Stress psychology

A C U T E A N D C H R O N I C S T R E S S O R S – F I G H T O R F L I G H T ?

Body’s response to stressors

Acute Stressors – Sympathomeduallary pathway – Short term

Hypothalamus

Activates

ANS – automatic nervous system

Causes

Accelerates heartbeatSNS – sympathetic nervous system

Dilating pupils

Relaxes Bladder

Stimulates the glucose realise

Atthe

sametime

SAM system –sympathetic adrenal medulla

ReleasesAdrenaline

Prepares the body for fight or flight

Adrenaline

Noradrenaline

Releases

Increases effects of SNS

PNS – Parasympathetic nervous system

Kicks in

Chronic stressors – Pituitary adrenal

system – Long term

Hypothalamus

Signals

Pituitary gland

ACTH (Adrenocorticotrophic hormone) into the bloodstream targeted at the adrenal glands

Releases

Of chemical CRF (cortico-releasing factor)

production

StimulatesAdrenal cortex

Corticosteroids

Releases

Cortisol causes the stress effects in the body

Evaluation

Strengths:

Baxter- People who did not have adrenal glands cannot produce enough cortisol and need to be given extra to survive

Objective measure – not everyone's body responds the same as this

Weaknesses:

Individual differences – everyone reacts differently to stress

Reductionist – Persons response depends on certain factors

Assumes that people are passive in there stress response

T H E I M M U N E S Y S T E M , P S Y C H I A T R I C A N D

C A R D I O V A S C U L A R D I S O R D E R S

Stress related illness

The immune system

Kiecolt-Glaser et al

Carried out a natural experiment using medical students

Took a blood test one month before stress (low stress) and another test during exam season (high stress)

Immune system functions were measured by using NK cell activity

NK cell activity was reduced in the blood test where there was low stress

Short term stress causes changes in the immune system

Evans et al

Looked at activity of the antibody – sLgA

Arranged for students to give talks to other students (mild levels of stress)

Students showed high levels sLgA during the talks but these levels decreased when it came to exam season

Proposed that stress may have two effects on the immune system up-regulation for short-term stress and down-regulation for chronic stressors

Cardiovascular disorders

Williams:

13,000 people completed a 10 question anger scale, none of these suffered from heart disease

6 years later participants health was checked again, 256 had experienced a heart attack

Those who scored high on the anger scale were 2 and ½ times more likely to get a heart attack

People who scored moderate in the anger scale were 35% more likely to experience a coronary event

Anger may lead to a cardiovascular disease

Sheps et al:

Research was based on 173 men and women all who had ischemia (reduced blood flow to the heart)

They were all given a variety of tests including a public speaking one

Blood pressure increased in half of the participants during these tests

44% of those who showed erratic heartbeat died within 3-4 years

Psychiatric disorders

Brown and Harris:

Found that if women had 3 or more children and were unemployed then they were more likely to develop depression

Working class women were also more likely to develop depression compared to middle class women because of the stress of having to leave home to work

Melchior et al:

Carried out a survey over a year with 1000 people from New Zealand aged 32 in a variety of occupations

15% of those who were in high stress jobs developed an episode of clinical depression or anxiety

8% of those who were in low stress jobs developed an episode of clinical depression or anxiety

Women tended to be affected worse than men

L I F E C H A N G E S , D A I L Y U P L I F T S A N D D A I L Y H A S S L E S

Stress in everyday life

Life changes

Holmes and Rahe

43 life events were taken from 5000 patient records

Scores for individual life events were averaged to produce a list

E.g.:

1) Death of spouse (100)

2) Divorce (73)

3) Jail term (63)

4) Personal injury (53)

Rahe

Tested Holmes and Rahe’s hypothesis

Gave 2700 men on a US cruise ship a questionnaire on the past 6 months of their lives

They combined the number of illnesses + type of illness + Severity of illness which equalled an illness score

