stress management

?
  • Created by: Katy
  • Created on: 13-04-14 16:12

Stress management; Biological

Drugs;

  • barbiturates reduce activity in the CNS to reduce anxiety leading to reduced coordination, slurred speech, inability to concertrate and dependent on others.
  • benzodiazepines reduce the levels of serotonin by inhabitating gaba which moderates levels of seratonin this causes dowsiness and poor memory making you more dependent on others
  • beta blockers depress the synaptic nervous system (NS) slowing the heart rate and blood pressure. Beta blockers are extremely dangerous if they are taken in high doses

Evaluation

  • immediate relief for the patient
  • cheap both in time and money
  • sometimes the side effects can be bad 
  • invasive-changes the biology of the person
  • only tackles the symptoms and not the origins of stress
1 of 4

Stress management; Biological

biofeedback;

  • the patient is given relaxation training 
  • after this training they are given a monitor which gives feedback about their heart rate and their blood pressure 
  • when the monitor beeps that the patients hr or bp is too high the relaxation training is implemented which then the bp or hr should reduce to normal which is rewarding for the patient (effectively operant conditioning) 
  • with practise control can be gained without the monitor 

Evaluation

  • no side effects and non invasive
  • works well with children (atlansio 1987 especially for tension headaches as relaxation alone is ineffective) works well with adults (atlansio 1985 controlled heart rates and headaches and meuret 2004 maintained regular breathing)
  • relaxation alone is as effective as biofeedback (masters 1987)
  • time consuming,expensive and only tackles symptoms
2 of 4

stress management; psychological

stress inoculation training (SIT);

  • conseptualisation (clients identifying the source of the stress by revisiting) 
  • skills training + practice & application 
  • identifying the problem leads to getting taught some relaxation training and statements to use which are over learned and become automatic 
  • these skills become specialist and used in the real world 

Evaluation

  • tackles the origins and non invasive
  • berger (2000) proved that it works for exam stress
  • meichenbaum (1985) found sit works for exam phobia
  • lots of supporting evidence
  • patient has active role in recovery 
  • no side effects
  • professionals needed meaning it will be expensive
  • takes alot of time, delaying the benefit
  • patient needs to be motivated if not they may drop out 
3 of 4

stress management; psychological

Hardiness training

  • focusing-patient learns to identify sources of stress by identifying the biological symptoms of stress
  • insight, patient identifies stressful situations and self improves on them by thinking what could of been better/worse. this leads to strategies being learnt which are effective 
  • patient takes on new goals which are realistic to give themselves a sense of control 

evaluation

  • no side effects, non invasive
  • hardiness training improved health and performance in adults and students (maddi 1987 and 2002
  • changes the way you look at things rather than just treating symptoms 
  • time consuming, expensive and only works with those who are motivated
  • same as SIT
4 of 4

Comments

Chloe Dickinson

Report

very helpful and effective!

Similar Psychology resources:

See all Psychology resources »See all Stress resources »