities for recovery.
Resource gains can also spiral.
