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Stress Flashcards

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1
Q

What is stress?

A

Response occurs when perceived demands placed on us = greater than perceived ability to cope.

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2
Q

What is General adaptation syndrome?

A

Selye - rats exposed to stressors and all developed stomach ulcers.
Alarm - fight or flight, SNS, SAM pathway
Resistance - endocrine, HRA + cortisol
Exhaustion - depleted resources lower immunity

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3
Q

What are evaluation points for GAS?

A

Mason replicated with monkeys - contradiction. Cortisol in urine.
- decrease validity of rats
- not take into account perception of threat
- ethical issues
- animals –> humans
- only male animals - beta bias
- bio reductionism

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4
Q

What is the SAM pathway?

A

Sympathetic medullary system. Respond to acute stressor + activate SNS + release adrenaline.

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5
Q

What is the HPAC pathway?

A

Hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal system.
Hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal cortex, corticosteroids.
Activated by continuous stressors over time - hypothalamus –> cortisol.

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6
Q

What is the function of cortisol?

A

Helps respond to stress/danger. Increase metabolism of glucose, decrease immunity, controls bp, impaired cognitive ability.

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7
Q

How does stress affect the immune system?

A

Diversion of energy resources, maladaptive coping behaviours and impact of stress hormones on immunity.
Hard to separate as confounding variable, correlational.

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8
Q

What is immunosuppression?

A

With chronic stress - less lymphocytes so increased risk of tumours.
Cohen et al - nasal drops with cold viruses. Stress levels measured by number of recent life changes + sense of control over life. High stress 2x more likely to be sick.

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9
Q

What are evaluation points of stress in illness?

A
  • immune system v complex
  • immunity varies with type + duration of stress
  • research into stress = nomothetic
  • hard to research bc ethics
  • individual differences
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10
Q

How are cardiovascular disease and stress linked?

A

Genetics, age, high cholesterol, hypertension, obesity.
Williams - 130,000 completed anger rating scale. 6 years later, 256 had heart attack. Highest on scale, 2.5x more likely. SNS arousal associated with CHDs.

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11
Q

What is the SRRS?

A

Holmes + Rahe - social readjustment rating scale made of 43 stressful life events over last 12m.
Rahe did empirical research - correlation with illness. 2,500 male US sailors died SRRS + next 6m had health tracked - v high positive correlation.

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12
Q

What are evaluation points for the SRRS?

A
  • not account for individual differences
  • most people not have major life events often
  • retrospective
  • easy to administer, no equipment
  • culturally specific
  • subjective + self report
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13
Q

What is the hassles and uplifts scale?

A

Kanner et al - positive final score = more good things that day. Can help explain behaviour + things accumulate.
Delongis et al found hassles had negative correlation with health. These affect stress levels most significant over time.

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14
Q

What are evaluation points for the hassles and uplifts scale?

A
  • retrospective during study
  • uplifts had sig. effect on stress levels of women only
  • WEIRD samples
  • different coping mechanisms
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15
Q

What did Kiecolt-Glaser study?

A

49 male, 49 female med students gave blood 1 month before finals + after 1st day on exams. Questionnaires assess loneliness, life etc.

Immune responses weakest in high loneliness scores, stressful life + anxiety symptoms.

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16
Q

What are evaluation points for Kiecolt-Glaser?

A
  • repeated measures
  • natural experiment - ethical
  • correlational
  • confounding variables?
  • holistic
  • high ecological
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17
Q

What did Marmot study in the Whitehall studies?

A

Whitehall 1 - mortality rates over 10y - association with grade of employment + mortality from CHD. Low status - obesity, smoking, higher bp.
Whitehall 2 - longitudinal study - social influences on health. 10,000 participants. Employment grade associated with work control + varied work.

Lack of control related to long period of absence.

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18
Q

What are evaluation points for Marmot?

A
  • supported by other studies
  • large sample
  • practical applications
  • staus syndrome
  • natural experiment
19
Q

What did Johansson et al study?

A

14 finishers in Swedish sawmill - they determined everyone’s wages.
- compare to 10 cleaners
- worked alone without social contact
- urine samples in morning + 4x a day - tested
- questionnaire on mood

Finishers had more stress hormones in urine + more days sick.

20
Q

What are evaluation points for Johansson et al?

A
  • high ecological validity
  • objective
  • self report
  • practical applications
  • personality?
21
Q

What are sources of workplace stress?

A

Demands - work overload/underload
Control - no control over work rate/content
Role - clashing with other role eg. family

22
Q

What are evaluation points for workplace stress?

A
  • hard to measure + control all variables without lab
  • cultural differences
  • practical applications - economy
  • not all workplace stressors = harmful
  • individual differences - type A
23
Q

What is the skin conductance response?

