AQA Stress PSYA2

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What triggers the SAM pathway?
Acute stressors
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What is the sequence of the SAM pathway?
SNS --> noradrenaline --> fight or flight changes in the body. OR SNS --> adrenal medulla --> adrenaline --> fight or flight changes.
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How do the effects of fight or flight differ between individuals?
Men: fight or flight; women: tend and befriend. Higher levels of oxytocin reduce cortisol which reduces stress. Oxytocin is reduced by males hormones and amplified by female hormones.
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What activates the pituitary-adrenal system (HPA)?
Chronic stressors
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What is the sequence of the HPA?
Hypothalamus --> CRF --> pituitary --> ACTH --> adrenal cortex --> cortisol.
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Name features of the HPA.
It's self-regulatory. High levels of cortisol lead to reduction in CRF and ACTH.
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What are the consequences of activating the HPA?
SNS activation --> high blood pressure --> heart disease. Too much cortisol suppresses the immune system.
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What did Keicolt-Glaser et al find?
Poorer immune system functioning during acute (exams) and chronic (marital conflict) stressors.
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What did the meta-analysis by Segerstorm and Miller confirm?
Short-term stress may enhance efficiency of the immune system whereas chronic stress reduces it.
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How do stress-related illness differ between individuals?
Female immune systems are more reactive to the stress of marital conflict. Stress has more of an effect on immune system functioning in older people.
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What did Lazarus suggest as a limitation for these links between stress and illness?
It would be difficult to establish a relationship between stress and illness because health changes slowly and is determined by a number of different factors.
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What did Williams find regarding stress linked to cardiovascular problems?
People with high anger ratings (acute stressor) had more heart attacks.
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What did Russek find?
High-stress medics had more heart disease than low stress medics.
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What did Sheps et al find?
Effects of stress are worse in people with existing heart conditions.
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What did Melchior et al (2007) find regarding stress linked with psychiatric disorders?
People in high-stress jobs are more prone to depression.
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What causes PTSD and PITS?
Traumatic stress
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What does the diathesis-stress model state?
Suggests that an individual already has a biological vulnerability to a mental disorder and the impact of stress triggers it.
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Evaluate stress-related illness.
Data comes from self-report techniques which may be unreliable. There may be indirect rather than direct links. The link between stress and depression may be the other way around (depression causes stress).
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Outline stress inoculation training (SIT).
Prepares individual for current and future stress. Conceptualisation --> skills acquisition and rehearsal --> application and follow through.
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Who came up the SIT?
Meichenbaum
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Strengths of SIT
Found to be more effective than systematic desensitisation (SD) in treating phobias. Long lasting and useful for other problems.
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Weakness of SIT
Time consuming and need for high motivation. Overcomplicated.
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What are the steps involved in hardiness training?
Focusing, reliving stress encounters, self-improvement.
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Who initiated hardiness training?
Kobasa
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Evaluate hardiness training.
Has been used successfully by at-risk students and Olympic students. However, not a rapid method as it requires changes in personality and learned habits.
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Who created the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)?
Holmes and Rahe
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What study did Rahe et al carry out and find?
Tested naval men over 6 months and found a positive correlation between ill health and life change units (LCU)
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What did Michael and Ben-Zur find?
That life changes had different effects depending on what they were (divorce vs bereavement)
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Evaluate the life changes approach.
Quality of the event is important. Daily hassles may matter more. There are individual differences for life events. Correlation but not cause. Memory for life events may be poor --> low validity and reliability.
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Who created the Hassles and Uplifts scale (HSUP)?
Delongis et al
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What did Bouteyre et al find?
Positive correlation between HSUP and depression in undergraduates.
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What did Gervais (2005) find?
In a qualitative analysis of nurses, that uplifts counteracted hassles.
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What did Folett et al conclude?
That daily hassles may have more of an impact than life changes because there is less social support available.
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Name an individual difference regarding daily hassles.
Pets can be an uplift for females.
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Evaluate the daily hassles approach.
Effect may be due to the accumulation of hassles over the day. A major life event may make a person more vulnerable to hassles. Correlation not cause. Problems with retrospective recall - use diary method.
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What did Marmot et al find?
Carried out a study on UK civil servants and found low job control and lack of social support linked to stress.
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How does this differ for some people?
Some workers are more stressed by high control.
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What can reduce effects of work stress?
Aerobic fitness
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Evaluate workplace stress.
Consequences - may lead to CHD or depression. The workplace is constantly changing so research becomes outdated. Lazarus transactional approach - workplace stress depends on the perceived ability to cope.
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How do Type A individuals respond to stress?
With impatience, hostility and competitiveness.
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What did Friedman and Rosenman carry out and find?
They conducted a structured interview to establish personality types and found 8 1/2 years later that twice as many Type As had died of heart attacks.
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How did Myrtek evaluate the personality factors approach to stress?
The hostility component of Type A is more important.
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According to Kobasa and Maddi, why do people with a hardy personality cope better with stress?
Because of control, commitment and challenge.
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What did Kobasa find?
US business executives had different illness records if they were hardy.
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What did Maddi et al find?
Hardiness attributes in thriving employees.
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What did Lifton find?
'Hardy' students more likely to graduate.
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Evaluate the hardy personality.
More simply just negative affectivity (NA). Questionnaires used have low reliability.
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How do benzodiazepines (BZs) work?
Bind to sites on GABA receptors and enhance the action of GABA by allowing more chloride ions into the neuron, making it more resistant to excitation and therefore making the person more relaxed. BZs reduce increased serotonin activity.
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How do beta-blockers (BBs) work?
By binding to receptors on the heart and other parts of the body which are aroused by adrenaline.
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Name strengths of drug therapies.
BZs found to superior to placebos. BBs helped musicians overcome stage fright. Ease of use.
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Name weaknesses of drug therapies.
Addiction. Side effects of BZs (aggressiveness; poor memory); BBs (diabetes). Treats symptoms but not the problem.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What is the sequence of the SAM pathway?

Back

SNS --> noradrenaline --> fight or flight changes in the body. OR SNS --> adrenal medulla --> adrenaline --> fight or flight changes.

Card 3

Front

How do the effects of fight or flight differ between individuals?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What activates the pituitary-adrenal system (HPA)?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is the sequence of the HPA?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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