They found a positive correlation of +0.118 which is not particularly strong of a correlation however considering the number of participants, it is significant

Life changes

Michael and Ben-Zur

Studied 130 men and women half of whom had already been divorced and the other half who had recently widowed

They looked at levels of life satisfaction

In the widowed group levels were lower after they became widowed

In the divorced it was the opposite, they had higher satisfaction levels after they got divorced

The reason for this could be because the divorced half could start dating or living with someone who they preferred making it a positive life change

Daily hassles

Bouteyre et al

Looked into the relationship between daily hassles and mental health of students during transition from school to uni

They used first year psychology students in France

Completed the hassles section of a questionnaire to measure symptoms of depression

41% of students suffered from the depression symptoms

The daily hassle of moving to uni from school can be considered as a risk factor for depression

De longis et al

Studied 75 married couples

Positive correlation of +0.59 between daily hassles and next day health problems

No relationship between life events and health

Daily uplifts

Gervais

Asked nurses to keep a diary for one month recording daily hassles and to rate their performance each day

Daily hassles were found to increase job strain and decrease job performance

Sometimes the nurses wrote that the positive compliments from the patients out weighed the daily hassles and improved nurses performance

General evaluation

Daily hassles accumulate over the day and provide a more significant source of stress

Severe life events may make patients more susceptible to daily hassles

Participants may not correctly remember the hassles the had in one day

Research is correlational meaning there is no clear cause and effect

W O R D L O A D A N D C O N T R O L

Workplace stress

Workplace stress

Johansson et al 14 ‘finishers’ in a saw mill were compared to 10 cleaners in the same

mill Urine samples were taken of all participants on work days and rest

days The ‘finishers’ secreted more stress hormones (adrenaline and

Noradrenaline) on a work day compared to a rest day The ‘finishers’ generally secreted more stress hormones than the

cleaners on work and rest days The ‘finishers’ showed higher levels of stress-related illness such as

headaches Evaluation The study does not identify which stressors were more stressful Individual differences Cannot be generalised – Swedish experiment using 14 people High ecological validity – natural observation

Marmot et al 7372 British participants aged between 35-55 were part of a 5 year

longidtutional study All participants were sent a questionnaire and took part in a screening

exam for cardiovascular disease Employment grades were split into 3 categories; admissive executive

and clerical/support staff Participants in the lowest grade (clerical/support staff) were 3 times

more likely to develop chronic heart disorder (CHD) Found no link between workload and stress-related illness and

determined the job demand was no a factor

T Y P E A P E R S O N A L I T Y A N D T H E H A R D Y P E R S O N A L I T Y

Personality factors and stress

Type A personality

Friedman and Rosenman

Investigated the links between Type A behaviour patterns and cardiovascular disease

3200 men from California between the ages of 39-59 were categorised as type A, B or X

Behaviour in interviews were assessed

All men were perfectly healthy at the start of the study

At the end of the study after 8 ½ years, 257 men developed CHD of which 70% were type A

This proves that being a type A personality has a risk factor of getting heart disease

Evaluation

Interview bias

Demand characteristics

Andocentric

All from California

Ragland and Brand carried out a follow up study

After doing the same process, 22 years later 214 of the men had died

This study showed other risk factors as more important such as age, smoking and blood pressure finding little link between being a Type A and CHD

The hardy personality

The hardiness personality had 3 main factors:

Control – Hardy people see themselves as being in charge of their life not being controlled by outside factors

Commitment – Hardy people are involved in the world around them and have a sense of purpose

Challenge – Hardy people see challenges as problems to overcome rather than stressors

Kobasa

Studied 800 American Businessmen

According the Holmes and Rahes stress scale, 150 of the men were classified as high stress

Among the 150 men, some had low illness records despite having high stress levels

