The document discusses the body's response to acute and chronic stressors. Acute stressors activate the sympathetic nervous system through the sympathomedullary pathway in the short term. Chronic stressors activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in the long term through the release of corticosteroids. The document also examines how stress can impact the immune system, cardiovascular and psychiatric disorders, as well as everyday stressors like life changes, daily hassles and uplifts. Personality factors like Type A and hardy personalities are also discussed in relation to stress. Finally, the document outlines biological and psychological methods of managing stress through problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies.

1. A C U T E A N D C H R O N I C
S T R E S S O R S – F I G H T O R F L I G H T ?
Body’s response to
stressors

2. Acute Stressors – Sympathomeduallary
pathway – Short term
Hypothalamus
Activates
ANS – automatic nervous
system
Causes
Accelerates heartbeatSNS – sympathetic
nervous system
Dilating pupils
Relaxes Bladder
Stimulates the
glucose realise
At
the
same
time
SAM system –
sympathetic
adrenal medulla
Releases
Adrenaline
Prepares the body
for fight or flight
Adrenaline
Noradrenaline
Releases
Increases
effects of SNS
PNS – Parasympathetic
nervous system
Kicks in

3. Chronic stressors – Pituitary adrenal
system – Long term
Hypothalamus
Signals
Pituitary gland
ACTH (Adrenocorticotrophic
hormone) into the bloodstream
targeted at the adrenal glands
Releases
Of chemical CRF
(cortico-releasing
factor)
production
Stimulates
Adrenal cortex
Corticosteroids
Releases
Cortisol causes the stress
effects in the body

4. Evaluation
Strengths:
 Baxter- People who did not have adrenal glands cannot produce
enough cortisol and need to be given extra to survive
 Objective measure – not everyone's body responds the same as
this
Weaknesses:
 Individual differences – everyone reacts differently to stress
 Reductionist – Persons response depends on certain factors
 Assumes that people are passive in there stress response

5. T H E I M M U N E S Y S T E M ,
P S Y C H I A T R I C A N D
C A R D I O V A S C U L A R D I S O R D E R S
Stress related illness

6. The immune system
Kiecolt-Glaser et al
 Carried out a natural experiment using medical students
 Took a blood test one month before stress (low stress) and
another test during exam season (high stress)
 Immune system functions were measured by using NK cell
activity
 NK cell activity was reduced in the blood test where there was low
stress
 Short term stress causes changes in the immune system
Evans et al
 Looked at activity of the antibody – sLgA
 Arranged for students to give talks to other students (mild levels
of stress)
 Students showed high levels sLgA during the talks but these levels
decreased when it came to exam season
 Proposed that stress may have two effects on the immune system
up-regulation for short-term stress and down-regulation for
chronic stressors

7. Cardiovascular disorders
Williams:
 13,000 people completed a 10 question anger scale, none of these
suffered from heart disease
 6 years later participants health was checked again, 256 had
experienced a heart attack
 Those who scored high on the anger scale were 2 and ½ times
more likely to get a heart attack
 People who scored moderate in the anger scale were 35% more
likely to experience a coronary event
 Anger may lead to a cardiovascular disease
Sheps et al:
 Research was based on 173 men and women all who had
ischemia (reduced blood flow to the heart)
 They were all given a variety of tests including a public speaking
one
 Blood pressure increased in half of the participants during these
tests
 44% of those who showed erratic heartbeat died within 3-4 years

8. Psychiatric disorders
Brown and Harris:
 Found that if women had 3 or more children and were
unemployed then they were more likely to develop depression
 Working class women were also more likely to develop depression
compared to middle class women because of the stress of having
to leave home to work
Melchior et al:
 Carried out a survey over a year with 1000 people from New
Zealand aged 32 in a variety of occupations
 15% of those who were in high stress jobs developed an episode of
clinical depression or anxiety
 8% of those who were in low stress jobs developed an episode of
clinical depression or anxiety
 Women tended to be affected worse than men

9. L I F E C H A N G E S , D A I L Y U P L I F T S
A N D D A I L Y H A S S L E S
Stress in everyday life

10. Life changes
Holmes and Rahe
 43 life events were taken from 5000 patient records
 Scores for individual life events were averaged to produce a list
 E.g.:
1) Death of spouse (100)
2) Divorce (73)
3) Jail term (63)
4) Personal injury (53)
Rahe
 Tested Holmes and Rahe’s hypothesis
 Gave 2700 men on a US cruise ship a questionnaire on the past 6
months of their lives
 They combined the number of illnesses + type of illness +
Severity of illness which equalled an illness score
 They found a positive correlation of +0.118 which is not
particularly strong of a correlation however considering the
number of participants, it is significant

