#14083 - Stress - Psychology

(a) What are the psychological reactions to stress? (b) Give one example where stress has

been found to be related to health and describe the likely mechanism for this relationship.

What are the effects of stress on behaviour? Include in your answer a brief description of the

underlying brain mechanisms involved in the stress response.

What psychological theories have been put forward to explain why some individuals are

more prone than others to experience events as stressful?

When and for whom are the psychological effects of stressors relatively more damaging?

When and for whom are the psychological effects of stressors relatively less damaging?

What psychological factors moderate the effects of stressors on health?

STRESS refers to experiencing events that are perceived as endangering one’s physical or psychological well-being.

These events are usually referred to as stressors, and people’s reactions to them are termed stress responses

Characteristics of stressful events

• Events that are perceived as stressful usually fall into one or more of the following categories:

1 traumatic events outside the usual range of human experience

2 uncontrollable events

3 unpredictable events

4 events that challenge the limits of our capabilities and self-concept

5 internal conflicts

• The most obvious sources of stress are traumatic events - situations of extreme danger that are outside the range of usual human experience. These include:

  • natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods

  • disasters caused by human activity, such as wars and nuclear accidents

  • catastrophic accidents, such as car or plane crashes

  • physical assaults, such as rape or attempted murder

• The more uncontrollable en event seems, the more likely it is to be perceived as stressful. Major uncontrollable events include:

  • the death of a loved one

  • being laid off from work

  • serious illness

• It appears that our perceptions of the controllability of events are as important to our assessment of their stressfulness as the actual controllability of those events.

• Some strategies for coping with stress involve trying to think of ways that an aspect of the stressor can be controlled, even if this is only a minor aspect.

• The belief that we can control events appears to reduce the impact of the events, even if we never exercise that control.

• Being able to predict the occurrence of a stressful event - even if the individual cannot control it - usually reduces the severity of the stress. Possible reasons for this:

  • a warning signal before an aversive event allows the person or animal to initiate some sort of preparatory process that acts to reduce the effects of a noxious stimulus

  • with unpredictable shock, there is no safe period: with predictable shock, the organism can relax to some extent until the signal warns the shock is about to occur (Seligman & Biunik, 1977)

• Some situations are largely controllable and predictable but are still experienced as stressful because they push us to the limits of our capabilities and challenge our views of ourselves. Final-exam week is a good example.

The Life Events Scale
Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe, 1967)

• Stress can also be brought about by internal processes - unresolved conflicts that may be either conscious or unconscious. Conflict occurs when a person must choose between incompatible, or mutually exclusive, goals or courses of action. Many of the things people desire prove to be incompatible.

• Conflict may also arise when two inner needs or motives are in opposition:

  • independence versus dependence (one of the main practical questions that arises from this is how much control parents should have over their children’s behaviour and how much freedom they should give them).

  • intimacy versus isolation

  • co-operation versus competition

  • expression of impulses versus moral standards

Psychological and physiological reactions to stress

There is a characteristic psychological response to a traumatic event:

• At first, survivors are stunned and dazed, and appear to be unaware of their injuries or of the danger.

• In the next stage, survivors are still passive and unable to initiate even simple tasks, but they may follow orders readily

• In the third stage, survivors become anxious and apprehensive, have difficulty concentrating, and may repeat the story of the catastrophe over and over again.

• Psychological reactions: anxiety, anger and aggression, apathy and depression, cognitive impairment

• Physiological reactions: increased metabolic rate, increased heart rate, dilation of pupils, higher blood pressure, increased breathing rate, tensing of muscles, secretion of endorphins and ACTH, release of extra sugar from the liver

• There is an argument that the psychological and physiological responses should be considered and studied in a more integrated, holistic way, as some people think there are precise relationships between the two.

Psychological:

1 Anxiety

• The major symptoms of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) include

a) feelings of numbness to the world, estrangement from others, and lack of interest in former activities

b) a tendency to relive the trauma repeatedly in memories and dreams

c) sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating, and over-alertness.

d) guilt about having survived when others in a similar situation have not. Feelings that they should have done more to help others during the event.

• Concentration camps - Kuch & Cox, 1992

• Vietnam War vets - Centers for Disease Control, 1988

• The main symptoms of PTSD subside over time, although some of them do remain in some people for many years.

• In addition, only the obvious symptoms are measured and it is thought that there may be some more subtle, life-long alterations in behaviour and attitude.

2 Anger and Aggression

Children often become angry and aggressive when frustrated. But when circumstances block direct attack on the individual responsible for frustration, aggression may be displaced, so the aggression is against a seemingly random object or person.

For example, in children at school, a teacher may be perceived as the stressor, but because of the authority of the teacher and the possible consequences of an aggressive reaction against the teacher, the aggression is instead projected onto a fellow pupil, for example.

3. Apathy and depression

• The theory of learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975): If an animal is unable to control events (e.g. unavoidable shock), when given the opportunity to learn avoidance, they are passive and show ‘learned helplessness’.

• For example dogs can be conditioned to jump to safe side of compartment to avoid electric shock when a light comes on.

• However, if previously the dog has previously been confined where shocks are inevitable and inescapable , it is difficult for the dog to learn to avoid the shock when light comes on.

• Sometimes the dog never learns to avoid the shock, even if the experimenter demonstrates to them that the shock can be avoided by lifting them (rather than the dog jumping) to the safe side of the compartment.

• There is often an analogy to a response that is often seen in women suffering from domestic violence.

• They know that an attack in the home is likely but they are confined to the home because of children, finance etc.

• Even if a possibility of escape becomes available they do not take it because they have entered a state of acceptance or numbness to the violence.

• This is by no means the case in all situations, however – some people show gradually more strength and resistance as the violence persists.

4. Cognitive impairment

Stress causes individuals to find it hard to concentrate and organize themselves. Cognitive impairment may come from:

• High levels of emotional arousal which interferes with information processing

• Cognitive impairment from distracting or negative thoughts- we contemplate various actions and worry about their consequences.

Cognitive impairment often leads people to behave according to a rigid behaviour pattern because they cannot consider alternatives e.g. in a fire you may persistently push against exit doors which only open inwards- some resort to child-like patterns.

Physiological reactions: (Look at systems notes)

Flight or fight response : three stages: Alarm, resistance and exhaustion

• Two neuroendocrine systems – sympathetic system and adrenocortical system

• Hypothalamus (brain’s stress centre) triggers sympathetic nervous system (SNS) to - (a) activate various organs and smooth muscle (increases heart rate and dilates pupil) and (b) signals the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline and noradrenaline into blood stream

• ...