Topic 1 - definitions and models Flashcards
Stimulus based definition
• X situation causes stress
If we use stimulus-based, we end up with a huge list, because what is stressful to me might not be stressful to you. –> too unspecific
Response based
• We know that X is stressful because it causes Y response
Response-based: if we don’t identify the STIMULUS that is stressful, does that mean that stimulus is not stressfull? Not really? –> too specific
Circularity problem in defintion of stress
Essentially, when we use a stimulus-based definition, we end up looking at responses anyway, and vice versa = circularity
Circularity issue: looking at either of the based definitions:
Stim-based: exams are stressful = not true for all
Resp-based: exams stressful because heart rate goes up (but this is not true for everyone)
–> exams can both be stressful and not, depending on definition!
–> we go back and forth between definitions to identify what things are actually stressful. –> Circularity!
Process focused definition
Lazarus: we need to consider cognitive appraisal and coping in how exposure to events lead to certain responses and account for individual differences. –> it’s not a “simple” cause/reaction relationship!
What we DO know: role of cognition is central, and fills most of the research, field is cognitively driven. –> many treatments are CBT based. Cognitively driven interventions dominate.
- Stress as a process is the dominate view
- In this process; external and internal stimuli/forces/systems interact where triggers activate a response system that may lead to exhaustion and vulnerability (Wheaton 1994)
- Stress responses can occur at behavioral, cognitive and physiological levels
as “a process in which environmental demands tax or exceed the adaptive capacity of an organism, resulting in psychological and biological changes that may place persons at risk for disease” (Cohen, Kessler, & Gordon, 1997, p. 3, emphasis in original).
Important factor included in this definition:
• inclusion of environmental, psychological, and biological phenomena, which incorporates three distinct traditions.
• Focus on process, which contrasts with some earlier views in which stress is a more static construct, referring, for example, to a stimulus or a response.
• The idea of an imbalance between environmental demands and adaptive capacity, suggests a person–situation interaction that causes a departure from homeostasis and activates compensatory psychological and biological activity.
• recognizes that much interest in stress among scientists and lay persons alike lies in its potential role in the development and control of health problems, particularly those involving physical disease
General adaption syndrome
Selye (1956)
• General Adaptation Syndrome
• Step 1: Appearance of a challenge (fight/flight)
• Step 2: Activation of coping abilities - After the initial shock of a stressful event and having a fight-or-flight response, the body begins to repair itself. It releases a lower amount of cortisol, and your heart rate and blood pressure begin to normalize.
Some stressful situations continue for extended periods of time. If you don’t resolve the stress and your body remains on high alert, it eventually adapts and learns how to live with a higher stress level
• Step 3: Prolonged exposure, potentially exhaustion
At this stage, the person is no longer able to adapt to the stressor: the body’s ability to resist becomes depleted as physical wear takes its toll on the body’s tissues and organs. As a result, illness, disease, and other permanent damage to the body
Definition: The general adaptation syndrome (GAS) is a theory of stress responding proposed by Hans Selye. It refers to the nonspecific, generalized responses of the body in response to stress and provides a framework for the link between stress and chronic illness (Selye, 1956).
Selye = continuation of Cannon earlier work. (Cannon articulated the fight-flight response )
Activation/Exhaustion Model
Selye (1976)
Stimulus –> activation –> EITHER adaption OR exhaustion
MOST SIMPLE LEVEL MODEL
The model assumed the activation was universal for everyone.
The model has gone through changes over time including e.g. Genetics in individual differences.
Stress Diathesis Model
Levi (1972) (see notes for actual model)
• Main point: The response is modulated by the person, and every person has a different reaction to a stressor, also dependent on the environment
Environment affects both the stressor and the person
The person and the stressor in turn affect the stress.
The stress then affects psychological and physical stress.
THIS IS AN INTERACTIONAL MODEL - DOES NOT INCOORPORATE FEEDBACK
4-way division of stress models
Feuerstein, Labbe, Kuczmierczyk (1976)
- Response-based models (ex. Selye’s)
- Stimulus-based models
- Interactional models (ex. Levi’s)
- Information Processing models
Different types of models
Response- don’t account for individual differences in responses. – from earlier slide:
Response based definition
• We know that X is stressful because it causes Y response
Stimulus-based: limited in that we don’t know exactly what one person will find stressful.
Stimulus based definition
• X situation causes stress
Interactional: stressful response is dependent on the stressor and the context.
Info-process: these models are complex, look at interactions and stress as a whole (an aggregate of a sitution) involving recognition of a stress, and the evaluation of the stress (meaning and impact), this impact the amount of attention you give to the stress, and affects the way of coping you do. It also depends on previous experiences with the stressor, if it was stressful then.
Take away: stress is much more complictaed than the original models, and made it possible to incoorporate the learning that occurs underway. (first year exam –> super stressful –> but you learn to cope with it –> you evaluate it as less stressful)
Hamilton (1980) - info processing model example
- Looks at the whole
- Stressor recognition
- Stressor evaluation
- Meaning of the stressor
- Amount of attention allocated
- Recollection of past effective and non-effective coping experiences
importan point:
Recollection: maybe exams went well in past –> “maybe it’s stressful, but I can do it!” –> less stressful response. (accounts for “feedback” of information)
= includes updating information, a feedback loop!
Allostasis
“stability through change” = person is faced with stressors and challenges all the time, need to adapt to new circumstances, rather han return to original state, in order to ensure homeostasis = this process is called allostasis.
Allostatic (over)load
The definition of allostatic overload (AO) refers to the chronic, cumulative effect of stressful situations in daily life experienced by the individual as taxing or exceeding his or her coping skills.
Types of allostatic load include (1) frequent activation of allostatic systems; (2) failure to shut off allostatic activity after stress; (3) inadequate response of allostatic systems leading to elevated activity of other, normally counter-regulated allostatic systems after stress.
McEwens 4 situations of allostatic overload:
Repeated hits:
repeated exposure to a stressor with no time in between to recover.
Example: In ER, people are constantly hit with high-impact, stressing trauma patients, with no time to recover to a state of prior functioning, nor adjust to the situation.
–> allostatic overload because no time to get better
Lack of adaption model:
Example: living in Chicago on a main road, always sirens going by - over time, adapted to sirens, could sleep through them.
Allostatic overlad: every time they hear sirens they wake up = black lines.
Third occurence of allostatic overload: prolonged stressor
Prolonged stressor, one long line instead of “mountain tops” = failure to recover - kinda situation. Something we see in PTSD or major anxiety disorders. Lack of recovery from stressor. (will not ask specific question about that on exam)
The fourth one is super complex.
Basically the different models interacting with each other, turning each other on and off. Beyond the relevance for this course.
–> looking at interactions of systems in body, co-activating each other, and they are not able to shut off.
Lack of adaption model:
Example: living in Chicago on a main road, always sirens going by - over time, adapted to sirens, could sleep through them.
Allostatic overlad: every time they hear sirens they wake up = black lines.
Repeated hits:
Example: In ER, people are constantly hit with high-impact, stressing trauma patients, with no time to recover to a state of prior functioning, nor adjust to the situation.
–> allostatic overload because no time to get better
Eustress
- Pleasurable, satisfying experiences that are also associated with increased stress responses (e.g. giving birth)
- Stress can be motivating and helpful
- Can push us to exercise
- To tackle a problem
- To develop skills
- To work hard
Stress = not always bad thing –> differentiating between STRESS and potential/resulting DISTRESS
