Topic 1- stressors in the environment

• Black and Black- aim


  to explore the impact of aircraft noise on the health of a community of people living in the areas surrounding Sydney Airport in Australia

  • is health related quality of life worse in a community affected by aircraft noise compared to a community not affected?
  • is long term exposure to aircraft noise associated with high blood pressure in adults?
• Black and Black- participants


  two areas in Sydney were picked

  • the aircraft noise area- multiple regions that experienced more than 50 aircraft noise events a day
  • the control area- the suburbs, located 55km from Sydney airport

  questionnaires were mailed out to every home address in the areas

  the researchers received 704 completely filled out questionnaires from the participants

  respondents mostly came from the aircraft noise area
• Black and Black- questionnaires


  the questionnaires sent out contained a number of sections

  1. health
  2. hypertension
  3. annoyance from noise out of 10
  4. identification of extraneous factors such as employment, exercise, nutrition
• Black and Black- results 


  • participants in the noise area had a significantly higher sound annoyance score compared to the control area
  • after controlling for extraneous variables, the means score for the health in the noise area was significantly lower than the control area
  • long term exposure to aircraft noise was associated with chronic noise stress and the prevalence of hypertension
• Black and Black- conclusion 


  it is clear that living near aircraft noise has a significant negative impact on the lives of residents. policies and health support should be made available to people who live with aircraft noises
• Kenrick and MacFarlane- aims


  how is temperature related to stress in drivers
• Kenrick and MacFarlane- procedure


  • a car would stay stationary at a set of traffic lights once they had turned green for 12 seconds and record how the car behind them would react
• Kenrick and MacFarlane- results


  • there was a positive correlation between temperature and the amount of time pressing the horn
  • at temperatures over 32C, 34% of participants spend half of the total green light interval using their horn
  • this provides evidence that temperature is an environmental stressor
• Glass and Singer- procedure


  • they wanted to investigate how noise can cause feelings of stress when doing simple cognitive tasks
  • participants would be asked to complete these tasks while listening to specially prepared recordings that would last for 25 minutes
  • the nose was manipulated for volume, predictability and perceived control
• Glass and Singer- results

  after hearing noises for 25 minutes participants were given 2 tasks to do in silence:

  • performance task- correcting SPAG from a passage
  • frustration test- trace over lines of a shape without tracing over the same line twice or lifting the pencil off the paper, some tasks were impossible

  the strongest effect on participants came from noise being unpredictable and perceiving the noise as something they could not control
• Lundberg


  • compared two different groups of passengers on the same train
  • the journey lasted 72 minutes in total
  • there was a high density group and low density group
  • passengers who got on the train first were considered the low density group because the train got more busy as it continued through its journey
• Lundberg- results

  • stress was measured through the levels of adrenaline in participants' urine
  • on average the more crowded train was the more adrenaline there was in the urine. this suggests overcrowding does cause stress
• Albert Ellis- rational emotive therapy


  • the assumption of ellis is that if people are feeling stressed then they are thinking irrationally
  • the aim of therapy is to help the client think rationally
  • this is split into 5 stages

  A (activating experience)

  B (irrational beliefs)

  C (consequences)

  D (disputing)

  E (effects of therapy)