STRESS- measuring stress

Aim: To see if perceived control or actual control can reduce stress reactions.

Method: Lab experiment with 3 groups; group 1 given control over how long they looked at images; group 2 we warned about photos but had no control; group 3 were told that they would see photos and hear tones but were not given any control. Heart monitors attached (GSR) and psycho-physiological data collected by Beckman polygraph each recording took place in a sound and electrically shielded room to ensure no audio or visual input.

Results: Group 2 most stressed, group 1 less stressed.

Conclusion: Pp's showed less GSR reaction indicating less stress when they had control.

Aim: Creating method that estimates the extent to which life events are stressors.

Method: They examined medical records to get a list of 43 life events which all come before illness. Each pp was asked to rate life events. They had already rated marriage as 50, pp's rated death of spouse twice as high however lot of life events judged less stressful.

Results: Correlations between groups tested were found high, males and females agreed, less correlation between white and black participants.

Conclusions: The degree of similarity between groups is impressive and shows an agreement in what causes stress.

Aim: To measure physiological and psychological stress response.

Method: Quasi experiment where workers defined as high risk and a control group. Each pp had daily urine sample so adrenaline could be measured, body temp was also measured. These were combined with a self report where they had to say how much caffeine/nicotine they had consumed. Also they had to rate feelings. This gave good qualitative and quantitative data.

Results: High risk group had twice the adrenaline and felt more rushed and irritated.

Conclusion: The repetitive machine-paced work resulted in higher levels of stress in high risk group.