Psychology-Stress

• Components of hardy personality

  • Control in control of your own sense of personal power
  • Commitment sense of purpose and meaning in life
  • Challenge see stressful situations as an opportunity for growth and development
• How do hardy characteristics buffer from stress?

  • Lowers cortisol + adrenaline response if you have a hardy personality
  • Lowers your physical response to stress
  • Have coping strategies and social supports
• Type A personality

  Comparative, impulsive, workaholic, rapid speech/movement
• Type B personality

  Relaxed, calm, slower speech/movement
• Type A personality is more likely to experience the fight/flight response and have higher stress hormones such as adrenaline
• Type A personality leads to higher blood pressure & heart rate, increases likelihood of CHD (coronary heart disease)
• Western Collaborative Group Study

  • Prospective longitudinal study of 3,154 men aged 39-39 in 1960-61
  • Categorised participants as Type A/B using interview task consisting of 25 questions about how they respond to everyday pressures
• The findings of the Western Collaborative Group Study may not generalise across gender and culture as women may react differently to stress than men
• Some personality types are innate, but most personality traits are learnt and developed through life experiences and environmental factors
• There are issues with personality tests as they have extraneous variables, correlation does not mean causation, and much of the research has been done on men and generalised to women
• The research on Type A personality has cultural bias as the sample was from the USA and may not generalise to non-Western cultures
• The research on Type A personality has an age bias as it was done on middle-aged men
• Labelling people as having a Type A personality and telling them they are more vulnerable to illness may actually increase their likelihood of stress-related illness
• There is conflicting evidence on the link between Type A personality and coronary heart disease, with some studies finding smoking and cholesterol levels were more important predictors
• Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome (stress model)


  1. Alarm stage

  2. Resistance stage

  3. Exhaustion stage
• Biological stress response

  1. Hypothalamus perceives a threat

  2. Sympathetic nervous system sends signal to adrenal medulla to release adrenaline

  3. Adrenaline prepares the body for fight or flight response
• The fight or flight response evolved as an adaptive strategy to deal with threats our ancestors may have faced in the ancestral environment
• High levels of adrenaline have direct effects on the heart that are linked to cardiovascular disorders
• Chronic stress response

  1. Hypothalamus produces corticotropin releasing hormone

  2. Pituitary gland releases adrenocorticotropin hormone

  3. Adrenal cortex releases cortisol
• Cortisol

  Steroid hormone that plays a role in the central nervous system, involved in learning, memory, and regulating glucose storage
• Cortisol can have negative effects on cognitive performance and the immune system
• Research shows that stress does not always lead to a reduction in immune function, as some studies have found increased immune activity in response to stress
• There are age and gender differences in the HPA system's response to stress, which need to be taken into account
• Measuring and examining cortisol levels alone is not enough to determine the effects of stress, as there are many other social and psychological factors involved
• Stress is not always bad for the immune system, as research has found short-term increases in immune function in response to stress
• Stress


  A reaction that occurs when a person feels they are unable to cope and things are too much to handle
• Types of stress


  • Positive (eustress)
  • Negative (acute)
  • Acute episodic
  • Chronic
• Beta-blockers


  • Stop the adrenaline from making the heart beat very fast, promoting calmness by blocking receptor sites from adrenaline and noradrenaline
  • Selective beta-blockers (beta-1) mainly affect the heart and have fewer effects on other parts of the body
• Beta-blockers are primarily prescribed for high blood pressure and angina, but are also used off-label for anxiety conditions and by musicians to overcome stage fright
• The use of beta-blockers by musicians and athletes raises ethical concerns as it may provide an unfair advantage and is banned in most sports
• A significant proportion (52%) of beta-blocker prescriptions are for off-label uses, which raises ethical and legal issues around informed consent and potential lawsuits
• Stress Inoculation Training (SIT)

  • Aims to help people perceive stressors differently in order to cope better
  • Involves 2-15 sessions where the client acquires coping skills and practices applying them to a variety of situations
• Stress management interventions like SIT can have benefits to society by improving employee health and reducing costs to employers and the healthcare system