Managing Stress.

Managing stress for OCR psychology, health and clinical. 

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Cognitive; Meichenbaum.

Processing and understanding a perceived stress and changing the thoughts. Rational emotive therapy is used for managing stress. The study by Meichenbaum looks at cognitive ways of managing stress. 

Aim; SIT 'vs' Systematic Desensitisation. (manage exam stress). 

Method; Field exp. Using self reports and grade averages. p's did not know which condition they would be put in (independent measures desgin - p's - 21 students aged 17-25). 

Procedure; Group 1 - SIT. X8 sessions and an insight into the approach. They were told 5 statements and relaxation techniques. Group 2 - Systematic desensitisation, X8 sessions and taught progress relaxation training. Imagine more anxiety. Group 3 - control group who were put on a 'waiting list'. 

Results; Performance on SIT was better on the tests. Conclusion; SIT was most effective and best way to manage stress as it contains the cognitive component in the therapy. 

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Behavioural; Budzynski.

Behaviourists teaching yourself a new behaviour (operant conditioning). Using biofeedback - biological process giving biological information to reinforce a behaviour meaning it is a visual response. Reducing stress headaches! 

Aim; To see if biofeedback is effective as a method of reducing tension headaches. 

Method; Experiment. Trained in a lab. data collection through EMG machine. (p's - 18 aged 22-44) X3 conditions. Independent measures design. 

Procedure; Group 1 - biofeedback, training, Emg feedback. X16 sessions told the clicks reflected muscle tension. Group 2 - Pseudo-feedback, actually someone else's session. controlled noise. X16 sessions, told to listen to the varying clicks. Louder more tension etc. Group 3 - Control group put on a 'waiting list'. 

Results; Group 1 - lowest tension. headaches dropped and usage of drugs also dropped. 

Conclusion; Effective method of training patients to relax and reduce tension headaches. good way of managing stress. 

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Social; Waxler-Morrison et al.

Social, having positive support to reduce stress and changing with people. The study by Waxler-Morrison et al looks at how social relationships can help womens response to breast cancer and stress levels. 

Aim; To see how a womans social relationships influence her response to breast cancer and survival. 

Method; Quasi exp. Questionnaires and interviews. Women naturally fitted into categories based on existing social support networks, (p's - 133 women). 

Procedure; Self report on demography and existing social networks were used. This incluede marital status, friends/family, and relationships. 

Results; There were 6 aspects which were linked to 'survival'. Marital status, support from friends, contact with friends, total support, social networks, employment. Qualitative data found that childcare etc helped with support and therefore reduced stress levels. 

Conclusion; Social support and networks helped to reduce stress therefore survival rates were higher. Stress therefore reduced. 

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