REVISION GUIDE FOR PSYA 2
SECTION A - PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY – STRESS
UNIT ONE - Stress as a bodily response / J / K / LDefine ‘stressor’ :
a situation which makes a demand on us.
Define ‘stress’ :
a response to a situation that demands more from us than we can cope with.
Outline the sympathomedullary pathway response to stressors.
SAM – acute (short-term) stress
Fight or Flight for emergency situations
Hypothalamus activates the Sympathetic Branch of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
which results in production of Adrenaline and Noradrenaline by the Adrenal Medulla.
Heart rate and blood pressure rise, blood leaves organs where it isn’t needed (e.g. stomach) so that muscles in the arms and legs can have more, pupils dilate, skin sweats.
The parasympathetic branch of the ANS brings everything back to normal when the stress is over.
Outline the pituitary-adrenal response to stressors.
HPA – chronic (long-term) stress
Hypothalamus stimulates the pituitary gland to release ACTH which results in cortisol being released by the adrenal cortex.
This helps to keep energy levels up in a time of prolonged stress, but also suppresses the immune system.
UNIT ONE - Stress as a bodily response / J / K / L
Understand the major components of the body’s immune system.
It creates a barrier that prevents antigens (bacteria, viruses etc.) entering the body.
If an antigen enters the body, the immune system detects it and eliminates it quickly.
Various cells (leucocytes) of the immune system seek to detect and eliminate antigens. These include B cells in the bone marrow and T cells which travel elsewhere.
Outline research findings into the effects of stress on the immune system, e.g. Cohen et al. (1993), Kiecolt-Glaser et al. (1984)
How Cohen studied stress and illness: a correlation
He matched levels of stress (on a stress index measured by questionnaires) with the chance of developing a common cold.
Findings
Cohen found a significant correlation: the chance of developing a cold was greater when the stress level was higher.
How Kiecolt-Glaser studied stress and illness: a natural experiment
She used a naturally occurring situation – 75 medical students preparing for the end of first-year exams. Blood tests were taken a month before and on the day of the exam to measure the level of Killer-T cells and compare them.
Findings
Kieocolt-Glaser found that the immune system was significantly reduced in the high stress samples. She also found that students who reported being lonely had the greatest reductions.
Kiecolt-Glaser also carried out a Field experiment which compared healing time in stressed and not-so-stressed participants. Include the details here if you think you might like to refer to this study.
Procedure
Findings
UNIT ONE
Discuss some of the methodological problems involved in studying the effects of stress on the immune system / J / K / L
1. Questionnaires: were used as part of Cohen’s study and Kiecolt-Glaser’s study.
Problems with using questionnaires include:
1. Self-report techniques such as questionnaires rely on people being honest. Sometimes people distort the truth due to social desirability bias, e.g. they may not want to make themselves look too stressed as they may think this puts them in a negative light with the researchers (they might fear looking weak). This may affect the reliability of the questionnaires as results will be inaccurate.
2. Questionnaires often require participants to be retrospective (i.e. report things relating to the past). However, memories may be distorted, or even missing. This will also affect the reliability.
If asked about ethical issues it is important to note that
Some participants may feel that their privacy is being invaded by certain questions about their health or stress in their life. This may make them feel uncomfortable about answering the questions.
2. Correlations
Correlations have been used by Cohen and by Rahe (Life-changing units (LCUs) correlated with days off sick)
Problems with using correlations include:
1. Cause and effect cannot be established. A correlation only shows a relationship between stress and illness. It could be that the illness causes the stress rather than the other way round. This can’t be identified in a correlational study.
2. A correlation shows a relationship between two co-variables e.g. levels and illness. However, there could be a third variable having an effect which isn’t accounted for (for example, the person’s life-style may be a cause of illness if they smoke and drink excessively rather than the LCUs)
3. Experiments
It is difficult to use laboratory experiments using humans to study stress and illness as it would be unethical to manipulate stressful situations.
