1. Chapter Six: Stress

2. Chapter Outline What is stress? Origins of the study of stress
The physiology of stress
What makes events stressful?
How has stress been studied?
Sources of chronic stress

3. Stress
“Negative emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological, cognitive, and behavioral changes”
Aimed at altering the stressful event or accommodating to its effects
Stressors: Events that cause stress

4. Fight-or-Flight Response
Hypothalamus: Starts the physiological stress response
Result - Mobilizes an organism to attack the threat or to flee
Advantage – Adaptive ?
Disadvantage - Can be harmful?

5. Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical (HPA) Activation
Repeated activation of the HPA axis will dysregulate body systems
Cardiac
Metabolic/Digestive
Immune
Growth and Repair

6. Sympathetic Activation
Sympathetic nervous system arousal
Stimulates adrenal glands
Adrenal glands secretes the catecholamines epinephrine (EP) and norepinephrine (NE)
Release of Glucocorticoids/Cortisol
Parasympathetic functioning - Becomes dysregulated in response to stress
The accelerator/brake switch ineffective

7. Studying Stress: Paradigms
Subjects given stressful tasks causing physiological arousal (sleep, arduous tasks)
Used to identify individuals most vulnerable to stress: Personality Types, Type “A”
Interesting Results: Show that stress responses can be reduced with the presence of a partner or a stranger

8. Studying Stress: Inducing Disease
Intentionally exposing subjects to viruses and assessing whether they get ill and the intensity of illness
Findings Indicate: People experiencing more stress are more likely to get sick and tax the immune system
Ethical Concern/Informed Consent

9. Figure 6.1 - The Three Phases of Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome

10. Criticisms of General Adaptation Syndrome
Assigns a limited role to psychological factors
Mediated by personality, coping style, perception of threat, etc.
Not all stressors produce the same stress response
Resistance Phase of constant stress most damaging, not exhaustive phase

11. Appraisal of Stressors
Understanding what an event is and what it will mean
Events are appraised for their harm, threat, or challenge
Primary appraisal
Assessing whether personal resources are sufficient to meet the demands of the environment
Secondary appraisal
Results from the process of appraising events, assessing potential resources, and responding to the events
Person-environment fit

12. Dimensions of Stressful Events
Negative events
Uncontrollable events
Ambiguous events
Overload
Central life domains

13. Table 6.2 - The Social Readjustment Rating Scale
Source : T. H. Holmes & Rahe, 1967.

14. Pros/Cons Social Readjustment Rating Scale
Individual differences are not considered: Case Exps
Change is Stressful: Wedding, New Job, New Relationship
Positive Events can also be stressful

15. Daily Stress Daily hassles: Minor stressful events that lead to:
Psychological distress
Adverse physiological changes
Physical symptoms
Use of health care services

16. Adapting to Stress
Chronic strain: When Chronic Stress becomes normative
Depends on:
Type of stressor: exp: children habituated to neighborhood violence, first gen immigrants living with sporadic employment
Subjective experience of stress: Perception matters
Indicator of stress: effects on mind and body

17. Other sources of stress
Anticipatory stress - Anticipation is as stressful as the actual event
Aftereffects of stress: Persist long after the stressful event itself is no longer present
Shortened attention span
Poor performance on tasks
Ongoing psychological distress
Physiological arousal

18. How does Stress Cause Illness?
Psychological resources
Health care
Threatened social support
Reduced optimism
Threats to self-esteem
Lower sense of mastery
Decreased adherence to treatment
Delay in seeking care
Obscured symptom profile
Decreased likelihood of seeking care

19. How does Stress Cause Illness?
Direct physiological effects
Health behavior changes
Elevated lipids
Elevated blood pressure
Decreased immunity
Increased stress hormones
Chronic Illness risk
Increased smoking and alcohol use
Decreased nutrition
Decreased sleep
Increased drug use
Poor diet, little exercise

20. Reactivity and Allostatic Load
Allostatic load: Physiological costs of chronic exposure to the physiological changes from repeated or chronic stress
Reactivity: High Allostatic load creates reactive body, hypervigilant sympathetic ns

21. Table 6.1 - Indicators of Allostatic Load
Source: Seeman, Singer, Horwitz, & McEwen, 1997.

22. Effects of Long-Term Stress
Suicidality
Depression, Anxiety Disorder
Relationship Dysfunction and loss
Impaired work performance
Problems with verbal functioning, memory, and concentration
Impaired sleep

23. Examples of Early Stressful Life Experiences
Low socioeconomic status
Exposure to violence
Living in poverty-stricken neighborhoods
Community level stressors: lack of access to grocery stores, after-school programs, peers to play with, lack of access to mass transit

24. Effects of Early Stressful Life Experiences
Children who grow up in risky families:
Have problems with emotion regulation and social skills
Have difficulty forming good social relationships
Can develop heightened sympathetic reactivity to stress, exaggerated cortisol responses, or chronic inflammation

25. Chronic Stressful Conditions
Long-term and grinding
Contributes to psychological distress and physical illness
Research relating chronic stress to health outcomes is difficult to conduct
Why?

26. Studies on Workplace Stress
Identify the most common stressors of everyday life
Provide evidence for the stress-illness relationship
Provide possibilities for intervention
Important as stress-related disorders lead to disability and social security payments to workers

27. Causes of Workplace Stress
Work and sedentary lifestyle
Work overload
Ambiguity and role conflict
Role conflict: Occurs when a person receives conflicting information about work tasks or standards from different individuals
Inability to develop satisfying social relationships at work

28. Causes of Workplace Stress
Lack of control over one’s work life
Demand-control-support model: High demands and low control, combined with little social support at work
Unemployment

29. Outcomes of Work-Related Stress
Higher rates of absenteeism
Job turnover
Tardiness
Job dissatisfaction
Sabotage
Poor performance on the job

30. Reducing Stress at Work
Minimize physical work stressors
Minimize unpredictability and ambiguity
Involve workers in decisions that affect their work
Make jobs interesting
Help workers to develop meaningful social relationships at work

31. Reducing Stress at Work
Reward workers for good work
Look for signs of stress
Add workplace perks that enhance quality of life

32. Women and Multiple Roles
Conflicting home and work responsibilities increase stress
Working women who have children have:
Higher levels of cortisol
Higher cardiovascular reactivity
More home strain
Single women raising children on their own are most at risk for health problems

33. Protective Effects of Multiple Roles
Is beneficial for health and well-being
Improves self-esteem
Improves feelings of self-efficacy, and life satisfaction
Combination of motherhood and employment
Control and flexibility over one’s work environment
Good income
Domestic help and adequate childcare
Supportive, helpful partner
Keys to healthy adaptation for working mothers

34. Men and Multiple Roles Bear the weight of primary income role
Combining employment and marriage is protective for men’s health
Stressful interpersonal events at work can increase conflicts with children
Employed, unmarried fathers are more vulnerable to psychological distress

35. Stress for Children
Social and academic failure experiences at school increases a child’s aversive behavior at home
Children are affected by their parents’ work and family stressors
Affects academic achievement and leads to acting out in adolescence

36. Tend-and-Befriend
In addition to fight or flight, people and animals respond to stress with:
Social affiliation
Nurturant behavior toward offspring
Oxytocin is released during stressful events
Acts as an impetus for affiliation