Stress: Hardiness (ID Explanation)

Question 1

What points can be made when describing the explanation?

Answer 1

3 features
How they buffer against stress
Research studies

Question 2

Who came up with hardiness?

Answer 2

Kobasa and Maddi

Question 3

What are the three features of a hardy personality?

Answer 3

Control: They feel in control of their lives
Commitment: They have a sense of meaning and would rather stay involved than alienate themselves
Challenge: They see stressful situations as a change for growth

Question 4

How do the features of a hardy personality act as a buffer against stress?

Answer 4

They are less likley to experiance stress-related illness as they seek out social support and view their responses in a positive way

Question 5

What research studies can be used when describing the explanation?

Answer 5

Kobasa
Maddi
Bartone

Question 6

What was Kobasa’s study? (Can either be A01 or A03)

Answer 6

Two groups of male business executives who experiance high stress in the last 3 years
The group that did not get ill had more hardy personalities

Question 7

What was Maddi’s study? (Can either be A01 or A03)

Answer 7

Workers at Bell Telephones experiancing redundancy

1/3 had hardiness and didn’t get ill

Question 8

What was Bartone’s study?

Answer 8

Soldiers high in hardiness were better able to deal with stress in the army and in every day life and less likely to have PTSD

Question 9

What evaluative points can be made?

Answer 9

Supporting evidence 
Gender differences
Importance of all three elements
Neuroticism
Application
Issues in measurement

Question 10

What gender differences can be found?

Answer 10

Kobasa’s study was androcentric
Sheppard: Control and commitment predict health for males but not females
Age groups may also be important

Question 11

What did Sheppard find?

Answer 11

Control and commitment predict health for males but not females

Question 12

Why are all three elements important?

Answer 12

Sandvik: 21 navy cadets were all high in hardiness but those that were unbalanced had more damaging immune responses
Being low in challenge can make you vulnerable

Question 13

What did Sandvik find?

Answer 13

21 navy cadets were all high in hardiness but those that were unbalanced had more damaging immune responses

Question 14

How is hardiness linked to neuroticism?

Answer 14

Houston and Funk: There is overlap between scales that measure hardiness and scales that measure neuroticism.
Neurotic people are more likely to report illness so those low in hardiness may be more neurotic.
Funk: More research needed to highlight the exact nature