11. Life changes
Michael and Ben-Zur
 Studied 130 men and women half of whom had already been
divorced and the other half who had recently widowed
 They looked at levels of life satisfaction
 In the widowed group levels were lower after they became
widowed
 In the divorced it was the opposite, they had higher satisfaction
levels after they got divorced
 The reason for this could be because the divorced half could start
dating or living with someone who they preferred making it a
positive life change

12. Daily hassles
Bouteyre et al
 Looked into the relationship between daily hassles and mental
health of students during transition from school to uni
 They used first year psychology students in France
 Completed the hassles section of a questionnaire to measure
symptoms of depression
 41% of students suffered from the depression symptoms
 The daily hassle of moving to uni from school can be considered
as a risk factor for depression
De longis et al
 Studied 75 married couples
 Positive correlation of +0.59 between daily hassles and next day
health problems
 No relationship between life events and health

13. Daily uplifts
Gervais
 Asked nurses to keep a diary for one month recording daily
hassles and to rate their performance each day
 Daily hassles were found to increase job strain and decrease job
performance
 Sometimes the nurses wrote that the positive compliments from
the patients out weighed the daily hassles and improved nurses
performance
General evaluation
 Daily hassles accumulate over the day and provide a more
significant source of stress
 Severe life events may make patients more susceptible to daily
hassles
 Participants may not correctly remember the hassles the had in
one day
 Research is correlational meaning there is no clear cause and
effect

14. W O R D L O A D A N D C O N T R O L
Workplace stress

15. Workplace stress
Johansson et al
 14 ‘finishers’ in a saw mill were compared to 10 cleaners in the same
mill
 Urine samples were taken of all participants on work days and rest
days
 The ‘finishers’ secreted more stress hormones (adrenaline and
Noradrenaline) on a work day compared to a rest day
 The ‘finishers’ generally secreted more stress hormones than the
cleaners on work and rest days
 The ‘finishers’ showed higher levels of stress-related illness such as
headaches
Evaluation
 The study does not identify which stressors were more stressful
 Individual differences
 Cannot be generalised – Swedish experiment using 14 people
 High ecological validity – natural observation
Marmot et al
 7372 British participants aged between 35-55 were part of a 5 year
longidtutional study
 All participants were sent a questionnaire and took part in a screening
exam for cardiovascular disease
 Employment grades were split into 3 categories; admissive executive
and clerical/support staff
 Participants in the lowest grade (clerical/support staff) were 3 times
more likely to develop chronic heart disorder (CHD)
 Found no link between workload and stress-related illness and
determined the job demand was no a factor

16. T Y P E A P E R S O N A L I T Y A N D T H E
H A R D Y P E R S O N A L I T Y
Personality factors and
stress

17. Type A personality
Friedman and Rosenman
 Investigated the links between Type A behaviour patterns and
cardiovascular disease
 3200 men from California between the ages of 39-59 were
categorised as type A, B or X
 Behaviour in interviews were assessed
 All men were perfectly healthy at the start of the study
 At the end of the study after 8 ½ years, 257 men developed CHD
of which 70% were type A
 This proves that being a type A personality has a risk factor of
getting heart disease
Evaluation
 Interview bias
 Demand characteristics
 Andocentric
 All from California
 Ragland and Brand carried out a follow up study
 After doing the same process, 22 years later 214 of the men had
died
 This study showed other risk factors as more important such as
age, smoking and blood pressure finding little link between being
a Type A and CHD

18. The hardy personality
The hardiness personality had 3 main factors:
 Control – Hardy people see themselves as being in charge of
their life not being controlled by outside factors
 Commitment – Hardy people are involved in the world around
them and have a sense of purpose
 Challenge – Hardy people see challenges as problems to
overcome rather than stressors
Kobasa
 Studied 800 American Businessmen
 According the Holmes and Rahes stress scale, 150 of the men
were classified as high stress
 Among the 150 men, some had low illness records despite having
high stress levels
 This suggested that something else was modifying the effects of
stress
 Kobasa suggested that therefore ‘hardy’ people encourage
resilience

