problem 1 - stress Flashcards
2 components of the condition of stress
Physical: involving direct material or bodily change
Psychological: involving how individuals perceive circumstances in their lives
what are the 3 ways to examine the components of stress?
Environmental approach: stress is seen as a stimulus
* e.g. when we have a demanding job or experience severe pain from arthritis or a death in the family
Response approach: stress seen as a response → focuses on people’s reactions to stressors
* e.g. when people use the word stress to refer to their state of tension
Process approach: describes stress as a process that includes stressors & strains, but adds an important dimension; the relationship between the person and the env
* interactions between person & env = transactions
what is stress?
the circumstance in which transactions lead a person to perceive a discrepancy between the physical/psychological demands of a situation and their resources
* A demand, resource, or discrepancy may be real or just believed to exist
* Stress often results from inaccurate perceptions of discrepancies between env demands & the actual resources
what is primary appraisal?
When we encounter a potentially stressful circumstance, we first try to asses the meaning of the situation for our wellbeing
leads to 1 of 3 judgements:
1. It is irrelevant - if you had similar symptoms of pain & nausea before that only lasted a short while
2. It is good - might be your appraisal if you wanted to use the pain as an excuse to skip work
3. It is stressful - if you feared the symptoms were of a serious illness
*example: feeling pain or nausea
what happens when we appraise a situation as stressful?
it recieves further appraisal for 3 implications:
1. Harm loss: refers to the amount of damage that has already occurred - e.g. when someone is in pain following a serious injury
2. Threat: involves the expectation of future harm - e.g. when hospitalized patients contemplate their medical bills, difficult recovery and loss of income
3. Challenge: the opportunity to achieve growth, mastery or profit by using more than routine resources to meet the demand - e.g. a promotion
what are the 3 primary appraisal judgements?
example: feeling pain or nausea
- It is irrelevant - if you had similar symptoms of pain & nausea before that only lasted a short while
- It is good - might be your appraisal if you wanted to use the pain as an excuse to skip work
- It is stressful - if you feared the symptoms were of a serious illness
what is secondary appraisal?
Our assessment of the resources we have available for coping
Occur continuously in our transactions, but we are especially aware of them when we judge a situation as potentially stressful to determine whether out resources are sufficient to meet harm, threat or challenge we face
what is cognitive apprasisal
by Lazarus
a mental process by which people asses 2 factors:
1. Whether a demand threatens their physical or psychological well-being (primary) and;
2. The resources available for meeting the demand (secondary)
personal factors that lead to stressful appraisals
intellectual, motivational and personality characteristics
* Many people have irrational beliefs that increase their stress - these people are likely to appraise almost any sort of inconvenience as threatening
* E.g. self esteem: if people with high self esteem perceive an event as stressful, they may see it as more of a challenge than a threat
characteristics of stressful events
factors of the event that may lead to stressful appraisals
- Events that involve very strong demands and are imminent - tend to be seen as stressful
- Life transitions: passing from one life condition or phase to another
- Difficult timing: events that happen earlier or later in life than usual or expected
- Ambiguity: a lack of clarity in a situation
- Low desirability: some circumstances are undesirable to most people in virtually all respects
- Low controllability: circumstances that seem to be outside the person’s behavioral or cognitive influence
what is allostatic load?
the effects of the body’s having to adapt repeatedly to stressors that accumulate over time
creates wear & tear on the body, & impairs its ability to adapt to future stressors
what are 4 important factors in the overall amount of physiological stress?
- Amount of exposure: when we encounter more frequent, intense, or prolonged stressors - likely to respond with a greater total amount of physiological activation
- Magnitude of reactivity: in response to any particular stressor some will show large increases in blood pressure or stress hormones while others show much smaller changes
- Rate of recovery: physiological responses return to normal quickly for some, but stay elevated for a longer time for others
- Resource restoration: the resources used in physiological strain are replenished by various activities - sleep may be the most imp of them
what did Selye believe about GAS’s specificity?
Selye believed that the GAS is non specific with regard to the type of stressor → the physiological reactions that GAS describes will occur regardless of where stress comes from
but there are problems with this - now general consensus is:
basic structure of GAS appears to be valid, but it assumes that all stressors produce the same physiological reactions + fails to include the role of psychosocial factors in stress
what are 3 problems with the notion of nonspecificity of GAS?
- Some stressors elicit a stronger emotional response than others
-Researchers have not found evidence that any single hormone responds to all stimuli in an absolutely non-specific way - The pattern of physiological arousal under stress depends on the combination of 2 factors - effort & distress
- Cognitive appraisal processes play a role in people’s physiological reaction to stressors
what are cytokines?
a group of peptide hormones that are released by many cells & participate in many physiological & immunological responses - cause inflammation & fever
are now classified with the adrenal hormones as major stress hormones
what is the relationship between cognition & stress?