This means that researchers have to use
Field Experiments and natural experiments. The advantage of this is that they have better ecological validity because they are carried out in real-life situations, but
Problems with field and natural experiments include:
Other variables (apart from the ones being studied) cannot easily be controlled. For example in Kiecolt-Glaser’s field experiment using carers and non-carers there may have been other stressful events in the lives of the non-carers which had an effect on their immune system.
In Kiecolt-Glaser’s natural experiment with medical students there was no direct manipulation of the independent variable (exam stress).
UNIT TWO – Stress in Everyday life: Life changes and daily hassles / J / K / L
Understand the strengths and weaknesses of questionnaire measures of life changes.
Rahe et al. (1970) used questionnaires to measure the LCUs (Life changing units) of navy personnel in the 6 months prior to their tour of duty.
Strengths
Rahe and his colleagues were able to collect information via questionnaires from a large sample of participants (over 2 and ½ thousand people took part). This would have been much more difficult if each participant had been interviewed.
Weaknesses
see problems as related to Cohen and Kiecolt-Glaser’s studies and relate them to Rahe et al. (1970
Add more if you wish
These evaluative points can also be applied to research into daily hassles.
UNIT TWO – Stress in Everyday life: Life changes and daily hassles / J / K / L
Outline research findings linking life stress to health and illness, e.g. Holmes and Rahe (1967), Rahe et al. (1970).
1. Holmes and Rahe (1967) found that a high score of 150 or more on the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) increases the chances of a stress-related illness by 30 percent.
A score of over 300 increases the chances by 50 percent.
2. Rahe (1970) found a significant positive correlation of 0.118 between LCU scores and illness.
Evaluate the studies in terms of methodological and ethical issues.
1. Holmes and Rahe (1967)
Methodological issues:
i) The main issue is that this study was carried out in the US and so the events and how they were rated would have been culturally specific.
ii) there was no objective assessment of the degree of adjustment necessary, they relied on participants’ opinions and these may have differed.
Ethical issues:
1. There may be some distress in recalling traumatic life events.
2. Questions about life changes may also be considered by some participants to be an invasion of their privacy
2. Rahe et al. (1970)
Methodological issues:
i) the study used male US personnel and results are therefore gender and culturally specific and should be generalised to other groups only with caution.
ii) Retrosprective self-report questionnaires were used which could have been unreliable. These rely on memory and honesty (see Cohen and Kiecolt-Glaser),
iii) All illness outcomes were recorded and there was no discrimination between illnesses which may be directly related to life event stress and those which may not.
iv) This was a correlational study and cannot determine cause. Correlations are useful when the investigator cannot manipulate the independent variable, but can only show a relationship between two co-variables.
Ethical issues:
1. There may be some distress in recalling traumatic life events.
2. Questions about life changes may also be considered by some participants to be an invasion of their privacy.
Understand the significance of differences between life events and daily hassles as a source of stress.
Life events are things which change our lives (to varying degrees) e.g. marriage, change of job etc.
Hassles affect us on a daily basis, e.g. environment such as noise, heat, overcrowding etc., traffic jams
Research has shown that scores on hassles scales correlate with stress-related problems especially anxiety and depression. Hassles may be more significant than life events according to some research (Kanner; DeLongis) especially if they are frequent and important to us. Many daily hassles relate to the work that people do.
UNIT THREE - Workplace stress / J / K / L
Understand the range of workplace stress.
A number of stressors involved in the workplace include:
i) decision latitude (freedom to make decisions or not – amount of control)
ii) role ambiguity – not sure about role
iii) workload (too much or too little to do)
iv) environmental issues (noise, temperature, overcrowding)
add your own
Outline the methods, results, and implications of Marmot et al’s (1997) Whitehall II study.
Method
Survey using self-report questionnaires
Results
Civil servants in the lower grade jobs had 1.5 times more heart disease than those in the higher grades. Risk factors such as smoking, obesity and hypertension were taken into account. The most significant factor was the degree of control (decision latitude) people felt they had.