A

When anxious, small increase in sweat levels, increase rate small electrical signals are transmitted across skin. Moist skin = more conductive.

24
Q

What are evaluation points for SCR?

A
  • practical applications
  • continuous use
  • affected by external factors eg. temp
  • individual differences
  • lab studies
  • objective
25
Q

What are the different personality types?

A

Type A - personality type showing time urgency, competitiveness and hostility
Type B - healthy personality type showing self confidence and relaxation.
Type C - suppression of negative emotions - pathological niceness. (later).

26
Q

Who developed personality types?

A

Friedman and Rosenman - psych factors in CHD. Longitudinal study on 3154 men aged 39-59 for 8.5 years. Questionnaire –> 2 groups. 50:50 A + B.
2x as many type A developed CHD. even when adjusted for lifestyle.

27
Q

What are evaluation points for individual differences?

A

Competing: life events, hassles and uplifts, job demands.
- narrow parameters
- all male samples
- cultural bias - WEIRD
- nomothetic
- deterministic + reductionist

28
Q

What is hardiness?

A

Kobasa + Maddi - range of characteristics which help prevent feeling stressed.
1. control
2. commitment
3. challenge

29
Q

What did Kobasa study?

A

800 US business executives + assess stress with SRRS. 150 classed as high stress - most had low illness record. So investigated why avoid illness - adapted SRRS and self report illness. 86 had high stress low illness.
Increased resilience if hardy as had high scores on all 3

30
Q

What are evaluation points for hardiness?

A
  • self report
  • internal reliability issues
  • correlational
  • WEIRD males
  • hard to assess 3 factors
  • confounding variables
31
Q

What are RCT?

A

Randomly controlled trial. Random allocation into groups with standardised instructions.

32
Q

How do different forms of drug therapy work?

A

Benzodiazepines - CNS. increase GABA and bind to same receptors so more Cl- into neurones. Slows activity, lowering stress.
Beta blockers use SNS - bypass brain and block transmission of APs. Decrease adrenaline + noradrenaline binding to receptors by binding in place.

33
Q

What are evaluation points for drug therapy?

A
  • risk of dependency
  • cost effective, fast to take/work
  • resistance builds up over time
  • less time + effort
  • better with CBT
  • only work when taking
  • not for kids
  • good for economy
  • nomothetic
    Kahn et al found BZ’s significantly better than placebos at treating anxiety symptoms. Less side effects
34
Q

What is stress inoculation therapy?

A

Form of CBT. Meichenbaum - not control stress cause, but can control way we think about it. Stress seen as gap between perceived demands of situation and perceived resources to deal with it.
1. Conceptualisation
2. Skills + acquisition
3. Application

35
Q

What are evaluation points for SIT?

A
  • not for kids
  • time consuming, effort, motivation
  • future oriented
  • research has high external validity
  • less scientific bc discussion
  • no side effects etc.
  • slower than drugs
  • cultural issues + WEIRD
36
Q

What is biofeedback?

A

Bio approach with behaviourist part. Attached to machine - measures muscle tension, body temp, bp, SCR. Control involuntary physiological processes and make changes.

37
Q

What is research into biofeedback?

A

Bouchard et al found soldiers with 1 30m session x3 while playing stressful video game has lower stress levels.
Lemaire et al - 40 doctors, 3x a day for 28 days + monitor stress levels for another 28 days. Stress levels significantly decreased.

38
Q

What are evaluation points for biofeedback?

A
  • not artificially altering body
  • use with kids
  • broad psych perspective
  • v scientific
  • tailor to individual
  • not replace drugs
39
Q

What are gender differences in stress?

A

Lazarus + Folkman - women use emotion focused techniques (avoidance. distraction) and men use problem focused (practical, rational).

40
Q

What is role constraint theory?

A

Society imposes different expectations on genders about how they cope with stress - women have more family based, men more work based.
Taylor - fight or flight = beta bias as women more tend and befriend.

41
Q

What is social support?

A

Cope with stress by seeking help from friends and family. V hard to categorise as emotion/problem focused.
Instrumental
Emotional
Esteem

42
Q

What is research into social support?

A

Cohen et al phoned 404 healthy adults for 2 weeks - how many hugs/day? SS questionnaire. Nasal drops with common cold. High SS, significant decrease in illness. Perceived social support as buffer against stress.

43
Q

What are evaluation points for social support?

A
  • no competing theories - men have larger SS network but women use them more.
  • retrospective research
  • holistic, multi disciplinary perspective needed to understand stress
  • hard to test different types separately
  • different types in different situations

Psychology (12 decks)

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