Stress Inoculation Programmes Flashcards
(33 cards)
What is SIT based on the assumption of?
Stress has a psychological basis and was developed by Meichenbaum in 1977.
What did Meichenbaum argue?
Just as people can become inoculated against a virus and become resistant i.e exposure to small amounts of stress can help build confidence and increase the individual’s perception that they can cope.
What is Meichenbaum’s stress management technique based on?
A cognitive behavioural approach
What did Meichenbaum believe we can’t and can change?
We are unable to chnage the causes of our stress in life but we can change how we and think about these stressors.
What did Meichenbaum believe in?
a cognitive triad of negative thinking that thoughts feelings. and behaviour are interrelated.
Give a negative example of how thoughts, feelings and behaviour are interrelated
Thought: I am going to fail my maths test
Feeling: Anxiety, upset, stress
Behaviour: avoidance, stress, dropping out of school and college
Give a positive example of how thoughts feelings and behaviour are interrelated.
Thought: I have a psychology test and I have prepared well; I hope I can rise to the challenge
Feeling: Positive attitudes and feelings
Behaviour: Approach the test, perform and achieve
What are three main phases of the stress innoculation process
- Conceptualisation
- Skills Acquisition and Practice
- Application
When were the three main phases proposed
In 1985 by Meichenbaum
Phase 1: Conceptualisation
-main cognitive component
-therapist and client establish a relationship
-client encouraged to talk about stressors and relive stressful experience
1. Analyse what was stressful about them
2. How they attempted to cope
3. Why wasn’t it successful?
4. Are there any common elements?
-client should be supported to see what current strategies are ineffective and identify things that can be changed
-encouraged to reconceptualise their problems and think about stressors as problems that can be solved.
-Meichenbaum: this process gives clients a feeling of having control
Phase 2: Skills acquisition and Practice.
Clients are taught a series of skills such as relaxation and how to make self-coping statements.
A variety of skills are taught and tailored to suit the individual’s own specific stressors. The skills can be practiced within the therapeutic setting as well as in real life. Both cognitive (thinking positively) and behavioural (learning more adaptive behaviours) skills are taught.
Phase 3: Application
Clients go out in the real world and are given opportunities to apply their newly learned coping skills in a variety of different situations. Contact with the therapist is maintained and this is an important feature of becoming ‘stress resistant.’
What does SIT target?
Both ends of the stress problem in that it considers sources of stress as well as how to cope with it and thus gets to the root of the problem.
What did Jay and Elliot study
Selected parents of 3 to 12 year old children with paediatric leukaemia undergoing treatment. One hour prior to each child’s medical procedure the parents were shown a short film of a model parent who employed self-coping statements, relaxation efforts and coping imagery rehearsal. Parents were then given an opportunity to practice these coping skills.
What did Jay and Elliot’s study show
In comparison to the control group not shown the SIT videotape SIT parents reported significantly less anxiety and well-developed coping skills
-illustrates positive effect SIT can have with patients or parents facing medical procedure and proves how effective it can be and application to different areas of life.
What did Sheehy and Horan study?
In 2014 they reviewed the effect of SIT on stress and academic performance of first year law students. Each participant received four weekly sessions and results showed that the student exposed to SIT reported less anxiety and stress over time compared to control group.
-shows that SIT is an effective strategy in education field and can be used for a wide range of problems.
What has SIT been criticised for?
Being unecessarily complex and it has been suggested that not all 3 stages of SIT are needed and that the same effectiveness could be achieved through learning and practicing coping skills (phase 2 only.) This could save time and money and offer a quicker way and a more focused way of modifying stress.
What did Moses and Hollandsworth attempt to do and how did they do it?
Attempted to separate each phase in 1985 by randomly allocating 24 people with dental phobia into one of 4 conditions.
-some exposed to conceptualisation
-some exposed to skills acquisition and practice.
What did Moses and Hollandsworth find
No significant differences between the groups in terms of anxiety levels although the participants who were exposed to practice and acquisition developed more adaptive behaviours e.g attending appointments.
What can be argued about SIT?
The second phase of SIT is more influential and conceptualisation alone is not effective in helping people overcome stress which is a weakness as additional phases in SIT may not be necessary and leads to clients paying more money than needed.
How does SIT compare to beta blockers
Compares favourably to biological treatments as SIT benefits from not having side effects associated with drug therapies as well as getting to the root of the problem. As a result the long term effects of SIT are likely to last in that they offer a model for living in direct contrast to beta blockers which simply mask physiological responses.
How does SIT compare to other psychological methods?
Foa et al 1990 explored how SIT compared to other psychological methods such as prolonged exposure
-carried out series of studies on treatment for female victims of sexual assault experiencing PTSD
-found that prolonged exposure more effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety and PTSD
-questions effectiveness of SIT compared to other approaches
-Meichenbaum suggested results lacked validity as SIT wasn’t applied properly because some phases were removed.
How can SIT cause psychological harm?
-reliving and reflecting on stressful experiences
-clients asked to identify and learn strategies to cope however process involves practice and clients must rehearse in stress invoking situations which could exacerbate client’s problem causing long-term harmful effects and is particularly apparent for clients with severe stress e.g PTSD
-however most clients the risk is potential discomfort and the long-term benefits and improvements in client’s life outweigh this.
How can SIT be used as a smokescreen in the workplace?
-many employers support their employees to reduce stress by offering SIT
-but used as a smokescreen to exploit workers
-rather than tackling stressors directly e.g workload or working conditions employers disguise themselves as caring by providing these programmes instead.
