Stress Flashcards
What are stressors?
Things that trigger the stress response (they can be life changes or daily hassles) eg forgetting your homework
Taylor et al
2000, found that men show a fight of flight response to stress whereas women show a tend or befriend. Women are more social and tend to be more nurturing than men, the difference is the level of oxytocins. This is a hormone that both genders produce and high levels are associated with sociability and low levels of anxiety. Male hormones suppress it whereas women’s hormones (oestrogen) amplify it making men more vulnerable to stress related disorders.
Murrucho
1998, tested the immune systems effectiveness wen placed under stress. They created a puncture biopsy on students 3 days before an exam or in the summer holidays and found that those biopsied before the exam took 40% longer to heal.
What year was kiecolt glasers study into chronic stress conducted and briefly describe what happened.
1995, compared high stress Alzheimer careers against people with low stress but the same age and income, found they took 9 days (24%) longer to heal, had lower levels of cytokines and felt more stressed generally.
What year was kiecolt glasers study into acute stress conducted and what did they find?
1984, medical students had lower levels of nk cells in their blood the day of the exam then they did a month before it showing that stress has an adverse affect on the immune system.
Segerstrom and Miller
2004, meta analysis 293 studies over 50 years
1) short term stress is beneficial to the immune system as it prepares its self for fight
2) long term stress has a bad effect to the immune system and can weaken it
3) the longer the stress goes on for the more the adaptive changes in the body turn to detrimental changes.
Miller et al (pets)
1992, men see pets as hassles whereas women see pets as uplifts.
Evaluation of glasers chronic stress study.
carers would be stressed, valid
carers can’t be generalised to everyone
imperial data was collected
concurrent validity and as all 3 measures matched up
not all factors were considered when picking matched pairs
What are life changes?
Major changes in life (such as marriage or bereavement) that require a transition in some aspects of life and can be a source of stress.
Describe a type A personality.
Some one who is competitive and is very much a believer in quantity over quality, they tend to do several things at the same time in order to get plenty done. High levels of stress hormones and hostility/aggression can lead to increase blood pressure and increase chances of heart attacks.
Impatient and aggressive, hard driving and more likely to smoke and have high cholesterol.
Describe a type B personality.
Calm, seldom angry or irritable.
Not competitive and is not driven by rewards.
Relaxed in attitudes and behaviour.
What is stress?
The subjective experience that is a lack of fit between a person and their environment (eg the perceived ability to cope is lower than the perceived demands of the situation)
