Individual Differences in Stress Flashcards
(15 cards)
What is a type A attachment?
(What are the characteristics/what illness is more likely?)
Friedman and Rosenman (1959, 1974) suggested some people have a set of personality characteristics (hostility, competitiveness, and being time pressured) associated with stress-related illness, particularly CHD, as they increase blood pressure and levels of stress hormone
What is a type B attachment?
(What are the characteristics?)
Friedman and Rosenman labelled those less likely to show these characteristics (type A) as type B; these people are calmer, relaxed, more easy-going, and less prone to developing stress-related illnesses
What is a type C attachment?
(What are the characteristics/what illness is more likely?)
These people strongly suppress their emotions and are unassertive, cooperative, conformist, and avoid conflict. Suppressing emotions leads to an accumulation of emotional stress which increases cortisol production and immunosuppression increasing the risk of cancer
What did Friedman and Rosenman (1974) investigate?
How did they do this?
What did they find?
Whether there is a link between people with type A behaviour and an increased risk of CHD
3454 middle class Californian men free of any signs of CHD were labelled as type A or B - followed up 8 and a half years later and examined for signs of CHD
Of type A individuals 13% had suffered a heart attack and 3% were fatal whereas of type B only 6% suffered a heart attack and 1% were fatal. Type A had higher blood pressure and cholesterol levels and were more likely to smoke and have a family history of CHD
What did Morris et al (1981) investigate?
How did they do this?
What did they find?
Whether there is a link between type C behaviours and cancer
71 women in a cancer clinic were asked how often they expressed affection, unhappiness or losing control when angry to assess patterns of emotional behaviour
Women whose biopsies came back as cancerous were also found to have reported that they experienced and expressed far less anger
What is a strength of research into personality types?
Type A/B research can improve health-related outcomes. Ragland and Brand (1988) focused on heart attack survivors from original WCGS and found over several years type A heart attack survivors were more likely to change their behaviour than type B. Means data can be useful to convince type As to change their behaviour in order to live longer
What are the weaknesses of research into personality types?
1) challenging evidence for link between type A personality and CHD as a meta-analysis found that only 50% of studies found a link between type A and CHD
2) type A personality is too broad a concept to be linked to CHD and instead it may be one component and CHD
3) challenging evidence for link between type C and cancer as a link has instead been found between stressful life events and cancer suggesting environmental factors might be more important
What is hardiness?
A set of personality characteristics that defend against the negative effects of stress - gives us existential courage to real with stress and determination to keep going despite setbacks
What are the factors making up hardiness?
Control, commitment, challenge
What do people with high control do?
Believe the have control over events in their life by making things happen rather than waiting for things to happen to them, and actively striving to influence their environment
What do people with high commitment do?
See the world, people and careers as things to engage with rather than stand apart from and see their role as meaningful. Optimistic and deeply involved in relationships
What do people with high challenge do?
See life events and changes as challenges to overcome instead of threats, resilient, recognise life as unpredictable and learn from stressful situations and find them fulfilling
What did Kobasa eat al (1979) investigate?
How did they do this?
What did they find?
Whether individuals with a ‘hardy’ personality show fewer negative effects of stress
Got 800 male American middle and senior business managers to complete a schedule of recent events and record illnesses suffered during this time - 150 had high stress and of this some had a high illness score and some low (something other than stress influencing illness)
High stress/low illness = high on all three C’s but high stress/high illness =lower on three C’s - link between illness and hardiness
What is a strength into research into hardiness?
Useful practical applications as individuals who are stressed can be taught to become hardy and it has been found to be more effective than relaxation and social support in increasing job satisfaction and decreasing self-reported illness
What are the limitations of research into hardiness?
1) difficult to measure as it uses lengthy and awkwardly-worded questions and requires many different components meaning it is not clear or valid and loses accuracy
2) control, commitment, and challenge do not all seem equally important as Cohen et al (1993) suggests control is most important as people who perceive themselves in control were much less susceptible to negative effects of stress meaning other C’s may not contribute as much
