Stress

Stress

Types of pathways
1. HPA pathway(long-term)- Hypothalamus- pituatry adrenal gland- releases ACTH hormone into the bloodstream- travels to cortex and releases corticosteroids.
2. SAM pathway(short-term)- Hypothalamus-ANS adrenal medulla- sends adrenaline into blood(fight or flight)- parasympathetic system- activates noradrenaline.
Types of immunity
1. Natural immunity- white blood cells, NK cells. Absorb invading pathogens such as viruses + bacteria.
2. Specific immunity- lymphocytes. Recognise invading pathogens + produce specific antibodies
3. Cellular immunity- T-cells. Attack pathogens.
4. Humoral immunity- B-cells. Secrete antibodies.
Workplace Stress
1. Cohen- How stress affects vunerability to the common cold. 394 participants completed questionnaires on the number of stressful life events from that year. Then exposed to the common cold. 82% become infected. Cohen concluded that life stress and negative emotions reduce the effectiveness of our immune system.
  1. Methodological issues- No direct manipulation of the IV and so relationship is only correlative, not cause and effect. No direct measures of immune fuction. Does not state which stress index is most important.
  2. Ethical issues- Unethical to be infecting participants with cold virus. Participants should be able to give fully informed consent and be debriefed afterwards.
2. Kiecolt-Glaser- How naturalistic life stressors affect immune functions( measured by NK cell activity). 75 medical students blood samples were taken and NK cell activity was measured. It was concluded that stress reduces immune function.
  1. Methodological issues- Did not assess illness outcomes. Only uses medical students so results cannot be generalised to everyone. NK cell activity is only one component of the complex immune function system e.g. natural immunity.
  2. Ethical Issues- Participants would need to give fully informed consent, be debriefed and be aware of the mild stress of having their immune function measured. Small amount of pain was inflicted on participants and medical supervision would be needed.
3. Johansson-Looked at sawmill workers in Sweden in particular two lines of work..the cleaners and the finishers. It was found that the finishers experienced more workplace stress than the cleaners due to their job role having more responsibility, them feeling more rushed and pressured and having to work in isolation. They also had more sick days.
  1. Advantages- Researchers suggested that the finishers got fixed wages, rotated rotas and improved social contact so that they had more control. This decreased the amount of stress seen and so it can be said to be applicable. As these were real workers doing their daily jobs, the study is high in mundane realism and ecological validity.
  2. Issues- There could've been multiple reasons for absenteeism or stress. Johansson could only assign correlations to the variables and not cause-and-effect. Self-reporting measures are, as always, vulnerable to social desirability bias and other forms of distortion. However, the hard biological measures the researchers took help to confirm the results of the self-reporting. As the study was conducted only on Swedish men, it can be criticised for potential cultural bias and gender bias
4. Causes of workplace stress- Environment, home-work interface, lack of control, workload
5. Marmot (Whitehalls)- Find out if there is a link between workplace stress and CHD. Male and female civil servants
Life changes
1. Holmes & Rahe- Created the SRRS of 43 LCU's such as Death of Spouse, pregnancy and christmas to explain how high LCU scores can be linked to stress-related illness
  1. Issues- The study was carried out in the US and so the events and how they were rated would have been culturally specific. The rating was based on retrospective information and so participants may have forgotten or changed the information.
Daily hassles and daily uplifts
1. Gervais- Shows how daily uplifts neutralise the effects of daily hassles and has an overall positive effect as a result. Nurses were made to keep diaries in which they had to record all daily hassles and uplifts experienced at work. After a month it was clear that daily hassles decreased job performance however daily uplifts appeared to cancel out the daily hassles and increased job performance.
Personality types
1. Hardiness- A personality type described by Karasek consisting of high levels of control, commitment & challenge.
2. Type A- TAB refers to a pattern of behaviour that has been linked to vunerability to stress-related illness. Rosenman studied 3'154 middle-aged men on the west coast US. They were categorised as either TAB or TBB by structured interview. They were followed up 8.5 years later and during that time there were 257 heart attacks. 69% of which were in the TAB group.
  1. Issues- The study is culturally and gender specific so findings cannot be generalised. The TAB definitions are based on Western cultural concepts. There are many individual lifestyle variables that affect vunerability to heart disease.
  2. Advantages- High ecological validity. Participants were volunteers giving informed consent. They were not manipulated in any way and so there is little chance of psychological harm.
3. Type B- More resistant to stress
Psychological stress management
1. CBT + hardiness training- A structured approach to therapy but acknowledges that complex cognitive processes are important in psychological disorders. It is an effective treatment for depression and social anxiety. It is more effective for treating certain phobias while more severe conditions such as schizophrenia are not obviously suited to CBT.Developed by Beck & Kobassa
  1. Issues- It ignores all genetic and biological factors such as depression. It is not tailored for everyone and is costly.
  2. Advantages- Can be as effective as medication in treating some mental health disorders and may be helpful in cases where medication alone has not worked. Can be completed in a relatively short period of time compared to other talking therapies.
2. Systematic desensitisation- A behaviour therapy technique where people with phobias are gradually exposed until the fear stops. The therapist performs deep relaxation procedures, over a series of sessions the client will cope with every level of their phobia.
  1. Advantages- Systematic desensitization is highly effective where the problem is a learned anxiety of specific objects/situations (e.g. phobias).
  2. Issues- It is a slow process. It is not effective in treating serious mental disorders like depression and schizophrenia. It only treats the symptoms not the underlying cause.
3. Psychoanalysis- Developed by Freud. Focusses on the unconscious mind, memories and unresolved conflicts from childhood. A therapist uses a range of techniques to uncover repressed feelings and thoughts.
  1. Issues- It can be very time-consuming and costly. Many people do not respond to medications or brief therapy
  2. Advantages- It helps uncover repressed memories
What is stress?
1. The body's reaction that requires a physical, mental or emotional response.
Biological stress management
1. ECT- Involves passing a small electrical current through the brain. This current causes the equivalent of a seizure seen in epilepsy. It was first introduced in the 1930s as a treatment for Schizophrenia.
  1. Issues- It has ethical issues as it can result in memory impairment and often the patient is not in the correct mental state to give informed consent. It is now only recommended for servere cases who have tried other forms of treatment.
2. Psychosurgery- Extremley rare biological treatment which involves systematically damaging the brain- Often called a Frontal Labotamy and most commonly used in the 1950s and now replaced by drug therapy.
  1. Issues- Judging its effectiveness is hard as it did not target the disorder directly but just the symptoms. It also has ethical issues as damage to the brain is irreversible and unpredictable.
3. Drugs (Benzodiazapines)- A group of drugs used to treat anxiety, stress and sleep disorders. Prolonged use of benzodiazapines is associated with addiction of the drug, drowsiness and memory impairment.
  1. Issues- Benzodiazapines are highly addictive. Cognitive defects are being increasingly recognised in benzodiazepine users. While these are reversible in short term users the question as to whether long term users suffer an increasing dementia
  2. Advantages- Evidence to prove they work. Relatively safe even if overdose. Can treat seizures.
4. Drugs (Beta-blockers)- They reduce the activity of adrenaline and noradrenaline which are part of the sympathomedullary response to stress.
  1. Advantages- They also lower blood pressure in patients who have high blood pressure. In patients who have had a heart attack, beta blocker reduces the risk of recurrent heart attacks.
  2. Issues- Beta blockers have been associated with weakness, fatigue, tiredness, and with shortness of breath. And these are the symptoms of heart failure

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