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Health psychology has researched and revised a lot of information about stress, its place in modern
lifestyles, and what can be done to counter its most serious ill-effects over the years. There are two
definitions for stress, Psychological stress and physiological stress. Psychological stress is the
mismatch between demands of a situation and our perceived ability to cope, especially when the
situation might affect the wellbeing.Physiological stress is the response to a stressful situation which
uses a hormonal and nervous response.

Stress can affect individuals in different ways. Kiecolt-Glaser et al (1984) carried out a natural
experiment on medical students. They assessed the immune system functioning by taking blood
samples before and during an exam period. They measured the levels of natural killer (NK) cells in
the blood. These are responsible for protecting against cancer and other viruses. They found out
that NK cell activity was significantly lower during exams. This tells us that short term stressors
reduce immune system functioning, which leaves the body more vulnerable to illness. To back up
this theory Marucha et al (1998) found that wounds given to students took 40% longer to heal
before exams than during the summer holidays. However stress can also enhance the immune
system, Evans et al (1994) studied the presence of an antibody (sIgA) in saliva which prevents against
infection. He found that sIgA was higher during an acute stress situation like public speaking, than in
a chronic one like exam period. Lazarus (1992) argued that it was difficult to link health and stress
because other factors genetics, lifestyle e.g. exercise may play a bigger role than stress. Health is
often slow to change and difficult to show so it͛s related to one of events. Studying stress in the long
term is expensive and impractical so short term stress research is more common than long term. In
Kiecolt-Glaser et al (1984) study was clear because it showed lots of control with real life settings.

Acute and chronic stressors are linked to psychological disorders and stress. Brown and Harris (1978)
found that women who suffered chronic stress were more likely to develop depression, especially if
they were working class. Melchior at el (2007) found out that 15% of New Zealand 32 year olds in
high stress jobs suffered a first episode of depression or anxiety in a year compared to 8% of
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Individual differences e.g. personality and gender are the different traits of people that can affect
how people respond to something. Taylor et al (2000) found that men respond to stress with a
͚flight or fight͛ response whereas women will ͚tend and befriend͛. This can also be explained as a
evolutionary result when women will protect their young and seek social support.Kiecolt-Glaser et al
(1995) studied married couples and their response to conflict and found out that women showed
more adverse hormonal and immunological changes in how they reacted.

Personality may also affect the how people respond to stress. Being a type ͚A͛ can make a person
prone to the consequences of stress. Friedman and Rosenman (1960) studied 3000 men between
39-59 years old, from California. After eight and half years, twice as many type A͛s had died of
cardiovascular problems.     !     

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There are two models of stress which are Acute and chronic.Acute stress responsealso known as
fight or flight response is a short term stress. It refers to a psychological reaction that occurs in the
presence of something that is terrifying, either mentally or physically. In response to acute stress,
the body's sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is activated due to the sudden release of hormones.
The SNS stimulates the adrenal glands triggering the release of catecholamine, which include
adrenaline and noradrenaline. This results in an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and breathing
rate. After the threat is gone, it takes between 20 to 60 minutes for the body to return to its pre-
arousal levels.



 
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Chronic stress is a state of on going physiological arousal. This occurs when the body experiences so
many stressors that the autonomic nervous system rarely has a chance to activate the relaxation
response. Humans were built to handle acute stress, not chronic stress. This type of chronic stress
response occurs frequently from our modern lifestyle, when everything from high-pressured jobs,
loneliness or busy traffic can keep the body in a state of perceived threat and chronic stress. In this
case, our fight-or-flight response, which was designed to help us fight a few life-threatening
situations spaced out over a long period, can wear down our bodies and cause us to become ill,
either physically or emotionally.

