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 Diary
Date:_________________
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)
How would you rate your current health,
compared to normal?
Sick
(mild cold)
Fair
(sympts, but
not very sick)
Good
(few sympts,
mainly well)
Excellent
(no
symptoms)
Daily Events Diary
Date:_________________
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 immunity
Reduced inhibition of cortisol response
Lowered 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 NS
Neuroendocrine response
Immune response
Study of children 3-5 yrs old, reactivity
Measure reactivity to stressor -- a. cardio (HR, BP) b. immune
Parents track stressor reactions, illness for 12 weeks
Result: Stress leads to illness among
____ Low Reactive
X High Reactive
____
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:
Intellectual description
De-emphasize pain, focus on excitement
X
X
Emphasize pain and suffering
No Framing
Which frames produce the most stress in subjects?
Lazarus Two Factor Model of Stress Appraisal
Primary Appraisal
___Pos ___ Neutral ___ Negative
If Neg: How harmful now? In future?
Stress
Potential
Stressor
Secondary Appraisal
Internal coping abilities adequate?
External coping resources adequate?
Stress as Function of Person-Environment Fit
Relation of Resources to Challenge
Resources
>>
Challenge
Stress Level
Low
Resources
≥
Challenge
Medium
Resources
<
Challenge
High
Class 8: Stress II
Classes of Stressful Life Events
1. Negative events (but also positive pos events?)
2. Uncontrollable events
3. Ambiguous events & role ambiguity
4. Work overload
5. Challenges to central domains
Objective and Subjective Stress
What matters, objective stress or subjective stress?
Both matter.
Air traffic Controllers (Repetti, 1993)
Common Cold Study (Cohen et al., 1993)
Temporal Dimension of Stress
Stress can occur:
X Before stressor onset?
___
X During stressor onset?
___
X After stressor onset?
___
Med Students and Exam Study
(Sausen et al., 1992)
Cardio Activity
Stress anticipation: At least as stressful as actual stressor
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Long before
exam
Day before
exam
Day of exam
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.
X decreases helping.
___
Stress as an “overzealous teacher.”
Social rejection
Failed relationship
Job loss
Ostracism and Visual Performance
Gorman & 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
Perceptual Accuracy as a Function of
Social Exclusion and Self-Confidence
1.2
1
D'
0.8
Included
0.6
Excluded
0.4
0.2
0
Low Self-Confidence
Average Self-Confidence
p < .01
High Self-Confidence
Learned Helplessness and Surrender
Measuring Stress
How could stress be measured?
Stress Over the Past Year
(A Home Grown Scale for This Class)
Over the past 12 months, how much stress did you experience, overall?
___ 1.
___ 2.
___ 3.
___ 4.
___ 5.
___ 6.
___ 7.
None or almost none
Far less than usual
Somewhat less than usual
Same as usual
More than usual
Far more than usual
An extreme amount
Problems with this measure?
Definitions of “House”
House as object
2400 sq feet,
large back lot,
aged heating and plumbing
Colonial style
House as place
Where grandparents settled after WW II
Where mom and Uncle Joe were born
Where we had 4th of July every year
Where Suzy learned to drive.
Definitions of “Stress”
Stress as Event
Number of tasks due
Clarity re. stressors
Degree of control
Consequences of failure
Stress as Experience
How confident I feel.
How overwhelmed I feel
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).
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
CRITIQUE OF
SOCIAL READJUSTMENT RATING SCALE
(Holmes & Rahe, 1967)
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
SUBJECTIVE STRESS MEASURE
Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, (1983)
For each question, choose from the following alternatives:
0
Never
1
Almost never
2
Sometimes
3
Fairly often
4
Very often
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?
Hassles
The Measurement of Hassles
Severity
1. somewhat severe
2. moderately severe
3. extremely severe
1.
2.
3.
4.
Misplacing or losing things.
Troublesome neighbors.
Social obligations.
Inconsiderate smokers.
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
5. Thoughts about death.
6. Health of a family member.
1
1
2
2
3
3
Chronic Stress and Acute Stress
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
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