Class 8:Stress, Continued

Class Project: Emotions, Stress, and Health Tracking

Purpose: To observe changes in emotions, stress, and health, and see how they interact.

Method: Complete Daily Events Diary at the start of each class, beginning today (9/21) and ending on Nov. 2. Make 14 copies of Daily Events Diary, staple into a booklet, and bring to class.

Analysis: You will sum up your scores, and also chart them. I'll show how this is done.

Write up: You will write a 3-page summary based on your Diary data AND class readings. You will have 2 weeks to do so.

Daily Events DiaryDate:_________________

Event None Very Little Moderate Amount

A Lot

A Great

Degree

Happy Mood

Sad Mood

Anxious Mood

Angry / Irritable Mood

Relationship Stress

Work/school/financial Stress

Very Sick(Flu, severe

cold)

Sick(mild cold)

Fair(sympts, but not very sick)

Good (few sympts, mainly well)

Excellent(no

symptoms)

How would you rate your current health, compared to normal?

Daily Events DiaryDate:_________________

Note and observations about significant events or experiences going on in your life. Write only the facts of what is happening to you, DO NOT write about your feelings or opinions.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Prolonged Stress Widens “Window of Vulnerability”

Chronic stress ↑ recovery phase ↑ cortisol phase ↑ immune suppression ↑ illness risk.

Allostatic load = effects of cumulative stress exposure

Signs of allostatic load: Decreased cell-mediated immunityReduced inhibition of cortisol responseLowered HR variability Elevated epinephrine Higher waist:hip ratio Atrophied hippocampus Reduced memory Increased BP

Allostatic load accelerates aging process.

Reactivity and Stress Vulnerability

People vary in stress reactions

NOT just a matter of being mentally tough / whimpy

Physical constitutions differ:

Autonomic NSNeuroendocrine response Immune response

Study of children 3-5 yrs old, reactivityMeasure reactivity to stressor -- a. cardio (HR, BP) b. immuneParents track stressor reactions, illness for 12 weeks Result: Stress leads to illness among

____ Low Reactive ____ High Reactive

X

Stress Recovery and Window of Susceptibility

Inability to recover quickly from stress = marker of cumulative stress damage.

Prolonged cortisol levels is key risk factor. Why?

Cortisol immune system inhibition illness vulnerability

Stressed/non-stressed athletes study (Perna & McDowell, 1995)

Elite athletes, experiencing much/little daily stress

Cortisol measured after serious workout. Finding?

Stressed athletes showed longer cortisol recovery.

Stress: A Matter of Perspective?

Subjects view gruesome film of tribal initiation rites.

Given one of following frames:

X

Intellectual description

De-emphasize pain, focus on excitement

Emphasize pain and suffering

No Framing

X

Which frames produce the most stress in subjects?

Lazarus Two Factor Model of Stress Appraisal

Potential Stressor

Primary Appraisal___Pos ___ Neutral ___ Negative

If Neg: How harmful now? In future?

Secondary AppraisalInternal coping abilities adequate?

External coping resources adequate?

Stress

Stress as Function of Person-Environment Fit

Resources >> Challenge

Resources ≥ Challenge

Resources < Challenge

Relation of Resources to Challenge Stress LevelLow

Medium

High

Class 8: Stress II

1. Negative events (but also positive pos events?)

2. Uncontrollable events

3. Ambiguous events & role ambiguity

4. Work overload

5. Challenges to central domains

Classes of Stressful Life Events

Objective and Subjective Stress

Air traffic Controllers (Repetti, 1993)

Common Cold Study (Cohen et al., 1993)

What matters, objective stress or subjective stress?

Both matter.

Temporal Dimension of Stress

Stress can occur: ___ Before stressor onset?

___ During stressor onset?

___ After stressor onset?

X

X

X

Stress anticipation: At least as stressful as actual stressor

0123456789

Long beforeexam

Day beforeexam

Day of exam

Car

dio

Act

ivit

y

Med Students and Exam Study (Sausen et al., 1992)

Aftereffects of Stress

Effects of stress can persist long after stressful event.

Aftereffects can be more devastating than the stressful event itself.

