W5: Stress, health and self-control Flashcards
What is stress divided into? - (2)
Eustress (positive)
Distress (negative) -
How can stress manifest in the body?
Biological - (2)
Increased heartrate
Cortisol release (if the event is stressful for long-term engages HPA axis)
How can stress manifest in the body?
Psychology - (2)
Perceived demands versus resources to meet demands
Challenge versus threat appraisals of stress
How can we measure stress?
Cardiovascular system - (2)
- Heart rate
- Blood pressure
How can we measure stress?
Endocrine system - (2)
- HPA activity
- Cortisol
How can we measure stress?
Immune system -
Interleukins
How can we measure stress?
3 systems - (3)
- Cardiovascular system
- Endocrine system
- Immune system
How do we measure stress psychologically?
- Use self-report measures
Most popular/common self-report measure to measure stress is (2)
- Perceived stress scale by Cohen et al (1983)
- Assesses stress-related feelings/thoughts from last month
Theories of stress
Cannon-Bard theory (5)
- When we experience stress it affects the sympathetic nervous system
- Immediately body responds to stress by increasing circulation, respiration and metabolism rate.
- Increases oxygen in the blood and lungs
- more energy is available to cope with the stressor
- This process happens automatically independent of the psychological appraisal of the stressor
Example of Canon-Bard Theory (3)
- See stimulus of a growling dog
- Triggers increase physiological arousal (increased heart rate)
- Independent and simulatenosuly have psychological perception of the stressor and then makes you feel fear
Theories of stress - General adaptation syndrome theory
Hans Selye researched effects of stress on rats and found person who experiences contiual stress go through same process (3)
- Adrenal glands (this release cortisol) became enlarged
- Stomach ulcers and loss of weight occurred
- Components of the immune system shrunk (because cortisol suppresses immune system)
General adaptation syndrome
When we experience/deal with the stress we go through these 3 specific phases (3)
- Alarm
- Resistance
- Exhaustion
General adaptation syndrome
Alarm phase (4)
- Intense arousal occurs
- There is the mobilisation of physical resources (activation of SAM axis)
- Arousal remains above normal - energetic to overcome stress
- Fight or flight response!
General adaption syndrome
Resistance phase (4)
- If the stress continues, the body adjusts to the continuing stressful situation
- Engagement of HPA axis
- Constriction of blood vessels, blood pressure increases
- Release of cortisol to increase the availability of glucose
General adaption syndrome
Resistance phase - Inability to cope with new stressors
- Body’s resources already engaged/allocated to this one stressor
General adaptation syndrome
Exhaustion (if the stress continues on) - (2)
- Physical exhaustion and damage appear (e.g weakened immune sys)
- Energy reserves depleted and adaptation to stress blunted
Theories of stress
The biopsychosocial model of stress (4)
- Biology (genetics, physiology, fitness, illness)
- Psychology (lifestyle, cognitive functioning, mental illness)
- Social factors (culture, family, relationships, social support)
- Each of these factors influences and interact with our ability to overcome and cope with stressors
Theories of stress
Another concept of stress is Resiliency (3)
- The idea that not everyone will respond to stress the same way
-
Ability to cope with stress, to adapt to negative or unforeseen circumstances, and to rebound after negative experiences
- This all depends on prior experiences with stress
Theories of stress
Seery et al. (2010) - Resiliency Concept in Stress (3)
- High and low levels of cumulative stress associated with poor health
- Experiencing some stress was healthier than experiencing no stress
- People who cope with a moderate stress develop most resiliency of stress
One of the major sources of stress for most people is
Daily hassles (5)
- Everyday inconveniences or frustrations stresses us out
- Experience several of these throughout the day
- Low-levels of stress which are additive
- Accounts for majority of stress we experience
- If you have enough of those little inconvencies per day, lead to poor health choices
Example of daily hassles being additive (3)
- Metro late
- Go to store and forgot card
- Each one adds stress to life
Example of daily hassle scales and very predictive of health + examples (3)
- Daily Hassle Scale: concern about weight, health of family member
- College Daily Hassle Scale: increased class workload, review for exams
- Acculturative Daily Hassles for Children: It bothers me when people force me to be like everyone else.
