Stress and moderators of the stress experience

Psychology 3121 - Chapters 6 + 7

Stress

• negative emotional experience that causes predictable changes in our

  • biochemistry

  • physiology

  • cognition

  • behavior

• changes are aimed to change a stressful situation and deal with the effects of the stressful situation

• influenced by how a person interpret a situation

Why stress is important

• good example of mind-body relationship

• shows how our health is affected by our …

  • perceptions

  • behaviors

  • physical and social environment

  • individual characteristics

Stressors

• event or situation that we perceive as stressful

• can be almost anything

Individual differences

• not everyone experiences stress the same way

• stress for someone might be exciting/enjoyable for someone else

  • need to consider factors inside the individual not just the event itself

Appraisal

• how you interpret or evaluate a situation

  • asking yourself if you have enough resources to handle the situation

Person-environment fit

• the degree to which a person’s needs and resources match the needs and resources of their environment

  • do i have what i need to handle what is being asked of me?

Enough resources in the person-environment fit

• experience little stress

• see situation as a challenge instead

Adequate resources but requires effort in the person-environment fit

• moderate amount of stress

• feel confident that you can succeed

• still needs to put in effort

Resources are not enough in the person-environment fit

• high stress

• what you have/know is not going to help you get through what’s in front of you

Fight-or-flight model

• when we perceive a threat our body becomes activated through the sympathetic nervous system and then endocrine system

• activation prepares us to

  • fight the threat

  • run away from the threat

• takes us away from homeostasis and allows us to deal with the threat

• parasympathetic nervous system helps come the body down

Homeostasis

• normal balanced state of the body

Modern stress

• many social things

  • arguments

  • school pressure

  • social situations

• acting more aggressively

• withdrawing from others

Main problem with fight-or-flight

• prolonged stress can keep system activated too often

• negatively affects

  • psychological and emotional functioning

  • physical health

Hans Selye

• considered the father of stress research

• involved rats not people

• developed GAS

Selye’s research

• exposed rats to different stressors

  • pain, cold, sleep deprivation

• stressors were different but rats shows similar patterns of responses

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

• experience a stress and the body mobilizes for action

• physiological response is generally the same regardless of the type of stressors

Three stages of GAS

• alarm phase

• resistance phase

• exhaustion phase

Alarm phase of GAS

• body mobilizes itself to face the threat

• stress response is activated

Resistance phase of GAS

• body tries to cope with the threat

• happens through

  • behavioral responses

    • confrontation

  • physiological responses

    • returning to homeostasis

Exhaustion phase of GAS

• happens when the threat is not overcome and the body’s physiological resources have depleted

Criticisms of GAS

• mostly physiological and doesn’t focus on psychological factors

• based mainly on rats

• assumes everyone responds to stress in the same way when individual differences matter

• model suggest that stress occurs in exhaustion stage but we are actually experiences stress the whole time we are dealing with the stressors

  • doesn’t explain stress that people experience before a stressful event happens

Tend-and-befriend theory

• responding to stress through social and nurturing behaviors

• when stressed, seek out and connect with other people

  • social support/connections

  • connect with and take care of others

• especially common in women

Historical explanation of why T&B Theory is more common in women

• women used to forge and watch the kids

• in times of stress that could not run away

• have to be adaptive so they engaged in behavior to seek social contact during stress

Biological explanation of why T&B Theory is more common in women

• oxytocin increases affiliative/social behaviors

• it promotes calmness and relaxation

  • effects are influenced by estrogen

Cognitive transaction model of stress

• stress depends heavily on psychological appraisal

• stress is the relationship between a person and the environment where the person evaluates the situation as taxing or harmful to their well-being

  • primary appraisal

  • secondary appraisal

Primary appraisal

• evaluating the situation itself

  • whether it is positive, negative, or neutral

  • whether is involves harm, threats, or challenges

Harm

• damage that has already happened

Threat

• damage that could happen in the future

Challenge

• something that may be difficult but that we may be able to overcome and benefit from

