Stress Flashcards
(40 cards)
Define stress.
Experiencing events or situations that are perceived as endangering physical of psychological well-being, feeling under pressure or threatened.
What are the three different models of stress?
Stimulus - causes us to do something
Response - what we de when stressed
Interaction - can’t cope with other things do to stress
What are stressors?
What are the different types?
Things that cause stress.
Acute - daily hassle, catastrophe
Chronic - occupational stress, conflict and prolonged circumstances such as illness and poverty
How do we measure stress?
Daily hassle scale - 117 everyday events, exams parking and goals.
Social readjustment rating scale - rare life changing catastrophic events such as grief or divorce.
How does stress arousal affect performance?
Yerkes-Dodson Law Bell Curve
Slight increase in stress - increases attention and interest
Medium stress - causes optimum arousal and performance
Too much stress - impaired performance because of anxiety.
What is the Daily Hassle Scale?
A self questionnaire, rating how often each event in a list of 117 occurs in your life.
This indicators how many stressors you are exposed to.
Mainly acute stressors.
What is the social readjustment rating scale?
Patients tick to show how many events in a list they have experienced in a year from a list of 43.
Each event has a specific Life Change Unit score, total score shows the likelihood of chronic stress in a person life based on their experiences.
How does the social readjusment rating scale link to illness?
In those scoring over 300 70% are likely to experience ill health in the upcoming year (higher risk than other groups)
Score has a positive correlation with the risk of illness.
What are the limitations of the social readjustment rating scale?
Only one year of life does not consider events before this.
Just because an event is on this list doesn’t mean an individual would have found it as stressful.
No recognition of the level of support and coping mechanisms
Cultural influence on the list of events includes, some cultures may count different events as stressful that may or may not be included in the list.
Shows only correlation only causation.
How can the response model of stress to used to measure stress?
Measure the physical reaction of the body, measuring the stress reactivity (the flight or fight response or stress response)
What were the early stress response experiments?
What are the negatives?
Use of animals that were stressed out, e.g in the predator and measured the physiological stress response.
-ve cognitive ability of animal is less than humans, so harder to extrapolate out.
What are the two different stress physiological pathways?
1) Neuroendocrine immune pathway (HPA axis)
2) Sympathetic nervous pathway (fight or flight response)
What is the sympathetic nervous pathway of stress response?
Threat triggers an instantaneous hormonal change.
Hypothalamus activates the SNS via the ANS for the adrenal gland to produce adrenaline and noradrenaline.
Increases HR,BP and blood glucose levels.
Digestive system is inhibited
How does cortisol link to the sympathetic nervous system pathway?
Cortisol keeps the sympathetic nervous system maintained.
When cortisol level decreases the parasympathetic nervous system is activated.
What is the HPA axis in the stress response?
Hypothalamus releases CRF
Triggers the anterior pituitary gland to produce ACTH
Causes the adrenal gland to produce cortisol.
On a clinical level the HPA axis is associated with…..
Decreased immune system functioning
Chronic stress
Therefore is of more interest that the sympathetic nervous system.
How does cortisol affect inflammation?
Is an anti-inflammatory short term.
Is a pro-inflammatory in the the long term, due to deregulated immune system.
What are some ways to measure the stress as a response?
What are the limitations of these measures?
Endocrine system: Level of ACTH and cortisol
Cardiovascular system : BP and heart rate
Skin conductance: Sweat glands, controlled by SNS
Immune system: number of leukocytes and antibodies
Correlation between measures and the degree of stress show very little correlation
What are the difficulties of linking stress to the immune system function?
Unsure if causal or correlation relationship.
Does not consider individual varriances in…
Personality - greater tendency for anxiety
Behaviour - what we do when stressed, coping mechanism
Use of health services, detect decrease in immunity.
Processes are not fully understood.
Explain how chronic exposure to cortisol can result in inflammation.
Cortisol binds to Glucocortioc receptors (GR receptors).
Prolonged or excessive exposure to cortisol causes a build up in resistance or down regulation of these receptors.
Means anti-inflammatory signal of cortisol is not received by the body.
How was the link between stress and the common cold identified by experiment?
Pre-stress levels were measured by a questionnaire.
Split into control group who were exposed to saline drops and and a test group exposed to cold virus.
Pre and post neuroendocrine and immune system function measurements were taken.
Increased stress volunteers were more likely to develop the common cold.
How was the link between wounds and stress found?
Students were split into two groups, given a small skin wound.
A) during summer vacation
B) Prior to exams
B - those given during exams took three days long to heal.
How is life event research used in relation to stress?
Identify chronic stress
Explores the relationship between potentially stressful life events and ill health.
Burns et al (2003) saw that students with mode major life events hence stress had a smaller antibody production from the influenza vaccination.
The HPA axis is considered a cascade of ….
hormones
