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Stress, Evaluation of the physiology of stress: - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Hypothalamus, activates the ANS, sympathetic branch
        
        Sympathic ANS: sends signal to the adrenal medulla
        
        Adrenal medulla: releases adrenaline/noradrenaline which has an instant effect on our system.
  - - - Due to the presence of a negative feedback loop, ACTH (adrenocortrophin hormone) is released which triggers the adrenal cortex to release cortisol.
        
        The effect of cortisol on the body: provides body with steady supply of fuel, conserves salt and water, mobilises protein reseveres, conserves glucose and supresses the immune system.
        Adaptive Value: calms down effects of adrenaline and noradrenaline, ensures the person has enough energy to deal with the stressor to ensure they have enough resources.
- - - - Strengths of research into stress related illness is the applications it has to real life treatments. Understanding the effects of stress on illness allows us to develop treatments such as benzodiazepines and beta blockers which help calm down the symptoms of stress.
      - However, limitations of research into stress related illness is that other extraneous variables may be influencing cardiovascular disease as opposed to stress is that it may have been caused by diet or genetics.
  - - - Cortisol and immunosuppression: cortisol reduces the body's response in the immune system.
- - - - Rahe et al (1970) adapted the SRRS slightly into the SRE to investigate the relationship between stress and illness. This study made a comparison between the 'normal' population and those who were already ill in hospital. Sample: 2,664 men who served in the navy or marines for 3 years in the US. They were asked to recall SRE for events from the past 2 years and it was adapted specifically for them. Findings: significant positive correlation between LCU score and illness score. It was concluded that the amount of 'psychic energy' required to deal with an event is what caused stress.
        
        Cohen et al 1993 gave nasal drops to pps which contained the common cold virus and assessed their life changes based on the Schedule of Recent Experiences. They were quarantined to see if they would develop a cold. The results of this study showed that pps with a higher LCU were more likely to get infected which supports the idea of their being a link between stress and illness as well as showing that stress can lead to immunosuppression).
  - - - Effect of daily hassles: accumulation and amplification. Accumulation: when minor daily stressors creates persistent irritations, frustrations and overloads which result in more serious stress reactions such as depression and anxiety. Amplification: when someone has a chronic stressors that has affected their life in some way and when they come into contact with minor stressors, it causes them to have an 'over the top' reaction to those minor stressors and be more vulnerable to daily hassles.
        
        Kanner et al (1981) investigated if daily hassles are a better predictor of illness than the life changes approach. Sample: 100 (48 women and 52 men) aged 45-67. Each pp was given the task of competing the Hassles and Uplifts Scale, for events over the past month, and continued to fill it out for 9 months. They also completed a life events scale throughout the study. They found 5 most common daily hassles. They also found that those who had fewer hassles had higher levels of well-being and that it was a better prediction of well-being rather than life events and uplifts.
        
        Evaluation: support for importance of daily hassles (more important than life events/changes). Ruffin 1993 found that daily hassles were linked to greater psychological and physical dysfunction than they were major negative life events. Flett et al (1995) asked individuals to rate the amount of support tht person would recieve and would seek from others, rated high.
        Negative: problems with self-report as people may not report their experiences honestly due to social desirability bias, individuals differences in terms of gender may not have been accounted for (for instance with pets) and their is an issue with the reliability of recall but alternative methods such as diaries to tackle this.
  - - - Marmot et al 1997 one on 10,000 civil servants who worked in Whitehall, London since 1985. Some pps who worked in higher ranked jobs (such as accountants) have high levels of workload and control whereas those with lower rank jobs experienced lower levels of that. Both are likely to be stressed but for different reasons. At the start they were asked to complete a questionnaire and measured for CHD 1 years later. High workload wasn't associated with CHD bt low job control was.
        
        Johansson et al 1978 studied 28 manual labourers in sawmil. He compared the high-risk group who had high workload and low control to low-risk groups. He measured levels of adrenaline daily and obtained self-report of job satisfaction and illness. The high-risk group had higher illness rates and higher levels of adrenaline The sawyers hag greater workload and lower sense of control and their jobs were repetitive and constrained, low self-control of work pace.
        
        Evaluation: individual differences with how people cope with stress (Lazarus 1995 transactional approach), work underload had not been researched and how it may also lead to stress, the validity of the studies that have been used to support workplace stress as they mostly use questionnaires and it has not taken into account the evolution of work and workplace stressors.
- - - - Acute stress: stress that is caused by something temporary, therefore it passes relatively quickly such as not being able to find your phone in your bag.
        
        Chronic stress: stress that is more long term, which can be caused by a distressing event such as going through a divorce.
- - - - Alarm reaction: flight or fight response
        Resistance: we try to adapt to the situation at hand and appear to be coping. This results in us using up all of our resources for our stress response to always be activated, so we're ready.
        Exhaustion: when we fail to adapt, our resources run low and a stress related illness may develop.
        
        Evaluation of GAS
        
        +: Seyle (1936)exposed rats to a number of different stressors and found that they responded the same to all of them which supports the 'general' part of the theory.
        Seyle's work is seen to be very influential as it paved the way for us to develop our understanding of the difference between stress and illness.
        -: Mason (1971) exposed monkeys to 7 different stressors and found that they responded to them differently so it is not true that we respond to all stressors in the exact same way.
        
        Much of the research into GAS is carried out on animals and thus cannot be generalised to humans.
- - - - Evaluation: the tend-to-befriend response isn't as clear cut, lack of research support for coping focus (problem-focused and emotion-focused wasn't supported by research), confounding variables found that may have exacerbated the gender differences and it's reliance on self-report scales where people describe how they have dealt with the specific situations.
- - - - Emotional support: helping someone cope emotionally and distracting the from the problem at hand.
        
        Esteem support: when someone else makes you feel better about yourself to help you value yourself more, giving you the self-efficacy to cope with stress.
        
        Effects of social support: the buffering hypothesis (suggests that social support is most effective at times of stress to protect individuals from the negative effects of stress by giving them a potential solution to their problem) and direct physiological effect (social support impacts the autonomous nervous system which helps us to relax).
        
        Kamarck et al (1990) 39 female psychology students volunteered to perform a difficult mental task either alone or a with same-sex friend. During the task (which the friend and the pp were both completing) the friend as asked to touch their wrist. Those who were with a friend had lower blood pressure.
        
        Evaluation: pets can provide social support as well, distinguishing the difference between the different types, cultural differences and gender.
- - - - Evaluation; real world applications (Maddi), the 3 elements of hardiness are not equally important, problems of measurement and direct effects.
- - - - Evaluation: ease of use from therapy, addiction, side effects and treating the symptoms rather than the problem