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Life changes and daily hassles are the two different types of scales used to measure stress.
Life changes are the events in life that make a huge change in a person͛s life e.g. marriage or death
of a spouse. Holmes and Rahe (1967) observed that it was often the case that a range of major life
events seemed to precede physical illness. These changes were both positive and negative, but they
all involved change, so they suggested that it affected health. To measure life changesHolmes and
Rahe (1967) developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) based on 43 life events taken
from their analysis of over 5000 patient records. They took 400 participants and asked them to score
each event in terms of how much readjustments would be required by the average person. They
were asked to provide a numerical figure for this readjustment taking marriage as an arbitrary
baseline value of 50.If an event would take longer to readjust to than marriage , then they were told
to give the event a longer score. Scores for all participants were added up to produce life change
units (LCUs) for each event.

Rahe et al (1970) used SRRS to test Holmes and Rahe͛s hypothesis that the number of life events a
person experienced would be positively correlated with illness. SRRS was given to all men abroad
three US Navy Cruisers with a total of over 2 700 men. The men filled the questionnaire in just
before the tour duty, noting all the life events they had experienced over the previous six months.
Rahe et al found a positive correlation between LCU score and illness score of +. 118. These findings
support the hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between life changes and physical illness.

Daily hassles are the daily stressors such as finance, work or being late for an appointment.This can
play a part in a person͛s psychological well-being. These negative effects daily hassles can in turned
off by some positive experiences that we have every day. The uplifts such as weekend, payday or
talking to your mother are thought to counteract the damaging effects of stress.
The Hassles and Uplifts Scales, or HSUP (Delongis et al, 1982) measures respondents͛ attitudes
towards daily life events, the HSUP provides a way of evaluating both the positive and negative
events that occur in each person͛s daily life. Bouteyre et al (2007) investigatedcorrelation between
HSUP scores and depression scores. The results showed that hassles can cause stress and associated
mental illness. For uplifts, Gervais (2005) studied nurses and found out that hassles are linked to
stress however uplifts made it better.

Chronic stress reactions are treated by the use of anti-anxiety (anxiolytic) drugs. This might occur, for
example, in post-traumatic stress disorder. The most commonly prescribed drugs are the
benzodiazapines,Valium (diazapam) and Librium (chlorodiazepoxide). They act by facilitating the
activity of GABA, an important chemical transmitter in the brain. They do this in a complex way,
binding with receptor sites in a way that enhances the effectiveness of GABA. Barbiturates and



 
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alcohol have a similar effect. Because GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, the effect of
benzodiazapines, barbiturates and alcohol is neural inhibition.

Biofeedback is a technique that combines both physical and psychological. The individual is put up
on machines that provide feedback on their physiological processes. Heart rate might be recorded
and displayed on a monitor or a buzzer might sound if the heart rate goes above the average level.
The person then get helps to develop techniques to reduce this by, progressive relaxation, radiation,
breathing, calmness.
However there is evidence that biofeedback if effective for controlling heart rate and in the
treatment of headaches caused by muscle tension. Attanasio (1985) found that biofeedback on
breathing patterns has been found to be affective in people with panic disorders. Meuret et al
(2004) found that biofeedback helps them maintain regular breathing pattern.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a combination of cognitive approach and behavioural

approach. Meichenbaum (1985) believed that although we cannot change the causes of stress in life,
we can change the way we think about these stressors. Meichenbaum͛s stress inoculation training
(SIT) therapy is a form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy developed to manage stress. The process of
CBT is first the conceptualisation phase, which is viewing stress as a problem to solve and breaking
down big stressors into smaller pieces. Second step is the skills acquisition phase. This is when the
patient copies the taught skills and practices them primarily in the clinic and then gradually
rehearsed in real life. They do this by positive thinking, relaxation, personal skills and line
management. The third step is application. This is when the patient put the skills into practice
including follow ups and feedback.

Alternatively the similarities between drugs and biofeedback are that they both look at stress effect
on the body and they all use the biological approach. The differences between biofeedback and
drugs are that biofeedback is longer term; it has less risk of addiction and side effects. Biofeedback
doesn͛t interfere with bio chemistry.A difference between drugs and SIT is that, drugs have side
effects and you can get an addiction. SIT can be an effective in a long run and drugs can only work
while they are being taken.

In conclusion, SIT is the best of the most effective of the listed above as it is more problem focused.

References