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STRESS - Coggle Diagram

- - - - assumption - stress is a response to external stressors and significant life events - stress as a stimulus
      - major life events (both positive and negative) require individuals to adapt and readjust their lives, and as a result they are often associated with stress
      - the best way to assess your stress levels is to examine the number of stressful events that have happened to you recently
      - ASSUMPTIONS
        
        change - both positive & negative creates stress
        
        different life events result in different levels of stress d
        
        different individuals will experience similar levels of stress in response to the same life events
        
        life events stress is cumulative
      - DEVELOPMENT OF THE SRSS
        
        influenced by earlier work that suggested that significant life changes might be related to poor health
        
        Holmes and Rahe tried to quantify the effect of stressful life events
        
        394 participants asked to rate a list of 43 life events (regardless of its desirability in terms of how much readjustment it normally requires
        
        each event was calculated to have a different weighting or Life Change Unit (LCU) score t
        
        this measure of stress later became known as the social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)
      - Holmes and Rahe, 1967
        
        do stressful life events cause illness ?
        
        examined the medical records of 5000 patients and asked them to indicate how many of the 43 life events had happened to them
        
        a positive correlation ( r = 12) was found between their life events and the severity of their illnesses
      - Rahe, Mahan and Arthur (1970)
        
        do SRRS scores predict future health?
        
        2500 sailors were asked to complete SRRS prior to a 6-8 month cruise
        
        detailed records of each sailor's health were then kept during their time at sea
        
        a positive correlation was found between their pre cruise life events score and the number of reported illnesses throughout their time at sea
      - the SRRS has has an enermous impact on the study of stress and illness
        
        only a decade after it was first developed, the social readjustment rating scale has been used in more than 1000 studies g
        
        generally, people with LCU scores higher than 150 in a single year tend to have more physical and psychological problems than individuals with lower LCU scores stressed people
        
        heart disease, diabetes, cancer, leukaemia, colds and fevers, accidents, major depression and schizophrenia
      - SCORING THE SRRS
        
        STEP 1 - each live event is associated with a life change unit score
        
        Step 2 - sum up all scores = overall LCU scores
        
        score of 0-150 - relatively low stress
        
        score of 150-300 - moderate stress levels
        
        score of 300+ - high stress level
      - after the SRRS, there have been a number of other life event checklists
        
        LIFE EXPERIENCES SURVEY (LES) - Sarason, Johnson and Siegel (1978)
        
        in contrast, to the SRRS participants indiciate how positive or negative the impact of each event had on their lives
        
        overall scores calculated as the sum of positive and negative ratings
        
        ASSESSMENT OF DAILY EXPERIENCES (ADE)
        
        Stone and Neale, 1982
        
        designed to address inadequacies of SRRS and LES (retrospective bias)
        
        each day over a period of time (eg 2 weeks) participants asked to indiciate which of 66 items hapepned that day
        
        if event happened, participants asked to rate each event in terms of its desirability, meaningfulness, change and control
        
        CRITICISMS
        
        checklist approach
        
        individual differences - life events do not necessarily affect all individuals in the same way - eg divorce
        
        retrospective bias - recall of past events likely to be subject to considerable bias and distortion
        
        impact of different life events vary between cultures and over time
        
        major life events are relatively infrequent
  - - - Minor stressful events or the daily hassles of life are likely have a greater effect on health than the major life events measured by the SRSS
    - - development of the DHUS
      - Richard Lazarus and his colleagues tried to develop an alternative to the traditional method of assessing life stressors that focused on the minor, irritating and more frequent stressors of everyday life
      - 100 adults asked to complete DHUS once a month for a 10 month period
      - participants asked to record both the frequency and intensity of 117 hassles and 135 uplifts
      - three different scales created
        
        the hassles scale (117 items), the uplifts scale - 135 items, and the comibed scale - 53 items
      - participants were also asked to comeplete a measure of major life events, as well as measures of wellbeing and psychological problems
      - scores on a hassles scale were found to be a better predictor of psychological symptoms than life event scores
  - - - PSS scores have been found to predict a variety of different objective, biological indicators of stress and an individuals risk of stress related illness
    - - step 1 - recode reverse scored items
      - step 2 - sum up all scores = overall PSS scores
- - - - too simplistic
      - hostility thought to be most closely correlated to CHD
      - difficult to replicate when using self report measures of type a behaviour
      - not all type a people are prone the negative effects of stress, in fact some individuals actually seem to thrive in stressful situations - described as 'hardy personality'
  - - - commitment - hardy individuals tend to have a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives, and are more actively involved in their work and social / family lives
      - control - hardy individuals are more likely to see themselves in control of their lives, and believe that stressful situations can be managed
      - challenge - hardy individuals are more inclined to regard change/ new opportunities as a challenge to be met and addressed, rather than as a threat that is to be avoided
- - - - the upholster later pointed our that many of chair had been worn out in an odd way - front edges of cushions has been worn away quicker than the rest of the seat
        
        cardiac patients had been literally sitting of the edge of their seats whilst waiting to see the doctor
        
        this initial observation, promoting them to think about how cardiac patients might be different to patients from other specalities
- - - - hoping to discover a new sex hormone
      - Hans Seyle injected rats with an ovarian hormone extract
      - He found these injections had 3 main effects :
        
        Enlargement of arousal cortex
        
        Shrinkage of the thymus gland - white blood cells
        
        Bleeding Ulcers
        
        However, when he rejected rats with other fluids a similar physiological response was observed
        
        In fact, he found that all stressors (eg electric shock, trauma, restraint), led to a similar pattern of responses
        
        The body's response to stress was thought to have 3 distinct stages
        
        ALARM
        
        In response to a threat or stressors, the sympathetic nervous system and endocrine system are activated
        
        the bodys resources are quickly mobilised to deal with the threat or challenge
        
        RESISTANCE
        
        if the stressors or threat is not immediately dealt with or removed, the body will maintain its readiness to respond
        
        However, over time chronic stressors will begin to deplete the body's resources
        
        EXHAUSATION
        
        eventually, the body's resources are exhausted and an adaptive response in the stressors or threat becomes increasingly difficult
- - - - CORTISOL
        
        salivary cortisol is now an acceptable alternative to blood analysis
      - SALIVARY - AMYLASE
        
        although primarily associated with digestion of carbohydrates, increased alpha-amylase secretion is now considered an indirect indicator of stress
      - CATECHOLAMINES -eg adrenaline & noraderenaline
        
        measured either directly from blood plasma (most accurate and sensitive to stress response) or indirectly through of analysis of metabolises present in urine
- - - - an individuals social support system is the network of people who can offer help when in need. people with a good social support system have been found to be less vulnerable to stress
      - research has consistently shown that having a supportive social network of friends and family moderates the relationship between stressor and ill health