Stress depresses post-stress task performance (Glass & Singer, 1972)

Stress and social behavior (Cohen & Spacapan, 1978)

a. Helping: Unavoidable stress ___ increases helping.

___ decreases helping.

Stress as an “overzealous teacher.” Social rejectionFailed relationshipJob loss

X

Ostracism and Visual PerformanceGorman & Harber, in Prepartion

Ostracism “classic” stressor: Ambiguous, painful, enduring effects

Do aftereffects of ostracism affect visual ability? Why should this be so (think Pennebaker, attention, and symptoms)?

Cyberball

Person Detection Task

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

Low Self-Confidence Average Self-Confidence High Self-Confidence

D' Included

Excluded

p < .01

Perceptual Accuracy as a Function of Social Exclusion and Self-Confidence

Learned Helplessness and Surrender

Measuring Stress

How could stress be measured?

Over the past 12 months, how much stress did you experience, overall?

___ 1. None or almost none___ 2. Far less than usual___ 3. Somewhat less than usual___ 4. Same as usual___ 5. More than usual___ 6. Far more than usual___ 7. An extreme amount

Stress Over the Past Year

Problems with this measure?

Stress Over the Past Year (A Home Grown Scale for This Class)

Definitions of “House”House as object House as place

2400 sq feet,large back lot, aged heating and plumbingColonial style

Where grandparents settled after WW II Where mom and Uncle Joe were bornWhere we had 4th of July every yearWhere Suzy learned to drive.

Point: How a thing is defined affects how it is understood. Defining stress in terms of events (Holmes & Rahe) vs. in terms of how people feel about events (Cohen, et al).

Definitions of “Stress”Stress as Event Stress as Experience

Number of tasks dueClarity re. stressorsDegree of controlConsequences of failure

How confident I feel.How overwhelmed I feel

Social Readjustment Scale Holmes & Rahe, 1967

In the past year, have you experienced:

1. __ Death of a spouse 100 26. __ Wife starting/ending work 26

2. __ Divorce 73 29. __ Change in personal habits 24

3. __ Marital separation 65 32. __ Change in residence 20

7. __ Marriage 50 33. __ Change to a new school 20

8. __ Being fired 47 35. __ Change in church activities 19

17.__ Death of a close friend 37 36. __ Change in social activities 18

18.__ Changing to different work 36 38. __ Change in sleeping habits 16

19.__ Change # spouse arguments 35 41. __ Vacation 13

20.__ Taking a loan on house 31 43. __ Minor law issue (ticket, etc.) 11

1. Vague terms

2. Numeric values

3. Relevance across populations

4. Doesn’t distinguish between pos and neg events

5. Doesn't consider how well event was resolved

6. Individual diffs. in propensity to mark events

7. Memory lapses

CRITIQUE OF SOCIAL READJUSTMENT RATING SCALE

(Holmes & Rahe, 1967)

1. In the past month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?

2. In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and “stressed”?

3. In the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the things that you had to do?

4. In the last month, how often have you been angered because of things that were out of your control?

For each question, choose from the following alternatives:0 Never1 Almost never2 Sometimes3 Fairly often4 Very often

SUBJECTIVE STRESS MEASURECohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, (1983)

Hassles

1. Misplacing or losing things. 1 2 32. Troublesome neighbors. 1 2 33. Social obligations. 1 2 34. Inconsiderate smokers. 1 2 35. Thoughts about death. 1 2 36. Health of a family member. 1 2 3

Severity1. somewhat severe2. moderately severe3. extremely severe

The Measurement of Hassles

Chronic Acute

On-going illness Natural disaster

Family responsibilities Childhood sexual abuse

Workload Auto accident

Environmental noise Job loss

Financial worries Loss of loved one

Chronic Stress and Acute Stress

Workplace Stress

Workplace stress is most common, most preventable, chronic stressor

What are elements of workplace stress?

Overload: perception more important than total hours.

Time pressure: Time pressed 3X more likely to die early

Role conflict /ambiguity: Japanese baseball interpreters

Social isolation: Higher catecholamines, higher BP

Lack of control: Person/environment fit. Leads to coronary heart disease