Stress

• The biomedical model of addiction views addiction as a chronic disease of the brain that changes thought and behavior.
• Stress - Understanding causes of stress

  life events: major events (death, family, work)

  daily hassles: minor things (rudeness, noise)
• Physiological response to stress

  increased: Heart rate, respiration, temperature, blood pressure

  Psychological responses to stress

  lower motivation, poor concentration, unhappiness, anger, insomnia
• types of environmental fit

  strong environmental fit = low stress

  weak environmental fit = high stress
• Theory of Planned Behaviour - Ajzen 1985

  Model proposed a key psychological influence upon performance of health behaviour is intention, or how motivated an individual is to preform a given behaviour.
• Self efficacy - Bandura (1963) - the belief that one can control one's own behaviour
• Four steps of self efficacy:

  1. Inactivity/mastery - personal experience
  2. Vicarious influence - comparison to others
  3. Social influences - feedback from others
  4. Emotional influences - anxiety levels when doing/ not doing something
• Furnham 1990

  Type A demonstrated a stronger emotional reaction to stressors and greater need for high levels of control.

  KS. Krause & old people
• Temoshock & Fox 1984

  Type D personality:

  high levels of tension, pessimistic outlook, low esteem

  negative appraisal of situation

  Primary → demands → negative

  Secondary → resources → cannot cope

  Use emotion focused coping → isolation
• Kobasa 1979 Hardiness

  Group of people with high stress and low illness.

  Three Cs:

  Control → seek internal locus of control

  Commitment → high levels of motivation for a healthy lifestyle

  Challenges → cognitive appraisal of stressors appeared positive.
• Workplace stress

  Environment → lighting, heating, physical design, level of unpredicted noise, crowding

  Organisation→ promotion, involvement in decision making, relationship with co-workers

  Home-Work → how much time is spent in and outside of workplace, work/life balance

  Role conflict → put in a role that goes against values or beliefs

  Job demands v control → low control = high stress
• High strain = high demands + low control

  Passive = low demand + low control
• Johansson et al 1978

  investigating social, psychological and neuroendocrine stress reactions in saw mill

  Found that high stress from workplace due to the repetitive, machine paced and demand of full attention.

  Environmental stress from dust and noise.

  performance related pay also increased stress due to lack of control and high demand as making money has a direct link to social roles at home.
• Effects of stress:

  short term: headache, stomach ache

  long term: heart attack, stroke, hypertension
• immunosuppression - reduction of immunity
• Two Types of Immune System:

  Natural immunity: primitive blood cell system which attacks and absorbs antigens or pathogens

  Specific immunity: complex system of different cells which recognise specific pathogens and produce antibodies to eliminate them
• Kiecolt-Glaser et al 1984 medical students

  Aimed to demonstrate the impact if natural stressors upon immune system function by measuring WBC in students a month before finals and the day of finals.

  Found that the subjects had significantly lower WBC on the second reading, suggesting stress can cause immunosuppression

  Also measured levels of social support and loneliness and found that subjects with less SS had significantly lower WBC compared to other subjects.
• Cortisol produced in the hypothalmic pituitary adreanal system (HPA System) inhibits the production of WBC (lymphocytes)
• Stressor -> Alarm response -> Resistance phase -> Exhaustion phase
• Cortisol + Adrenaline health effects

  A) atherosclerosis

  B) cortisol + adrenaline

  
• Cortisol's effect health

  A) cortisol

  B) white blood cells

  C) diet

  D) diabeties

  E) smoking

  F) cancer

  
• social support

  Esteem support - making P feel valued

  Informational support - giving P useful advice/information

  Instrumental support - giving P practical help

  Social companionship - spending time with P
• Impact of Social Support

  1. lowers GAS response
  2. raises self-esteem and self-efficacy
  3. improves appraisal perception
• social inoculation - reduces stress by teaching individuals relevant concepts and skills linked to real life situations. interventions can be made to make individuals resistant to stress like inoculation to stress.
• Steps to Social Inoculation:

  1. Cognitive Preparation - learning about stress and its effect on the body
  2. Skill Acquisition - learning and acquiring basic behaviours and cognitive coping skills e.g, relaxation
  3. Application and Follow Through - using the skills outside of the classes and in real life situations
• Evaluation of Social Inoculation

  pros -

  • increases sense of control and self efficacy
  • raises esteem and confidence
  • skills can applied in a range of scenarios
  • future proof after initially learnt
• Evaluation of Social Inoculation

  cons -

  • time consuming
  • need constant motivation to continue
  • linking to real life can produce more anxiety
  • not everyone will share (introverts)
• Drug Therapy

  medication can be used to reduce the physiological effects of stress and change cognitive processing.

  Benzodiazepine (BZ)- increases the amount of GABA neurotransmitters in the brain which decreases activity in the brain making it easier to cope.

  Beta-Blockers - reduce the activity of the sympathetic branch of the automatic nervous system. they stabilise heart rate and blood pressure by impacting upon the circulatory system and block effects of norepinephrine, the stress hormone linked to the GAS response.
• Evaluation of Drug Therapy

  pros -

  • fast acting
  • universal impact
  • reduce physiological symptoms, enabling chance for other developments
  • positive impact on cognitive processing and appraisal of stressors (beta-blockers)
• Evaluation of Drug Therapy

  cons -

  • only focus on physical stress symptoms
  • can become addicted and develop dependencies
  • possible tolerance effected over extended use
  • can reduce self-efficacy
  • possible side effects
  • possible combination effects