Secondary appraisal

• evaluating your coping abilities and resources

• compare our resources with the

  • harm, threat, and challenge of the situation

High resoruces and strong coping skills in CTMS

• more able to handle stressful events

• less stress

High harm/threat and few coping skills in CTMS

• difficult to deal with the event

• more stress

Stress in CTMS

• occurs when an event is harmful, threatening, or challenging and we don’t feel like we have enough resources to deal with it

Responses to stress in CTMS

• physiological responses

  • heart rate up

  • sweating

  • sympathetic NS activation

• cognitive responses

  • narrowed focus

  • increased awareness towards threats

• emotional responses

  • fear/anxiety

  • embarrassment

  • anger

  • excitement

• behavioral responses

  • depend on type of stressors

    • fight-or-flight

    • tend-and-befriend

Reactivity

• degree of change that happens in the body when we experience stress

  • autonomic, neurendocrine, and immune responses

• based on genetics and environmental factors

Health effects of reactivity

• lower reactivity = less likely to get sick

  • may be related to immune functioning

• high reactivity = reduced immune response

  • more depressive symptoms

Recovery from stress

• people differ in how quickly they can do this

• genetics and environment influence how well we recover from stress

  • being unable to suggest that chronic stress has already causes damage to the body

Allostasis

• the body’s systems changing to meet the demands of stress

Allostatic load

• the accumulating harmful effects of stress, combined with existing risks, on the body’s stress-regulation systems

  • lead to decreased immunity

  • increased epinephrine, blood pressure

  • memory problems

Stress and aging

• stress leads to us looking more aged

• allostatic load is a form of accelerated aging cause by stress

Things that make an event stressful

• depends on how we appraise it

  • negative events

  • uncontrollable/unpredictable events

  • ambiguous events

    • need more mental energy because we have to figure out what is happening and decide how to respond

  • being overloaded

    • more things to do the more chances to experience stress

Can people adapt to stress?

• depends on the type of stressors

• the person’s subjective experience of stress

• which type of stress they are experiencing

  • psychological or physiological

Psychological adaptation to stress

• generally can adapt well

• when stressors are

  • mild

  • predictable

Physiological adaptation to stress

• low stress = can often adapt

• more intense stress = more likely to cause chronic strain/lasting damage

Groups that have trouble adapting to stress

• kids

• seniors

• lower-SES individuals

  • have less control over their environments

  • may already experience high levels of stress

When stressors lead to stress

• during an event

• before an event

  • anticipation can be just as stressful as the event itself

• after an event

  • causes decreases in performance and attention

  • can sometimes be more harmful than the stress experienced during the event

Ways to study stress

• laboratory studies

• stressful life events

• daily hassles

Laboratory studies

• experimental research in a lab

• acute stress paradigm

Acute stress paradigm

• participants come into a lab

• research tells them they have to complete an unexpected and stressful task

• creates an acute (short-term) stressor

What the acute stress paradigm test shows

• shows a person is experiencing a stress response

• acute stressors cause

  • physiological distress

  • sympathetic NS activity

  • neuroendocrine responses

• allows us to identify

  • what situations cause a stress response

  • factors that affect the strength of the stress response

Stressful life events

• more major changes a person has to make because of an event, the more likely the event is to cause stress

  • death of a loved one

  • getting fired

  • moving to a new house

• more stressful when they have to make large changes to their life

Social readjustment rating scale

• list of stressful life events

• events are ranked based on how much change or adjustment they require from a person

• things that require majors changes to all aspects of someone’s life have a higher point value then something small that is just inconvenient

Changes to the social readjustment rating scale

• updated 35 years later to better reflect modern values

• social and societal values had changed over time

  • moves things up or down and changed how many points each thing was worth

Stress and health

• found links between stressful life events and illness

  • acute and chronic illness

  • cancer prognosis

    • how good or bad the expected future outcome is

Problems with stressful life events scales

• different people may experience the same event very differently

• major event may not feel that stressful to someone

• scale assumes that the amount of life changes tells us how stressful something is

