Stress, Anxiety & Health Flashcards
What 3 features characterise the character of stress?
- subjective sensations
- behaviour
- health
What are examples of subjective sensations of stress?
Headache
Nausea
Fatigue
Muscle tension
What are examples of behaviours that characterise stress?
crying
smoking/drinking
problems concentrating
What are examples of health problems that characterise stress?
- cardiovascular disease
- cancer
- susceptibility to colds
- skin disease
- depression
On the normal distribution curve that describes optimum stress, what are the axes?
What are the 3 regions?
y - performance
x - level of stress
The three regions are:
- calm
- eustress (optimum stress)
- distress
What region of the stress is optimal?
Optimal performance occurs in eustress
This is where individuals are energised, focused and work feels effortless
What are the signs exhibited by someone in the distress region?
Fatigue, exhaustion, health problems, break down and burnout
What does Cary Cooper’s graph suggest about the level of stress and health?
Stress of boredom is associated with increasing ill-health
Moderate levels of pressure lead to increasing health
Stress of excess pressure leads to increasing ill-health
How may stress be described as a response?
These are the responses that arise as a result of stress
- fight or flight response
- general adaptation syndrome (Selye)
How does Selye describe stress as a physiological response?
It is a general adaptation syndrome (biologically programmed)
If it is severe and sustained, this leads to disease
What is meant by a “disease of adaptation”?
A normal response to an abnormal situation
This is seen in psychosomatic disorders
How is Selye’s general adaptation syndrome divided into 3 stages?
- relatively short alarm reaction
(this is divided into shock and countershock)
- stage of resistance
- stage of exhaustion
(these are both countershock)
What is shown by Selye’s adaptation syndrome when a second stress is added?
Humans are able to cope well with one stress due to biological mechanisms
However, they are vulnerable and cannot cope with multiple stresses at the same time
What is meant by psychoimmunology?
Increased stress levels leads to depression of immune system function and increased susceptibility to infection
What are the series of psychological reactions in response to stress?
- cognitive impairment
e. g. concentration, disorganised thoughts - anger
e. g. frustration and aggression - depression
e. g. apathy, learned helplessness - anxiety
e. g. acute stress disorder
What is meant by an acute stress disorder?
How long does it last?
The anxiety symptoms associated with the stress gradually disappear
It tends to last a few days, up to a week
What does the anxiety related to stress lead to in a small proportion of people?
Post-traumatic stress disorder
What is post-traumatic stress disorder?
A natural emotional reaction to a deeply shocking and disturbing experience
(a normal reaction to an abnormal situation)
What are the 3 key features to look for when diagnosing PTSD?
- repeated re-living of a traumatic event
- persistent efforts at avoidance of memories and emotional blunting
- persistent symptoms of hyperarousal
What is a very common feature of PTSD, but not a diagnostic feature?
Survivor guilt
can lead to risk of suicide
What was seen in Hull et al’s study about survivors of Piper Alpha 10 years later?
- 21% still had PTSD
- PTSD was worse if they were injured in the accident or witnessed people die
- there was an improvement in PTSD over time
Why does immediate psychological therapy not benefit a trauma survivor?
Therapy makes them relive their experiences
This is one of the worst things that can be done
People tend to recover from PTSD naturally
How may stress act as a stimulus?
This focuses on life events which cause stress
Rather than stress causing other problems (responses)
Who developed the social readjustment scale?
Holmes and Rahe
What was involved in developing the social readjustment scale?
It involved cataloguing as many life events as possible which caused stress
These lists are given to other people to order as to what they thought caused the most and least stress
What was the purpose of the social readjustment scale?
Using a scale of 0 - 100 to rank events in order of stressfulness
Using numerical values allowed health outcomes to be predicted
What does quantifying stressful events allow for?
It is used in studies to show a positive relationship between illness in the past year and life events
What is the drawback of the social readjustment scale?
It does not show more minor daily events
What is meant by the balance between hassles and uplifts when looking at daily events that cause stress?
Uplifts are positive events
Hassles are relatively minor daily experiences that are potentially threatening or harmful
What is important in dealing with stress on a daily basis?
The balance between hassles and uplifts
What is the problem with looking back on life events?
What can help with this?
People may have an exaggerated view of a past event due to a bad experience that happened to them
Diaries and apps can be used now to give a more accurate view
What is shown by the retrospective study by Protheroe et al?
- 300 women with breast lumps - 1/3 had malignancies
2. Malignancies were NOT associated with any life events over the last 5 years
What is shown by the quasi-prospective study by Cooper and Faragher?
- 2000+ women attended breast screening
- during the assessment, they completed 2 years of records about life events and coping
- malignancy is associated with a single major event
How may personality style act as a mediator?
A type A behaviour pattern is associated as a risk factor for heart disease
What is type A behaviour?
- thinking of or doing 2 things at once
- scheduling more activities in less time
- hurrying speech of others
- becoming irritated when queuing or in traffic
- having difficulty sitting and doing nothing
- playing nearly every game to win, even when playing with children
Out of all the features in type A behaviour, which are the most potent as risk factors?
- hostility
- time urgency
- competitiveness
When visiting heart attack survivors who had a type A behaviour pattern, what is seen?
Type A survivors are less likely to die of a heart attack in the next few years
What explains why Type A patients are less likely to die from a heart attack?
- they begin to modify their lifestyle after the initial heart attack
- type B have no need to change their lifestyle
There is a balance between behavioural and genetic risks
How can stress act as a pathway to disease?
- Stress leads to CNS/endocrine changes and behaviour changes
- behaviour changes can lead to toxin exposure and impaired immunity
- CNS/endocrine changes can lead to impaired immunity
- impaired immunity and toxin exposure lead to disease
WHat is meant by a life-course approach to life events?
There are multiple events that happen in life, which knock us in slightly different directions
These events are cumulative and can knock people into undesirable situations
What is the ACE pyramid?
- adverse childhood experiences
- disrupted neural development
- social, environmental and cognitive impairment
- adoption of health-risk behaviours
- disease, disability
- early death
What is significant about reslilience?
It is not just a personality trait
It depends on the support network that an individual has
e.g. friends, family, etc.
What is meant by an appraisal approach to stress?
Seeing stress as a person-environment transaction
Stress is not in the event, but in how you perceive it
What are the stages in the appraisal process?
- perception of demands of a situation - how stressful is it?
e. g. how challenging, harmful - look at available coping options
- re-appraisal
What are the 2 types of coping strategies?
- Problem-focused
e. g. changing the situation, avoiding it in the future - Emotion-focused
These can be behavioural or cognitive (e.g. denial, discussion)
