Stress - 6. Individual Differences in Stress

Question 1

3 types of personality

Answer 1

Type A, B and C

Question 2

Personality type A

Answer 2

Competitive
Time urgent
Impatient
Hostile
Aggressive
Traits of a perfectionist

Question 3

Why are personality type A individuals vulnerable to stress-related illness?

Answer 3

Because their traits are believed to lead to high blood pressure and raised stress hormones, which can lead to coronary heard disease
In order to keep up with high pace of life, more adrenaline is released throughout the day

Question 4

Personality type B

Answer 4

Relaxed
Do one thing at a time
Patient
Expresses feelings
Very laid back

Question 5

Personality type B and stress-related illness

Answer 5

Less vulnerable to stress-related illness

Question 6

Personality type C

Answer 6

Poor self-motivation
Helplessness
Cognitive distortion where perception of failure repeatedly overt comes protests of success
Passive (wait to be told what to do)
External locus of control
Emotional dysfunction
Self-sacrificing

Question 7

Personality type C and stress-related illness

Answer 7

Suppression of negative emotions causes fight or flight response to repeatedly get triggered and immune suppression

Question 8

Who carried out research into the role of personality on the effects of stress?

Answer 8

Friedman and Rosenman

Question 9

Friedman and Rosenman carried out interviews with their participants where they kept on interrupting their participants to see how they would react. How did Type A participants react and how did Type B participants react?

Answer 9

Type A were competitive and demonstrated impatience when being interrupted
Type B were laid back and didn’t react to interruptions

Question 10

What did Friedman and Rosenman use to determine the personality type of their participants?

Answer 10

They used their responses to interruptions during structured interviews
Participants split into type A, type B or type X (combination of A and B)

Question 11

Of original 3200 participants in Friedman and Rosenman’s study, how many developed CHD within 8.5 years of the study? What percentage of these individuals were classified as Type A?

Answer 11

Of original 3200, 257 participants had developed CHD during 8.5 years
70% of the 257 participants were classified as type B

Question 12

What did Type A participants have higher levels of compared to Type B participants in Friedman and Rosenman’s study?

Answer 12

Higher levels of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cholesterol
Higher blood pressure
More likely to smoke

Question 13

Negative evaluation of Friedman and Rosenman’s study

Answer 13

Only men used in study (gender and beta-bias)
Only correlation established

Question 14

Who carried out research into personality type C?

Answer 14

Datore et al

Question 15

Procedure of Datore et Al’s study into personality type C and stress-related illness

Answer 15

Studied 200 men from Vietnam war
75 had cancer and remaining had no cancer diagnosis
Participants completed self-report questionnaire to measure their suppression of emotions and depression

Question 16

Findings of Datore et Al’s study into personality type C and stress-related illness

Answer 16

Veterans diagnosed with cancer scored much higher on suppression of emotions but lower on depression scale compared to non-cancer group

Question 17

Conclusion of Datore et Al’s study into personality type C and stress-related illness

Answer 17

Findings support idea that people who suppress their emotions may be more vulnerable to illness
Personality type C correlated to illness

Question 18

Who coined the term hardy personality?

Answer 18

Kobasa

Question 19

3 elements of Kobasa’s hardy personality

Answer 19

Commitment
Challenge
Control

Question 20

Commitment element of Kobasa’s hardy personality

Answer 20

Hardy individuals show greater involvement in their work and personal relationships
100% effort goes into whatever they do
Strong sense of involvement in the world

Question 21

Challenge element of Kobasa’s hardy personality

Answer 21

Stressful situations are seen as a challenge
Challenge seen as an opportunity for personal growth and development, rather than a stressor or threat

Question 22

Control element of Kobasa’s hardy personality

Answer 22

Feel like they are in control of their lives and so are less likely to blame others for things
Similar to having internal locus of control

Question 23

Are hardy people more or less likely to suffer from stress?

Answer 23

Less likely

Question 24

How did Kobasa find out whether people have a hardy personality or not?

Answer 24

Developed a questionnaire which would identify how much control and commitment individuals had in their life, and whether or not they looked at different stressors as a challenge they could overcome

Question 25

Kobasa’s research and findings

Answer 25

Studied 800 male American business executives assessing stress using Holme and Rahe’s SRRS
Some had high stress with low illness
Others had high stress with high illness
Kobasa gave the participants a personality test and found that those with high stress and low illness scored highly on all 3 hardiness characteristics

Question 26

Real life application of hardiness personality

Answer 26

Applicants for US Navy Seals are screened for hardiness
Hardiness training has become widespread in US military
Lifton et al found that students with low hardiness were more likely to drop out of university than those with high hardiness (study of 5 US universities)

Question 27

Evaluation of Kobasa’s hardiness personality

Answer 27

Kobasa’s research has potential investigator bias , investigator effects as research supports the hypothesis