Stressors - produce stress
Source of stressors can be Family (as when trying to cope with a
newborn baby or when looking after a sick relative), Work or the
Environment.
Stress response - response to stresssor
Stressors - external - e.g. heat, crowding, noise, difficulties with a loved one or contact with a hated one.
internal - e.g. pain, thoughts, feelings.
But not straightforward - heat can be relaxing and crowds can
be exciting.
Individual differences.
In the British Medical Journal (1884) it was reported that
bereaved persons are prone to infection.
There is a link between stress and cancer. Stress inhibits
natural-killer (NK) cell activity, which helps to combat cancer
cells.
Greer and Morris (1975) women who did not express their anger
were more likely to prove positive in a biopsy test for cancer.
Greer et al (1979) - The greatest mortality amongst cancer
sufferers is associated with groups who do not demonstrate a
fighting spirit or do not use denial styles of coping.(See "Chronic" Document)
Sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system
release of adrenaline
Too little or too much arousal affects performance.
Yerkes-Dodson Law.
Upon arousal we experience an immediate physiological
response.
we are ready to fight or flight.
Response takes a long time to subside.
If once burgled, then every little sound at night would disturb you. Lack of sleep increases the problem.
Selye (1920's)
Basically - Alarm - typical fight or flight reaction.
Resistance - Body adapts to the stress. Appears to be not affected by the stress, but person will snap at new stressors.
Exhaustion - Body can deal with this resistance for only so long. If stressor continues, illness and even death.
Tennes and Kreye (1985) intelligent school children have higher stress when they are taking exams. GAS does not take into account psychosocial factors.
We should not forget that different people will react differently to the same level of stress because of purely physiological differences between them.
Look at Sarafino (1994) quote p21.
Lazarus and Folkman (1984)
[Study figure 2.3 in Banyard]
Kobasa (1979)
People who can handle stress possess 'hardiness'.
There are three components
Kobasa (1979) - High stress executives
2 groups - high illness Vs low illness.
Using questionnaire, the low illness group had more hardiness.
-
Lundberg (1976)
Using urine samples
Commuters on crowded trains more stressed than in empty trains
but those that had been on the train since the start, showed less stress, even though they had been exposed to the crowded condition longer.
Being able to choose seat, control the situation, reduced the stress.
Hodgkinson and Stewart (1991)
PTSD -described in DSM-III (1980)
Most of the children reported intrusive thoughts and some experienced full-blown flashbacks.
Detached from others
Avoided not only ferry travel, but also the sea.
Immediate aftermath - avoided shower or bath.
Cyclical - reappear and disappear.
Onset can be several months later.
Just as severe.
Therapy or counselling - not that useful.
These people who found the counselling as 'unhelpful', fared no worse than people who reported that it was 'helpful'.
Moos and Moos (1981) looked at a number of social climates, including psychiatric wards, college dorms, prisons, work groups, families.
[See Box 2.2 p26]
+ve environments - reduce recovery time from illness.
Responsibility, work pressure and change increase the likelihood of illness or subjective distress.
Holmes and Rahe
(1967)
Test your stress
using Holmes and Rahe(1967)
Scale developed from asking 400 adults to rate 43 different life events, for the amount of adjustments needed to deal with them. High correlation between men and women, Catholics and Protestants. Not so high for Black Vs White.
Holmes and Rahe felt there was a correlation between high ratings and illness, but Sarafino reports the correlation to be really quite weak (r = 0.3).
As an exercise why not criticise the items used in the scale.
Kanner et al (1981) - minor stressors and pleasures of everyday life might have a more significant effect on health than the big events. - Takes account of the cumulative nature of stress.
See Box 2.3 hassles and uplifts of middle-aged adults.
This was a better predictor of psychological problems than life event scores. men are not affected by uplifts though.
Biochemical measures - various processes in the body, adrenaline, noradrenaline, and the immune system.
behavioural observation - facial expressions, rate of speech, posture, nail biting. Self report on marital satisfaction and frequency of urination.
Cognitive measures - perceived control over one's life, perceived level of arousal, mood and attitudes.
Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein, 1983) 14 items rated on a 5 point scale. (See pp 92 - 97, Sarafino)
Problem - simple responses, unable to capture the richness of human experience.
Better scale.
Life events and Difficulties Schedule (Brown and Harris, 1989) - looks at range of issues to do with health, employment, social role, etc. Requires trained interviewers and trained judges to operate it.
Above methods only provide a snapshot.
Stress varies from day to day.
Gulian et al (1990) - study of British drivers. Completed psychometric tests (e.g. Rotter's Internal - External Locus of Control Scale).
Also filled in a diary of their feelings while driving over 5 days.
More stress in the evening and midweek.
Stress varied with age and experience, health condition, sleep quality, driving conditions, driver's perception of driving as stressful.
Douglas et al (1988) used diary and physiological measures
100 fire fighters from 12 stations.
Heart rate recorded for minimum of 48 hours (used portable electrocardiogram)
Results yielded a 'Ventricular cardiac strain score'.
High scores were found to correspond with number of call-outs, level of seniority, and stressful events recorded in diaries.
The diagram below shows the relationship between stress and
arousal as determined by a factor analytic technique (Mackay et
al 1978)
Notes
from Canberra University
Stress
Theories
Fussing
can double risk of heart attack
Return to Gary Sturt's Home Page