Stress

Question 1

What is stress

Answer 1

stress occurs when there is an imbalance between perceived demands and perceived coping responses.

Question 2

What is the body’s response to acute stress?

Answer 2

The sympathomedullary pathway

Question 3

What is the body’s repossess to chronic stress?

Answer 3

The pituitary-adrenal system

Question 4

Outline the SAM

Answer 4

• Acute stressors activate sympathetic branch of the ANS
• SNS prepares for fight or flight
• Pupils SalivaryGlands HeartBeat Bronchi Intestines Liver-glucogenesis Bladder Adrenal medulla
• Releases adrenaline or noradrenaline into bloodstream

Question 5

What is an antigen

Answer 5

Foreign material that stimulates the production of antibodies.

Question 6

Stress related illness and the immune system

Answer 6

Cohen’s Cold

Keicolt- Glaser exam stress

Question 7

Cohen et al- Common cold

Answer 7

394 pps- stressful life events + how stressed they felt and experience of negative emotions. Scores combined into a stress index. Pps exposed to low doses of CCV
82% became infected: positive correlation with stress index scores.

Question 8

Cohen CC evaluation

Answer 8

+ High ecological validity- we all have a chance of developing a cold
+ Sample size- Representative
- Subjectivity/ retrospective

Question 9

Keicolt- Glaser Exam stress

Answer 9

75 1st year med students volunteers
49 m 26 fm
Blood samples from a month before and on 1st day of finals
Natural killer cells and T cells were measured
Questionnaire on psychiatric symptoms and life events
No. of killer cells and T cells dropped especially in those who indicated psychiatric symptoms an life events

Question 10

Keicolt- exam stress evaluation

Answer 10

+ natural experiment, high ecological validity, can be generalised.

• natural experiment, no control over extraneous variables, negative correlation, not causal link.
• Sample not representative

Question 11

Life changes as a source of stress

Answer 11

Rahe et al- 2,500 male american sailors
completes SRRS for precious 6 months.
Detailed records of health over the following six months
+correlation 0f +0.118 between SRRS and illness scores.

Question 12

Rahe et al evaluation

Answer 12

• Correlation does not mean cause. Depression may not be caused by life events- depressed spouse may cause life events such as divorce or separation.
• Sample bias: ethnocentric and androcentric. Reduces validity, difficult to generalise.

Question 13

SRRS- Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe

Answer 13

List of 43 major life events. Asked hundreds of men and women of varied ages and backgrounds to create the events in terms of psychological impact. Death of a spouse was on top with an LCU of 100. Other events were rated relative to this ranking. A score of 150 or more increased chances of stress-related illness by 30% and over 300 by 50%

Question 14

SRRS evaluation

Answer 14

• 10-30% of papa have not experienced life events but still describe themselves as stressed. Daily Hassles scale may be more effective or both scales combined.
• correlation does not mean cause
• not all life events are negative- does not distinguish between positive and negative and therefore lacks validity.

Question 15

What is a daily hassle?

Answer 15

117- A minor event that rises in the course of a normal day.

The are often short lived but may linger if left unresolved.

Question 16

What is a daily uplift?

Answer 16

135- A positive, desirable experience that makes a daily hassle more bearable.

Question 17

Daily hassles and Job performance

Answer 17

Gervais- Nurses kept diaries for a month. Daily hassles increase job strain but daily uplifts increase job performance.

Question 18

Workplace stress

Answer 18

Johansson et al- 14 finishers and 10 cleaners
Levels of stress related hormones in their urine were measured on work days and rest days.
Records were kept of stress related illness and absenteeism.
Finishers secreted more stress hormones on work days and higher levels than the cleaners. They showed significantly higher levels of stress- related illness and absenteeism then the cleaners.

Question 19

Johansson evaluation

Answer 19

• Individual differences: some people may be more susceptible to stress.
• does not identify which stressors are most stressful:
  lack of control, repetitiveness, isolation, high responsibility

Question 20

Marmot et al- Job control and stress-related illness

Answer 20

10, 308 civil servants aged 35-55
job control was measured at the beginning and 3 years later by a self-report questionnaire and an independent assessment by personnel manager.
stress related illnesses recorded
Low job control is associated with high stress.

Question 21

Marmot evaluation

Answer 21

• correlational not causal- there factors
• self report not reliable- demand characteristics, biased
  + Real world applications

Question 22

Sources of stress in the workplace

Answer 22

Physical environment: space, lighting, temperature

Work overload: one of the most stressful

Lack of control: Perceived lack of control increases the stress response and contributes to depression and illness

Question 23

Personality types

Answer 23

Type A: competitive, hostile, perfectionist, hard working, impatient, high achievers

Type B: Relaxed, not easily angered, not competitive, can lack ambition.

Hardy:
Control, not controlled
Commitment- involved in the world, sense of purpose
Challenges- problem to overcome, not stressors

Question 24

Stress and CV disorders

Answer 24

Friedman and Rosenman
3200 male healthy Californian volunteers 39-59 yrs assessed over 8.5 yrs
Personality type was assessed by interviewing
8 yrs later incidence of CHD was recorded
257 apps developed CHD, 70% classified as type A, nearly twice as type B. Didn’t change even when other fairs were considered. Higher cholesterol, (nor)adrenaline.

Question 25

Physiological methods of stress management.

Answer 25

BZs: Slow activity of CNS and enhance the activity of GABA, causing relaxation.
Beta blocker: Slow down activity of sympathetic branch of the ANS by reducing (nor)adrenaline. Reduces BP, HR and produces a feeling of calm.

Question 26

Stress and Drugs research

Answer 26

Kahn et al: Drug and placebo conditions
250 patients, 8 weeks
BZs were significantly superior to reducing stress than the placebo.

Hildago et al: meta analysis found that BZs were more effective than other drugs at reducing anxiety.

Question 27

Evaluating drugs as stress management method

Answer 27

+ easy to use
+ effective
- Treats symptoms, not problem

Question 28

Psychological methods of stress management

Answer 28

SIT- Meichenbaums & Camron
Conceptualisation: think of stressors as solvable problems

Skills acquisition: Coping skills are taught and rehearsed in real life

Application: Coping skills are applied in increasingly stressful situations

Question 29

SIT evaluation

Answer 29

+ Systematic desensitisation and SIT both effective in treating snake phobias but SIT helped to reduce fear associated with a second, untreated phobia.
+ Sheehy and horan- reduced anxiety in students & improved academic performance.
- time consuming and requires high motivation

Question 30

Hardiness Training

Answer 30

aims to increase self-confidence and a sense of control
Focusing: recognise sources and signs of stress.

Reliving: Given an insight into current coping strategies by reliving previous encounters and their response to them.

Self-improvement: insights can be used to learn new techniques.

Question 31

Hardiness training Evaluation

Answer 31

+ Real world applications: used to increase commitment in training olympic swimmers
+ It works: at risk students have been taught to deal with the stressors they face during college life.
- Overcoming bad habits: Learned habits are diffifcult to modify and therefore process can be slow.