Stress

Question 1

What are the physiological explanations of stress? (pathways)

Answer 1

Acute stress:
Stressor > Amygdala > Hypothalamus > Pituitary gland > Sympathetic NS > Adrenal medulla > (Nor)adrenaline > Fight or flight response > increase heart/breathing rate > Parasympathetic NS
Chronic stress:
Hypothalamus > Pituitary glans > Adrenal cortex > ACTH > Corticosterioids > Release glucose from liver and suppresses immune system (Immunosuppresion)

Question 2

What are the physiological explanations of stress (GAS)

Answer 2

General Adaptation Syndrome was designed by Selye who said that stress is a body’s attempt to adapt to a stressful stimulus. This protects the body from acute stress (short term), but can cause harm and illness to the body if chronic (prolonged)
GAS consists of 3 stages:
Alert = Fight or Flight response to acute stress through the sympatho-medullary pathway (Neural repsonse)
Resistance = Endocrine system maintains ForF response for chronic stress through Pituitary-adrenal pathway (Hormonal response)
Exhaustion = The body can no longer resist the stressor and its resources are depleted, can cause severe illness

Question 3

What are the strengths and limits of the physiological explanations of stress?

Answer 3

Pathways:
+ Practical application (Addison’s disease - role of cortisol)
- Reductionist (fixation on Biological reasons)
GAS:
+ Research support (Selye found rats developed the same symptoms when exposed to stimuli)
- Counter: Researcher bias
- Alternative research (Mason recorded that it depends on the type of stressor in monkeys)

Question 4

What was Kanner et als key study

Answer 4

investigated factors that are more stressful, daily hassles or major life events
developed a 117 item hassle scale and 145 uplift scale
100 american ppts 52 men, 48 women, all white middle class had to circle the events in terms of severity of stress
Findings:
hassles scale tended to have more stress problems
such as anxiety rather than the SRRS
Uplits had a positive effect

Question 5

Disadvantages for Kanners et al study (1981)

Answer 5

culturally biased - american
economic socially biased

Question 6

what did Rahe et al do (1970)

Answer 6

used a slightly adapted version of the SSRS to investigate relationship between stress and illness (measuing life changes as a source of stress)
264 men naval american US navy
required for military experiences
were asked to complete SRE events
Findings:
Rahe et al found a positive colleration between LCU score and illness score of 118

Question 7

Advantages and disadvantages for Rahe et als study (1970)

Answer 7

+ large sample so more representative
+ longitudinal study
-ve culturally biased USA naval - less valid
-ve beta bias only men
-self report measures are subjective -> social desirability bias
-ve positive correlation therefore cant establish cause and effect
-ve lacks temporal validity

Question 8

what did Holmes and Rahe do (1967)

Answer 8

developed SSRS to research the effect of life changes on health
the scale consisted of 43 life events
each event has a score in terms of life change (LRC)
death of a sprouse is highest with 100 LRC
lowest is minor violations of the low (11 LRC)

Question 9

what are factors causing workplace stress

Answer 9

Work Environment - noise leading to distraction, concentration loss, high temperatures can cause stress - stifled

Workload - the amount of work people have to do may be stressful. it can be quantitative or qualatitive

Lack of control - feels like they are not getting caught up - overwhelmed

Question 10

what was the swedish sawmill study
(Procedure + Findings)

Answer 10

johansson et al conducted a study to see the role “lack of control”

Procedure
looked at two groups of workers
Finishers (have to produce the timber)
Cleaners - have to clean the sawmill
finishers influence the pay of all workers
compared records of absentiseem and levels of adrenaline

Findings
finishers had more days off work due to stress related ilnessess
levels of adrenaline who higher in fishers than cleaners
people in jobs that have less control get higher levels of workplace stress

Question 11

advantages and disadvantages for the Swedish sawmill study

Answer 11

+ve
personality type may have influenced the employees stress levels
type A more likely to suffer
-ve
sample size invalid as it was culturally biased because it was swedish workers therefore cant be generalised
-ve
didnt say what factor influenced their levels of stress
could have been working conditions or living environment
+ve
high ecological validity because the study was conduced in a natural work stress workplace