Stress Flashcards
What is stress?
A psychological state asssociated with hormonal/physiological changes caused by stressors.
What are the stress responses?
Behavioural - social withdrawal Physiological - increased HR Cognitive - negative thoughts Biochemical - increased cortisol Emotional - depression
What categories of events do stressors fall into?
Traumatic - e.g. rape Uncontrollable - e.g. death of loved one Unpredictable - e.g. flood warnings Highly challenging - e.g. exams Internal conflicts - e.g. smoking Accumulation of daily hassles - e.g. can't pin it on one thing
What are the models of stress?
1) Response models
- Fight or flight
- General Adaption Syndrome
2) Life events
3) Interaction Models
What is the fight or flight response? What 2 physiological systems does it invovle?
stressor –> hypothalamus –>HPA + sympathetic.
Adrenal medulla and adrenal cortex –>Neural impulses activate various glands and smooth muscles and stress hormones carried via blood to relevant organs respectively.
What is the General Adaption Syndrome model?
3 stages of response after exposure to stressor.
- Alarm stage - activation of HPA and SNS
- Resistance stage -attempts to cope and resist, actions of cortisol
- exhaustion stage - if resistance doesnt end the stressor, adaptive processes fail.
What are the signs of exhaustion stage in the General Adaption Syndrome model?
Early warning signs:
Headaches, GI disturbance, skin rashes, dizziness, fatigue, hypertension, aggravation of asthma, ulcers etc
What are the main criticisms of the response models?
Automatic response to a stress:
- no consideration of individual variation
- dont recognise psychological factors
- response non-specific irrespective of stressor
What is the Life Events (Readjustment) Model?
Each life event has a life change unit
What are the main criticisms of the Life Events model?
Variation in individual response to the event - one event stressful to some but not others.
- Accumulations of stressors can have different effects - marriage, new home
- No recognition of time scale, short lived or on-going event
What are the interaction models of stress?
The actual model is the Transactional model of stress (Lazarus). Incorporates both response and life events models.
Emphasis on how internal psychological factors interact/influence perception of external factors.
Important factor seems to be how well a person copes with stress rather than how much stress they face.
E.g. you have individual responses to stress with mountain climbing
Whats is the Transactional model of stress?
(Lazarus). Stress is a transaction between the individual and environment. Appraisal is crucial - stress response only elicited if the individual appraises the potential stressor as stressful.
Primary and secondary appraisal
1* - individual first appraises the event
2* - individual evaluates their coping strategies
What is the person-environment fit?
(Lazarus) consider stress as a transaction between people and the environment:
- good person-environment fit - low stress
- poor person-environment fit - high stress
Why is personality important in appraisal of a potential stressor?
Personality factors play a role in the appraisal of a potential stressor.
Personality types (Friedman and Rosenman 1959)
Type A
Type B
High N Personality - Eysenck
What are type A and type B personalities (Friedman and Roseman, 1959)?
Cardiologists investigating risk of CHD.
Type A personality - Competitive, achievement-oriented, sense of time urgency, difficulty relaxing, impatient, angry, hostile, outwardly confident but full of self-doubt
Type A behaviours - Thinking of, or doing, two things at once. Hurrying the speech of others. Unduly irritated by queues. If you want something done, do it yourself. Frequent knee jigging or rapid finger tapping
Playing every game to win, even with children. Impatience when watching someone else do something you think you could do better. Rapid blinking or tic-like eyebrow lifting. Eating & speaking very fast.
Type B personality -
Relaxed, easy-going, unpressured
Type C: pathologically nice, conflict avoidance
What are the four humours that Extraversion and Neuroticism are based on?
Phlegmatic - calm, thoughtful, private. Low N, low E
Melancholic - serious, quiet, analytical. High N, Low E.
Sanguine - lively, sociable, optimistic. Low N, High E
Choleric - impulsive, restless, excitable. High N High E
What does high N personality have?
High N - worrying, negative outlook, introspective, low self-concept, social anxiety.
What is learned helplessness?
Seligman - when people or animals become conditioned to believe that a situation is unchangeable or inescapable so when exposed to it later, even when they cant escape, they dont.
Model of depression.
What is the pessimistic attributional style? Becks cognitive triad.
Interpret negative events as their fault - internal, stable and global e.g. it’s all my fault, I will never change and it affects everything I do.
This is a characteristic of learned helpessness.
What are ways of coping with stress?
Approach vs avoidance
- Approach: confront the problem, direct action
- Avoidance: minimise the event
Problem focused vs emotiona focused:
-Problem focused: directly deal with stressor e.g. work problems
Emotion focused: alter/reduce negative emotions that result from the stressor. E.g. health/relationship problems. E.g. of emotion-focused coping: seeking emotional support from friends and relatives, denial, avoidance, distraction, venting anger, praying, exercise, using alcohol, drugs, humour.
Coping is context dependent and dynamic.
How do you measure stress?
Measure number & type of stressors
e.g., Life Events Scale
Measure psychological responses to stress
e.g., Perceived Stress Scale
Measure psychological symptoms of stress,
e.g., Anxiety/Depression Scales
Measure physiological symptoms of stress,
e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, hormone levels, immune response
Measure coping styles/strategies,
e.g., COPE
How stress affects health?
Cancer - not clearly associated with onset, but associated with acceleration of disease
CHD - increased risk in high stress jobs and in employed mothers
Psychoneuroimmunology - medical students have decrase immune function around exam periods.
Bereavement - increase in hospital admissions, mortality increased.
Can stress be good?
yerkes-dodson law - some stress can be constructive and motivational. curve
How are stress and health behaviours linked e.g. in exam period = stress?
Smoke more, drugs, less exercise and sleep, more caffeine and alcohol, poor diet etc
How can doctors help with stress?
Stress management training: Problem-solving Time management Cognitive restructuring Behavioural change plans Relaxation Positive self-talk (self-instruction training)
Formal psychological therapy - CBT
Psychotropic meds
