unit 3 - B1: stress

• Stress


  Is an emotional and physical response to situation of threats.
• Life events and daily hassles
• Life events


  Major changes and relatively infrequent events in peoples live cause stress because they make a significant Psychological adjustment to adapt to changed circumstances.

  Positive- marriage

  Negative-divorce
• Measuring life events

  SRRS (social readjustment rating scale) list of 43 life events with life change unit. Is used to find out if ill-health is associated with stressful life events. You indicate all the life events you have experience in a set period of time and add up all the LCU to get a stress score.
• Life events and ill health


  Under 150 LCUs= 30% chance stress related illness and following year. Between 150 and 299 LCUs= 50% chance. Over 300 LCUs= 80% chance.
• Evaluation


  -Individual differences- what is stressful for one person might not be stressful for another person.

  -Life events may not affect health because they are too rare. Daily hassles may be more important to health.

  -Not all of the events of the SRRS may affect off.
• Daily hassles


  Everyday minor frustrations and irritation is that cause stress. Stressful because we think negatively about them and think you might not cope. Effects 'add up'.
• Measuring daily hassles


  Hassle scale has 117 daily hassles from seven categories. Choose hassles that day and rate the severity on a scale of one to 3.
• Daily hassles and ill health


  Daily hassles are frequent so it threatens our health. Since life events destruct daily routines, it creates a lot of hassles.
• Strength


  Daily hassles accumulate over the course of the day and therefore provide a more significant source of stress than life changes.
• Weakness


  -Use of self report questionnaires: participants may lie and also social desirability bias.

  -Research is correlation, so we cannot draw a casual conclusion.

  -Individual differences: some minor hassles may be stress for some but uplift for others.
• Role of workplace
• Role conflict


  Intra role: Competing demands within the same role. E.g. in the workplace this often happens when roles are poorly defined and the employee has a report to 2 managers who have different objectives.

  Inter role: Competing demands between different roles. E.g. one role could be work related and the other is outside the workplace.
• Effects of the work environment


  Temperature: Hot workplace negative outcomes such as stress and aggression. Cold workplace is also stressful because it is a negative stimulus leading to distress.

  Noise: workplace is full of loud sounds can be stressful because unpleasant. It is unpredictable and employees cannot control them. level of control: having control allows a person to feel that they have a choice. stress is felt negatively when we appraise a situation as something we cannot cope with.
• Levels of control


  Workload: too much work is stressful and leads to ill health when employees lacks control.

  Perception of control: key factor is whether employees believe they can control or not.

  Research into control: Finishers in sawmill had more stress and ill health because they lacked control over job (Johansson)
• Strength: Practical use- Ways of reducing stress in the workplace


  Reduce stress by giving employees some control, reducing noise, avoiding Royal conflict.
• Weakness: Cultural differences-The impact of workplace stress depends upon culture


  Research studies found that lack of job control was considered stressful in individualist culture. But having control was seen as more stressful in collectivist culture. This suggests role conflict and lack of control and not universal features of the workplace that contribute to stress in all circumstances
• Role of personality
• Personality


  Characteristics people describe and explain what they are like. Someone's personality can make the difference between them developing a stress related illness or remaining health.
• Hardiness


  Kobasa propose that a hardy personality can protect against stress and ill health.

  -Commitment: Hardy people throw themselves into life and have a strong sense of purpose

  -Challenge: Hardy people welcome change as an opportunity rather than as a threat. They enjoy change as an opportunity for development.

  -Control: Hardy people prefer to make things happen rather than sitting back. They actively try to influence the environment even times of stress.
• Type A personality- associated with development of coronary heart disease.


  Friedman so just a personal do you have high levels of:

  -Competitiveness: They are ambitious and motivated.

  -Time urgency: they are fast talking, impatient and view artistic and creative activities as a waste of time.

  -Hostility: They are aggressive, intolerant of others and are easily angered. They also identified another type of personality they could type B.
• Type B personality


  Are more relaxed, laid-back, tolerant, less competitive and less hostile than type A.
• Strength: Practical uses- Hardiness and Type A both provide targets for reducing the effect of stress.


  The goal is to enhance the 3Cs (Cognitive, Emotional, and Mental) to improve stress resistance, encouraging optimistic thinking and overcoming setbacks. It also encourages individuals at risk of stress-related illnesses to shift from type A to type B behavior. Understanding personality can help cope with stress and prevent health issues.
• Weakness: Measurement issues- Hardiness and Type A are measured using self report questionnaires.


  Social desirability bias in questionnaires affects the accuracy of measures of hardiness and type a trade. People often exaggerate their possession of positive traits, minimizing undesirable traits. This results in self-reported measures being based on socially desirable self-perceptions, making them unreliable personality indicators.
• Physiological response to stress


  Selye viewed street as the body's attempt to adapt to a stressor. The process of adapting to a stressor goes through three stages called the GAS.
• Stage 1: Alarm Reaction


  Stressor is preserved. Psychological response to deal with it are activated. Adrenaline glands produce adrenaline, cortisol and noradrenaline. Ready for a fight or flight.
• Stage 2: Resistance


  If the threat does not subside, the body tries to cope. Hormones are released to provide the body with the energy needed to deal with the stressor. If the stressor persist and become chronic the elevated levels of condoms could be damaging the cardiovascular system.
• Stage 3: Exhaustion


  Resources needed I've been drained. The individual is experiencing the same symptoms then in the alarm stage. The main system is weakened and diseases are likely to develop.
• Modern approach


  Acute stress: Sam System. Idiot of response, fight or flight. Sympathetic branch of ANS triggered. Adrenal medullas release adrenaline. Parasympathetic branch restores to normal.

  Chronic system: HPA system. Hypothalamus releases CRF. Detected by the pituitary gland which releases ACTH. Stimulates adrenal cortexes to release cortisol.
• Weakness


  -Does not include the idea that individuals might freeze during acute stress, not just fight or flight.

  -Stress response is subjective: french for men and women.There is some bias e.g. F&F may only apply to men.

  -Physiological response varies depending on personality.
• Stress and physical ill health
• Short term effects: This is controlled by SAM System.


  Headache: muscles tense under stress, repeated.

  Stomach upset: vomiting, sickness but also more serious.

  Fatigue: physical tiredness, lack of energy.

  Indirect effects: stress causes sleep disruption which causes above.
• Long-term effects: controlled by the HPA system.


  Hypertension: stress raises blood pressure temporarily, maybe permanently.

  Heart attack: increase stress hormones cause atherosclerosis, in heart= myocardial infarction.

  Stroke: atherosclerosis of vessels in brain= Ischaemic Stroke

  Indirect effects: stress affects lifestyle factors e.g. poor diet, increase risk.
• Strength: The knowledge of stress can help us prevent and treat physical ill health.


  Stress perception significantly impacts our response to stressors. Stress reduction techniques help us view stress as a challenge, reducing physical effects. Negative coping mechanisms, like smoking and unhealthy eating, can also be minimized. Medication-treated hypertension can reduce the risk of serious diseases, allowing individuals to improve their quality of life through stress reduction.
• Weakness: There are gender differences in how people respond to stressors.


  Blood vessels do not narrow as quickly in women as they do in men in times of stress. Higher levels of hormones oestrogen in women may explain the protection, making the incidence of chronic physical affects lower in women than men. Women who develop heart heart diseases do you say about 10 years later than men on average. This shows the link between stress and physical illness is complex and not yet fully understood.