19. B I O L O G I C A L A N D
P S Y C H O L O G I C A L M E T H O D S O F
S T R E S S M A N A G E M E N T
Coping with stress

20. Coping with stress (Problem and
emotional)
Problem-focused coping
 The use of strategies designed directly to alleviate the stressful
situation
Common problem-focused coping strategies are:
 Taking control of a stressful situation (e.g- finding out as much as
possible about a disease and taking steps to deal with it)
 Evaluating the pros and cons of a situation (e.g- choosing
whether or not to have surgery)
 Suppressing competing activities (e.g- avoiding the temptations
of surgery due to work commitments)
Emotion-focused coping
 The use of strategies that deal only with the emotional distress
associated with stressful events
Common emotion-focused coping strategies are:
 Denial – going on as if nothing had happened; just not thinking
about it
 Focusing – venting emotions by crying or becoming angry
 Wishful thinking – Dwelling on what might have been if this
hadn’t happened

21. Coping with stress (Problem and
emotional)
Research
Health:
 Penley et al – studied nursing students and found that problem-
focused coping was positively correlated with overall health
outcomes whereas emotion-focused coping was associated with
poor overall health outcomes
Exam stress:
 Folkman and Lazarus – Looked into how students coped with
dealing with stress in the run up to exam season and during the
waiting for results. They found that both emotion and problem-
focused coping were used in both stages but emotion-focused
coping was used more during the waiting for results stage and
problem-focused coping was used more in the run up to exam
season.
Threat:
 Rukholm and Viverais examined the relationship between stress,
threat and coping. They found that if a person has a lot of stress
produced from one stressor then they may have to deal with the
anxiety through emotion-focused coping first before considering
problem-focused.

22. Coping with stress (Problem and
emotional)
Evaluation:
 Some items in the common ways of coping with stress are not
appropriate for all different stressors.
 ¾ of the items were inappropriate for health problems
 Lazarus suggests that emotion-focused coping may be unhelpful
when experiencing serious symptoms of ill health as it delays the
person receiving proper help

23. Biological stress managment
Benzodiazepines
 Slow down activity in the central nervous system (CNS)
 GABA bines to the sites
 Allows more chloride ions to enter making it resistant to
excitation
 Leads to a general calming effect
 Reduces activity of serotonin
Strengths Weaknesses
Kahn et al – 250 participants
over 8 weeks. Bz’s significantly
better than the placebo
Side effects – Increased
aggressiveness, impairment of
memory
Hildago – Meta analysis – Bz’s
were more effective than other
drugs such as anti-depressants
Treating the symptoms rather
than the problem
Addictive

24. Biological stress managment
Beta-Blockers
 Reduce activity of adrenaline and Noradrenaline which
reduce stress
 Bind-receptors on the cells in the heart
 Reverse effects of stress hormones causing the heart to
beat slowly with less force
 Fall in blood pressure equals less stress
Strengths Weaknesses
Lau et al – Meta analysis found
that BB’s were effective in
reducing blood pressure
NICE report – BB’s carry a risk of
you getting type 2 diabetes
Immediate effect Does not address the cause of the
problem
Ease of use

25. Psychological stress management
Stress inoculation training
 Conceptualisation phase – Therapist gets a client to relive a stress
phase. The therapist then gets the client to learn how to handle
this phase in a better way
 Skills acquisition phase – Coping skills are taught and put to
practise that are tailored to a persons situation
 Application phase – Clients are encouraged to use these skills
throughout their life and therapist monitors the failure or success
of the training
Strengths Weaknesses
More effective than other types of
therapy
Time consuming
Sheehy and Haran – found that
SIT decreased stress and
improved grades in first year law
students
Too complex- its more beneficial
to talk positively and relax
Tailored to each individual Requires a lot of motivation

26. Psychological stress management
Hardiness training
 Focusing – Client is taught the biological signs of stress and how
to acquire new skills for coping
 Relieving stress – Think about stressful events -> analysed by a
therapist -> Insight into coping strategies
 Self-improvement – Therapist suggest new forms of coping
strategies
Strengths Weaknesses
Effective – current Olympic
swimmers are using this
Attempts to change personality
so is slow to take effect
Utah Valley state collage offers
this training to all ‘at risk’
students
Generalzability - Kobasas study
only uses white middle-class
businessmen
Requires motivation