Sources of stress
Burnout - (3) + example
- Exhaustion and depletion of emotional and physical resources
- This leads to pessimism, demonstrating negative or overly detached attitudes
- (e.g don’t care about job as much as you would when you are healthy)
Source of stress - Burnout
Causes of burnout (3)
- Overwhelming amount of work
- Feeling lack of control (e.g lack of optional mod in Stage 1)
- Large emotional component of job
Stress can impact health by influencing behaviour
High stress leads to maladaptive health behaviours because stress leads to… (3)
Impaired decision making
Impulsivity
E.g You may eat more or less healthy as you would like to
Stress can impact health via influencing behaviour
Stress can lead to interpersonal consequences (2)
- It can influence interactions with others
- Lead to damage to relationships
Stress can affect
self-control
Too much stress can lead to
self-control failure/diminished self-control
Self-control failure
Extended stress leads to reductions in self-control (6)
- Inability to control or inhibit behavior - do things you shouldn’t
- Poor decision making
- Promotes rewarding behaviors:
- Overeating
- Alcohol use
- Risk-taking
However, self-control seems to be limited… (2)
After coping with stress, subsequent control impaired of behaviour
Dealing with stress temporarily depletes resources
Strength model of self-control - Baumeister, Vohs, and Tice (2007)
What does the model purpose? (4)
- Self-control is dependent on limited resources (e.g., glucose which gives us energy)
- Stress depletes these resources (run out of glucose) to exert energy/effort
- Self-regulation/self-control describes as a muscle
- Coping with stress can cause “fatigue” in that muscle
Diagram of strength model of self-control
- When experiencing stress that depletes your resources available to exert self-control and inhibit behaviours
Issues of strength model of self-control
Maybe we don’t run out of self-control resources (e.g glucose)
- Blood glucose does not change after experiencing stress
Contrasting evidence of strength model of self-control (3) - maybe self-control is not a muscle that gets fatigued when experiencing/coping with stress
- Providing motivational incentives (e.g money) to suppress behaviour they will do it indefinitely - incentives eliminate self-control failure.
- The belief of unlimited self-control, willpower, does not diminish inhibition after feeling stressed - willpower) moderates self-control failure
- Teaching participants about self-control failure reduces the effects of self-control failure
Alternative model to strength model of self-control
Process model of self-control
Process model of self-control
Inzlicht et al. (2014) - (3)
- Stress shifts motivation away from control and further coping with stress
- Motivation is temporarily shifted towards rewarding behaviours (often times these are unhealthy behaviours)
- Resources not depleted after stress, just redirected
Why is self-control important? - Muraven et al. (2002)
PROCEDURE - (3)
- Thought suppression task in experimental condition to mimcked self-control/stress and fatigue
- They said to the participants to not think of a white bear for a period of time
- Control condition did a simple arithmetic
- Assessed alcohol consumption afterwards
Why is self-control important? - Muraven et al. (2002)
Results (2)
- Thought suppression group drank more alcohol compared to those in the control group
- Maybe experiencing stress leads to greater consumption of alcohol
Muraven et al. (2005) - (6)
Participants kept daily diary
Assessed:
- Demands on self-control (daily hassles - stress they experienced)
- Alcohol consumption
- Intended limits on drinking
- Trait levels of self-control -
Muraven et al. (2005)
Results (2)
- The more self-control demands (daily hassles - stress) experienced in a drink the more alcohol is consumed - especially true on those individuals that high intentions to limit their drinking than those with low intentions
- Those with more self-control demands (daily hassles - stress) had higher alcohol consumption with individuals with low trait self-control than those with high trait self-control
Diminished self-control impacts - (4)
- Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)
- Dorsolateral PFC (dlPFC)
- Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
All important components of health behavior!
OFC (4)
- Assigns value to behavior
- Estimates risk/benefit of behaviour
- Highlights rewarding stimuli
-
Increased OFC activity after stress!
Dorsolateral PFC (dIPFC) - (4)
- Response selection
- Decision making and planning
- Facilitates inhibition
Reduced dIPFC activity after stress!
Anterior cingulate cortex (3)
- Monitors for errors in behaviour
- Alarm system to reduce future mistakes and promote more deliberate decision making
Reduced activity after stress
Self-control and the brain - Wagner et al. (2013)
PROCEDURE - (3)
Used fMRI to scan brains of
control participants and self-depleted group (a completed task known to result in self-regulatory depletion - make them stressed - emotional suppression)
While in fMRI made the groups look at food or neutral cue and see their reactivity in the fMRI
Wagner et al. (2013) - (3)
deplted and control grp
- Those in the depleted group had greater activity in OFC area compared to control group when seeing food cue - found food cue more rewarding than control
- Control group had healthy activity in dIPFC to down-regulate and inhibit craving for food cue
- Depleted group had lower activation in dIPFC area compared to control group so not inhibiting the craving they have for food cue
Wagner et al. (2013)
Results - in both groups (2)
- In both grps, see OFC is activated see rewarding food stimuli
- See increases activity in ventral striatum (reward centre)
Wagner et al. (2013)
Conclusions - after prolonged stress
Decreased activity in OFC
- Reduced inhibition
- Poorer risk assessment and decision making
Wagner et al. (2013)
Conclusions - after prolonged stress
Increased activity in OFC
- Increased sensitivity to rewarding stimuli
- Reward seeking and craving
Self-control and the brain
Inzlicht et al. (2007) - (3)
Control vs stressed groups
- Emotion suppression - suppress emotions while watching sad animal video
EEG - Assessed error-related negativity during Stroop + Index of ACC activity (i.e., impulse control)
Error-related negativity
electrophysiological marker thought to reflect changes in dopamine when participants make errors in cognitive tasks
Inzlicht et al. (2007) - Conclusion (4)
- After prolonged stress…
- Reduced activity of the ACC
- Less likely to detect errors in behavior
- Poorer decision making!
Inzlicht et al. (2007) - findings
- Suppression group made more errors when word was incongruent (also congruent)than those in control