This suggested that something else was modifying the effects of stress

Kobasa suggested that therefore ‘hardy’ people encourage resilience

B I O L O G I C A L A N D P S Y C H O L O G I C A L M E T H O D S O F

S T R E S S M A N A G E M E N T

Coping with stress

Coping with stress (Problem and emotional)

Problem-focused coping

The use of strategies designed directly to alleviate the stressful situation

Common problem-focused coping strategies are:

Taking control of a stressful situation (e.g- finding out as much as possible about a disease and taking steps to deal with it)

Evaluating the pros and cons of a situation (e.g- choosing whether or not to have surgery)

Suppressing competing activities (e.g- avoiding the temptations of surgery due to work commitments)

Emotion-focused coping

The use of strategies that deal only with the emotional distress associated with stressful events

Common emotion-focused coping strategies are:

Denial – going on as if nothing had happened; just not thinking about it

Focusing – venting emotions by crying or becoming angry

Wishful thinking – Dwelling on what might have been if this hadn’t happened


Research

Health:

Penley et al – studied nursing students and found that problem-focused coping was positively correlated with overall health outcomes whereas emotion-focused coping was associated with poor overall health outcomes

Exam stress:

Folkman and Lazarus – Looked into how students coped with dealing with stress in the run up to exam season and during the waiting for results. They found that both emotion and problem-focused coping were used in both stages but emotion-focused coping was used more during the waiting for results stage and problem-focused coping was used more in the run up to exam season.

Threat:

Rukholm and Viverais examined the relationship between stress, threat and coping. They found that if a person has a lot of stress produced from one stressor then they may have to deal with the anxiety through emotion-focused coping first before considering problem-focused.


Evaluation:

Some items in the common ways of coping with stress are not appropriate for all different stressors.

¾ of the items were inappropriate for health problems

Lazarus suggests that emotion-focused coping may be unhelpful when experiencing serious symptoms of ill health as it delays the person receiving proper help

Biological stress managment

Benzodiazepines

Slow down activity in the central nervous system (CNS)

GABA bines to the sites

Allows more chloride ions to enter making it resistant to excitation

Leads to a general calming effect

Reduces activity of serotonin

Strengths Weaknesses

Kahn et al – 250 participants over 8 weeks. Bz’s significantly better than the placebo

Side effects – Increased aggressiveness, impairment of memory

Hildago – Meta analysis – Bz’s were more effective than other drugs such as anti-depressants

Treating the symptoms ratherthan the problem

Addictive

Biological stress managment

Beta-Blockers

Reduce activity of adrenaline and Noradrenaline which reduce stress

Bind-receptors on the cells in the heart

Reverse effects of stress hormones causing the heart to beat slowly with less force

Fall in blood pressure equals less stress


Lau et al – Meta analysis found that BB’s were effective in reducing blood pressure

NICE report – BB’s carry a risk of you getting type 2 diabetes

Immediate effect Does not address the cause of the problem

Ease of use

Psychological stress management

Stress inoculation training

Conceptualisation phase – Therapist gets a client to relive a stress phase. The therapist then gets the client to learn how to handle this phase in a better way

Skills acquisition phase – Coping skills are taught and put to practise that are tailored to a persons situation

Application phase – Clients are encouraged to use these skills throughout their life and therapist monitors the failure or success of the training


More effective than other types of therapy

Time consuming

Sheehy and Haran – found that SIT decreased stress and improved grades in first year law students

Too complex- its more beneficial to talk positively and relax

Tailored to each individual Requires a lot of motivation

Psychological stress management

Hardiness training

Focusing – Client is taught the biological signs of stress and how to acquire new skills for coping

Relieving stress – Think about stressful events -> analysed by a therapist -> Insight into coping strategies

Self-improvement – Therapist suggest new forms of coping strategies


Effective – current Olympic swimmers are using this

Attempts to change personality so is slow to take effect

Utah Valley state collage offers this training to all ‘at risk’students

Generalzability - Kobasas study only uses white middle-class businessmen

Requires motivation

Education

Stress psychology