Conclusion
A person’s perception of how much they can control their situation in the workplace is a strong determinant of how much stress they experience which may have an effect on their health (in this case, coronary heart disease).
Evaluate the study in terms of its strengths and weaknesses.
i) Self-report questionnaires were used (see problems associated with these)
ii) The participants were all government civil servants. This is a biased sample and makes it difficult to generalise findings to others.
Understand the principles behind managing stress in the workplace.
I) Give employees some control (or even the illusion of it) so that they feel they can make decisions about their work (e.g. staff consultation).
ii) Ensure that heat, lighting, space etc. are adequate to good.
iii) Adjust work overload so that it is neither too great or too small.
iv) Provide opportunities for social networking so that employees have social support
Add other ideas here
UNIT FOUR - Personality factors / J / K / L
Describe the Type A behaviour pattern (TAB)
· Competitive - always achievement oriented, plays to win
· Aggressive
· Pressurised by time (in a hurry) – likely to multi-task, work to deadlines, unhappy doing nothing,
· Determined to get what they want
· Hostile – easily irritated and impatient with co-workers, easily angered (can be directed at self)
Understand and evaluate research findings linking TAB to vulnerability to stress-related coronary heart disease (CHD).
Research outline Roshenman et al. (1976) (Longitudinal study)
studied over 3,000 middle-aged men on the west coast of the US.
Used a structured interviews, questionnaires and observations to categorise as Type A or B (Type B is chilled and more relaxed than Type A – NOT ambitious, hostile, pressurised etc.)
-They were ALL healthy at the start of the study.
-The interviewer noted behavioural signs of Type A behaviour: rapid finger tapping on the table, restlessness and the pace of talking. Using these observations along with the answers to the questions the participants were categorised for personality type.
-The participants were followed up for 8 ½ years. During that time there were 257 heart attacks. 69% of these were in the Type A group.
Rosenman et al. concluded that the TAB was vulnerable to heart disease.
Evaluation
-The study was culturally and gender specific so it is difficult to generalise the findings.
-There are many individual and lifestyle variables which can also affect vulnerability to CHD.
-The study controlled for some of these such as obesity and smoking, but other confounding variables may have been missed.
-The study was high in ecological validity but, because of this, may lack control.
Describe the characteristics of hardiness
Hardiness - Kobasa (1979) was interested in factors that might protect people from the effects of stress. The three basic elements to hardiness:
y Control: the idea that you can influence events in life including stressors
y Commitment: the individual’s sense of involvement and purpose in life
y Challenge: the idea that changes in life should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a source of stress.
UNIT FIVE - Coping with stress / J / K / L
Be aware of the range of coping styles used in stressful situations.
EMOTION-FOCUSED COPING – trying to feel better about the situation
Some emotion-focused strategies include:
y Keeping yourself busy to take your mind off the issue
y Letting off steam to other people
y Distracting yourself, for example by eating or watching TV
ADD YOUR IDEAS
PROBLEM-FOCUSED COPING –actively doing something to deal with the situation
Some problem-focused strategies include:
y Seeking advice from friends or professionals
y Investigating alternative plans
y Getting information, for example from the internet
ADD YOUR IDEAS
Note that social support can involve either coping strategy depending on how friends are used, i.e. for information or for emotional support. Be specific if you refer to this.
Understand the differences between emotion-focused and problem-focused coping methods.
In general, problem-focused coping removes the stressor and deals with the root of the problem (making a revision timetable and sticking to it)
Emotion-focused coping targets how we feel. Watching a good comedy makes us laugh and takes our mind off things.
Describe situations where one approach may be more adaptive than the other.
People tend to use a mixture of emotion- and problem-focused strategies in situations, although there are some situations where one or other approach is better. For example:
Where it is possible to do something about a situation, problem-focused strategies seem to be better e.g. Desmond (2007) found that emotion-focused strategies were less effective for men dealing with the loss of a limb than problem-focused ones.