High levels of stress affect people’s memory & attention
e.g. stressing about an exam can interefere with memory & attention necessary to do well
Cognition can also affect stress → worry about future threats & ruminating about past difficulties can maintain elevated physiological stress responses
The two-way connection between cognition & stress is particularly imp in executive functioning
Depleted exec resources (caused by stress) = more difficulty dealing with stressful situations
what is the relationship between emotion & stress?
Emotions tend to accompany stress & people often use their emotional states to evaluate their stress
Cognitive appraisal processes can influence both the stress and the emotional experience - e.g. experience fear if appraisal was of threat but excitement if appraisal was of challenge
what are common emotional reactions to stress?
Fear - includes psychological discomfort & physical arousal when we feel threatened - 2 diff categories of fear:
* Phobias = intense & irrational fears that are directly associated with specific events & situations
* Anxiety = a vague feeling of uneasiness or apprehension that often involves a relatively uncertain or unspecific threat
Depression
Anger - particularly when the person perceives the situation as harmful or frustrating
sources of stress from within the person:
stress from illness
being ill creates physical & psychological demands on the person
the degree of stress these demands produce depends on the seriousness of the illness and the age of the individual
Why age? → the ability of the body to fight disease normally improves in childhood & decline in old age + the meaning of a serious illness for the person changes with age
sources of stress from within the person:
appraisal of opposing motivational forces
conflict causes stress from within the person - e.g. you have 2 commitments that are both occurring at the same time
The pushes and pulls of conflict produce opposing tendencies: approach and avoidance → these tendencies produce 3 types of conflict
* approach/approach: choice involves two appealing goals that are incompatible - e.g. wanting to eat healthy but seeing yummy desert
* Avoidance/avoidance: choice between two undesirable situations - e.g. 2 treatment options w bad side effects
* approach/avoidance: a single goal or situation has attractive and unattractive features - e.g. wanting to quit smoking for health but afraid of cravings
sources of stress from within the person:
motives & goals
can also be significant stressors, especially motives about social interactions and relationships with other people
Social motives: include the need to be connected to and valued by others, and concerns about achievement and status
= rejection, isolation, conflict with others, competition, failure, and disrespect are sources of stress
sources of stress in the family:
an addition to the family
although typically very joyous, can be very stressful
* the behaviors of temperamentally difficult babies are stressful for parents
* when women experience high levels of stress during pregnancy, the baby can be adversely affected → increased chance of premature birth & underweight babies
sources of stress in the family:
marital strain & divorce
- When couples discuss issues that are sources of disagreement or conflict → show increases in blood pressure, cortisol and other physiological stress responses
- Couples who have frequent disagreements and greater negative behavior during those conflicts → more likely to separate or divorce eventually
- can negatively affect children & cause health problems as well as psychological problems that last long term
sources of stress in the family:
family illness, diability & death
- when a family member has a serious chronic illness, their families must adapt to unique and long-term stress
- stress comes from: amount of time needed to care for child + reduced freedom + medical expenses + strained relationships between other family members
- death in the family can be extremely traumatic and stressfull
sources of stress in the community & society:
job and stress
often stressful job situations are minor & brief + have little impact on the person - but for many people, the stress is intense and continues for long periods of time
factors that make jobs stressfull:
* demands of the task
* underutilizing workers abilities
* evaluation of employees performance
* jobs that involve responsibility for ppls lives
* perceived insufficient control over job aspects
* poor interpersonal relationships
* percieved inadequate recognition or advancement
* job loss & insecurity
sources of stress in the community & society:
environmental stress
- some envs create only moderate levels of stress - e.g. crowded and loud party
- others create much more intense and chronic stressors - e.g. a constant threat of violence or harm
- low socioeconomic status: associated with poor health & increased stress
- discrimination also increases stress response
measuring stress:
electrical/mechanical equipment:
can be used to assess arousal by taking measurements of blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, or galvanic skin response
can each by measured alone or simultaneously
measuring stress
Biochemical analyses
Of blood, urine or saliva sample: can be used to assess the level of hormones that the adrenal glands secrete during stress
Can test for two classes of hormones: corticosteroids & catecholamines:
Advantages:reasonably direct and objective, quite reliable, and easily quantified
Disadvantages: expensive & the measurement technique may itself be stressful for some people
measuring stress
The social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)
- a list of events derived from clinical experience
- had hundreds of people of various ages & backgrounds rate the amount of adjustment each event would requirec
- researchers then used these ratings and assigned values to each life event to construct the scale - values from 11-100
To measure the amount of stress people have experienced: respondents given a survey form listing these life events and asked to check off the ones that happened to them during a given period of time, usually not more than the past 24 months
The researcher sums the values of the checked items to get a total stress score
measuring stress
daily hassels scale
used to measure people’s experiences with day-to-day unpleasant or potentially harmful events
* Lists 117 of these events that range from minor annoyances, to major problems or difficulties
* Respondents indicate which hassles occurred in the past month + and rate each event as ‘somewhat,’ ‘moderately,’ or ‘extremely’ severe
Also developed the Uplifts Scale, which lists 135 events that bring peace, satisfaction, or joy
Tested 100 middle-aged adults monthly over a 9-month period and identified the most frequently occurring items
