FINAL EXAM STRESS Flashcards

Question

why is it important to know the prevalence rate of stress

Answer 1

Significant public health concern help healthcare professionals and policymakers to understand the scope of the problem Develop strategies and prevention methods to reduce stress related disorders Improve productivity in the workplace Better understanding of it from mental health problems Individual awareness about the prevalence of stress can be used to indicate if a behaviour is increasing

Answer 2

Stress is expressed and felt differently by everyone, many different factors that come into play, also influenced by culture That is why it is hard to measure its prevalence

Answer 3

Higher prevalence of elevated stress levels in women compared to men Higher perceived levels of stress Higher levels of stress related health complaints May it be reporting bias? Do they just report more stress Has been shown that men rate their self esteem as higher in general Greater amygdala reactivity in women Locus of control (whether a person believes if they have control over their lives) women have a more external locus of control: feel less control over their stressors. Girls have higher rates of self-reported stress, men experience higher levels of acute stress Testosterone might be the reason men have increased physiological responses to stress testosterone might increase acute stress responses to any stressor that threatens or challenges social status

Answer 4

Klonoff et al Aim: To explore whether reported differences in anxiety disorders, depression, and somatic symptoms/disorders between males and females are due to gender-specific stressors. 255 students, state university, wide age range Anonymous questionnaire: Hopkins Symptom Checklist Gives scores on 5 disorders: anxiety, depression, OCD, interpersonal sensitivity and somatization And a total symptoms score Female participants completed schedule of sexist events questionnaire to measure the frequency of discriminatory or sexist events experienced by women in their lives and in the past year Results: women scored significantly higher on average than men on all symptom measures except for the obsessive-compulsive measure total-symptom score was significantly higher Women with higher SSE scores had higher stress symptoms scores Women with low SSE scores did not differ significantly from men Therefore only the women who had a high SSE score had significantly larger scores Evaluation: Strengths: Questionnaire was including specific questions on physical disorders unrelated to stress to filter out those inclined to report a higher frequency of everything → minimise reporting bias researchers also controlled for ethnicity, marital status, age, education, and income differences, again, finding no significant effect on results Results support prior research on the same topic, suggesting the results are reliable Limitations: All participants were from the same university, which is not necessarily representative of a larger population More women than men participating in the study → could affect the results The Schedule of Sexist Events scale is not made for men yet, so the research does not address sexist discrimination experienced by men This does not replace any type of clinical diagnosis Still a risk of reporting bias → self reported data Demand characteristics, since it is a questionnaire

Answer 5

Stress and culture/location Style of life Climate and weather → sunlight, temperature etc Safety → crime, natural disasters Economic safety (healthcare, retirement etc) Socioeconomic status Cultural norms and values Work culture How tight the family dynamic is Stigma around mental health in that particular country

Answer 6

Faresjo et al Aim: to investigate whether stress levels measured by cortisol concentrations in hair were different between comparable Greek and Swedish young adults, considering the fact that Greece had been significantly more affected by the recent economic and social crisis than Sweden. Researchers conducted a cross-sectional study among young adults from Greece (124 people )and Sweden (112 people) all university students recruited from their local university All participants were required to answer a questionnaire and give hair samples. The questionnaire included questions on drug use, medications, serious life events (i.e. divorce, death in the family, unemployment), health status, and hope for the future. It also included translated versions of The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD) and the Perceived Self-Rated Stress Scale. Levels of cortisol in hair were measured in a laboratory. Results: The Greek sample reported significantly more experiences of serious life events, higher perceived stress, higher scores on the depression and anxiety scales, lower scores for hope for the future, and more daily smoking no differences between the Greeks and Swedes were found concerning self-reported health After adjustments for differences in sex and age distribution, it was found that Greek cortisol levels were significantly lower than comparable Swedish levels. There is clearly a strong relationship between a number of social stressors in Greece and higher perceived levels of stress For the lower levels of cortisol, that can be adapted to the GAS (general adaptation syndrome) (describes the physiological changes the body experiences when under stress: alarm, resistance and exhaustion) Evaluation: Strengths: Results were significant after careful control of variables and procedures Use two methods: questionnaire and use of empirical evidence give traction to the hypothesis of a possible biological mechanism through which cortisol levels might be suppressed after living in a stressful economic and social environment Limitations: sample was not representative of the overall population of either country, as it was only college-aged students from a single university within that country Not equal number of males and females within each sample correlational nature of the data, no establishment of cause and effect other possible explanations for lower levels of cortisol in the Greek participants: warmer climate, more sunlight and other

Answer 7

Stress and race: Stereotypes Race related violence Minority feeling Discrimination Also depends on the country where the study is done Socioeconomic factors

Answer 8

Chae et al Aim: To test whether the combination of more frequent reports of racial discrimination and holding a greater implicit anti-black racial bias is associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) among African-American men shorter LTL is associated with several chronic diseases of ageing and earlier mortality Method: 92 African American men From the San Francisco area in the United States brief face-to-face interview and had a minimally invasive physical exam to gather a dried blood sample by blotting people’s fingers on a piece of paper multiple times also took the IAT (Implicit Association Test) to identify possible implicit racial biases, and a computer-assisted self-interview that gathered information on experiences of racial discrimination, psychological factors, and socioeconomic measures Telomere length was measured twice for each participant, from DNA extracted from the dried blood samples Results: Only six participants (6.5%) reported not experiencing discrimination in any of the situations presented in the interview, other instances included: police, court system, getting a job, discrimination at work itself 37% had IAT scores indicative of an implicit anti-black bias participants with a pro-black bias as shown by the IAT, there was a slight positive correlation between racial discrimination and LTL among those with an anti-black bias, there was a negative correlation between racial discrimination and LTL high discrimination experienced was correlated with shorter telomere length. supports the idea that African-American men who have internalised a negative racial self-view might have a harder time psychologically and physiologically coping with the stress of racial discrimination, which in turn, can have detrimental effects on their physical health Evaluation: Limitations: Only applicable to that specific population in that specific are, low cross cultural validity Cross sectional design: limited ability to infer cause and effect Worse health associated with LTL could result in greater perception of racial discrimination → bidirectional ambiguity Other socioeconomic/cultural factors cannot be accounted for Strengths: Supports theories about minority stress, discrimination and poor health Socioeconomic factors affect biological ageing Empirical evidence: measuring telomere length Increase reliability

Answer 9

Limitations of using prevalence rate: By the time appropriate data is collected and analysed the conclusions recommendations derived from these analysis may be out of date Sample sizes may not be large enough to compensate for error in measurement Self reported data, as well as clinical diagnosis may not be reliable

Answer 10

Research studies to use (taken from the ones above): Coan, Schaefer & Davidson's Experiment Triangulation: questionnaire + experiment Marmot et al Huge questionnaire

Answer 11

Chae et al: Possible indue psychological harm (remembering traumatic events) and the thing with the finger and the blood Coan, Schaefer & Davidson's Possible undue stress and harm (threat of electric shock)

FINAL EXAM STRESS Flashcards

(35 cards)