Causes of Stress - Lack of Control - Geer and Maisel

Geer and Maisel: Stress can be caused by the situation you find yourself in. What can cause stress is the lack of control you have. E.g. your neighbour is playing loud music whilst your trying to get sleep, you have 2 possible reasons for the situation to be stressful. 1stly, it could be the level of noise itself or 2ndly it can be more likely the cause of stress isn't in your control (you have a lack of it).

Aim/M&P: See if perceived control or actual control can reduce stress; Lab experiment; Participants shown pictures of dead bodies in car crashes; measured stress levels; using Galvanic Skin Resposne (GSR) and heart rate through ECG recordings.

Group 1 = Given control over how long they saw the image and could press a button to get rid of the image

Group 2 = No control; only warned about images and that they'd come up after 60 seconds and see it for 35 seconds.

Group 3 = See the image from time to time but no control on timings

Results/Conclusion = Group 1 = Less stress; Group 2 = High stress (Knew what was coming, but couldn't control it); Group 3 = Highest stress ; Having control over your environment can reduce stress responses.