  • not used as much anymore

Daily hassles

• everyday stressors

  • stuck in traffic

  • waiting in line

  • losing phone

  • having to make a hard choice

• small events but can still affect our health

Effects of daily hassles

• reduce psychological well-being

• cause physical symptoms

  • increase allostatic load over time which makes us more vulnerable to illness

• lead to unhealthy behaviors

  • unhealthy eating, smoking

• make major stress worse

  • major stressor can be made worse if we experience minor stressor on top of it

Problems with studying daily hassles

• more likely to report daily hassles because they already have high levels of anxiety/stress

• will have more distress when these events happen

• cannot tell if the daily hassles are causing distress or the existing anxiety is making them report the hassles more negatively

Chronic strain

• ongoing effects of stress that continue over time

• make us less able to handle new stressful events when they occur

Sources of chronic stress

• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• early life stressors

• chronic stressful conditions

• bullying

• workplace stress

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• severely traumatic/stressful events having long-term effects

• lead to long-term stress and chronic strain

  • war

  • natural disaster

  • man-made disasters (9/11)

Early life stressors

• stress experienced early in life and have long-term effects

  • childhood abuse

  • growing up in family with conflict, no warmth or nurturing

How family environment affects stress

• can influence how a person

  • pays attention to threats

  • appraises threats

  • responses to stress

• can teach a person less effective ways of dealing with stress

Stress before birth

• if mother experiences significant stress during pregnancy it can affect the developing baby

  • some developmental delays

  • intellectual delays

  • low birth weight

Chronic stressful conditions

• living in situations that are continuously stressful

• can contribute to psychological distress and physical illness

  • living in poverty

  • harmful/abusive relationship

  • high-stress job

  • job insecurity

Bullying

• repeated acts intended to harm someone over time

• can happen at

  • school

  • work

  • home

  • sports

Types of bullying

• physical

  • physical actions that intended to harm someone

• verbal

  • harmful words or comments

• social

  • harm through social relationships

Different forms of bullying someone

• direct

  • face-to-face

• indirect

  • happens behind someone’s back

Effects of prolonged bullying

• men who are bullied as kids, show greater physiological stress response compared to men who weren’t

• associated with

  • depression

  • alcohol use

  • burnout

  • various physical health symptoms

Cyber bullying

• bullying that occurs through the internet or social media

  • can remain anonymous

  • victim may feel that everyone they know can see the embarrassing content

Workplace stress

• physical hazards

• work overload

• role conflict

• social relationships

• control

• job insecurity

• work-life balance

Physical hazards

• people exposed to physical, chemical, and biological hazards on the job

• puts physical health and stress/psychological distress at risk

• repetitive stress injuries can also increase stress

Overload

• work overload

  • too much work to do

• role overload

  • too many different job demands

• stress depends on person’s perception of how overloaded they are

Karoshi

• japanese word that means death from overwork

Role conflict

• employee receives conflicting information about their work tasks and standards from different people in the workplace

• leads too…

  • role ambiguity - uncertainty about what is expected

  • role conflict - expectations are not matching up

• both increase stress

Social relationships

• can have positive or negative effects on work stress

• good social relationships can reduce the impact of workplace stress

  • can lower stress causes by work overload and low control

• negative social relationships can increase job-related distress

Control

• little control over your work can lead to more stress

• jobs with… lead to job stain

  • high psychological demands

  • low control

• can negatively affect health, including increasing the risk for coronary artery disease

Job insecurity

• uncertainty about whether you will have employment in the future

• unemployed people generally have more stress than employed people

  • negatively affect psychological and physical well-being

Work-life balance

• trying to manage multiple roles in our lives

  • worker

  • parent

  • partner

  • friend

  • family member

• work-family conflict leads to lots of stress

• having a healthy balance can help reduce stress

Stress moderators

• internal and external resources and vulnerabilities that change how we experience stress and how strongly it affects us

• affects…

  • how good or bad our experience with stress is

  • how strongly stress contributes to illness

Coping

• the thought and behaviors we use to manage internal and external demands that we see as stressful or as taxing/exceeding our resources

  • dynamic relationship with stress, always changing