PSY 4521 Exam #2
What are the gender differences in stress?
Women report more stress than men.
What is the inverted-U theory of stress and performance?
"Performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a certain point. When levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases."
What are the two main methods used to study historical trauma in Native Americans?
1. Studies using historical loss self-report scales. 2. Studies assessing whether ancestor attended Indian boarding school. Both find that historical trauma is related to poorer mental health.
What is the general estimate of prevalence of vicarious trauma?
15% to 39% across studies.
How many students are getting adequate sleep?
16% of students are getting adequate sleep.
What are the gender differences in housework and caregiving?
54% of women do all or most of the household work compared to 22% of men. Mothers also engage in more stressful kinds of caregiving.
What percentage of women with children who work outside the home?
71%
What are the 4 different ways resilience has been studies?
Ability to bounce back from stressors Competence despite adversity (child development literature) - Good adaptation despite risk factors - Also referred to as "emergent resilience" Minimal symptoms following a trauma (adult trauma literature) Multidimensional assessment of resilience (adult trauma literature)
What is the association between discrimination and telomere length?
African American men with highest levels of discrimination and high anti-black bias had shortest telomeres which are associated with premature aging.
What is the relationship between sexual victimization and academic performance/dropout?
Among college women, more lifetime sexual victimization was associated with lower final term GPA and higher risk of dropout.
What is the basic processes through which chronic, childhood stress affects physical health?
Childhood stress gets programmed into immune system cells. These cells develop proinflammatory tendencies. These tendencies are made worse by behaviors (e.g., vigilance) and hormonal dysregulation (e.g., cortisol output) which also result from childhood stress. Resulting inflammation contributes to mechanisms that foster chronic disease.
What is historical trauma?
Collective trauma experienced over time and across generations, experienced by a group of people who share an identity, affiliation, or circumstance.
What are microinvalidations?
Comments/behaviors that exclude/negate thoughts/ feelings/reality of people of color, also often done unconsciously Ex: belief that racial minority citizens (Asian/Latino) are foreigners
What are the predictors of emergent resilience and resilience in the adult trauma literature?
Coping flexibility Perceived self-efficacy Optimism Lower neuroticism
What were the main results of the Frazier et al. (2009) study comparing perceived and actual posttraumatic growth? Have those findings been replicated in other studies?
Correlations between perceived (PTGI) and "actual" growth (change scores) were small Correlation between actual change and perceived change is also small in other research areas (personality, relationship quality, ans symptoms following therapy) Conclusion: people aren't good at assessing change
Explain how depression is an example of the stress generation theory.
Depression is related to perceiving events as more stressful. People who are depressed also generate more "dependent" stressors
What are microaggressions?
Daily indignities against your group, common among members of minority groups.
Which is most related to distress: daily hassles vs. major events/PTEs?
Daily stressors were more related to negative mood and symptoms than were total # of lifetime PTEs Daily events are more related to mental health symptoms than are major events
What are the problems with the definition/labeling of microaggressions according to Lilienfeld?
Definition of microaggression is unclear (not clear what should count). Term implies that the actions are "aggressive" which implies intent to harm and inadvertently foster aggression to others.
What are the largest risk factors for secondary traumatic stress/vicarious trauma?
Emotional involvement Same trauma as clients Caseload ratio/volume
What are the 4 different categories of microaggressions?
Environmental Microinvalidation Microinsult Microassault
Explain the relationship between microaggressions and physical and mental wellbeing.
Experiencing microaggressions associated with lower physical and mental well-being. Students who reported more microaggressions reported more negative moods, less positive moods, and more physical symptoms. On days when students experienced microaggressions they reported more negative mood and somatic symptoms on that day AND the next day.
What are microassaults?
Explicit racial derogations characterized by verbal or nonverbal attacks meant to hurt intended victim Ex: name calling
How historical trauma is similar to/different from other types of traumas?
Historical trauma involves loss Criterion A trauma involves fear Moral injury has guilt/shame
Which is most related to distress: interpersonal vs. non-interpersonal
Interpersonal conflicts are more related to distress than other stressors
How is historical trauma experienced over time?
It can affect generations that didn't directly experience the events.
Who experiences historical trauma?
It is experienced by a group of people who share an identity, affiliation, or circumstance.
What is the prevalence of microaggressions among members of ethnic minority groups?
Majority of ethnic minorities report experiences of everyday discrimination. - 76% Black - 74% Asian - 72% Hispanic - 81% Native Americans)
How does sleep relate to performance and stress?
Many college students say sleep difficulties negatively affect their academic performance. Retrospective studies find a small negative association between stress and sleep.
Which group of women report the highest stress?
Married women
What is the relationship between racial discrimination and risk of developing mental health diagnoses?
Racial discrimination is associated with greater risk of developing mental health diagnoses - certain factors can "buffer" against the effects of discrimination such as social support
What were the main results of research reviewing support for the inverted-U model?
Mice learned more quickly at moderate rather than at low or high levels of shock.
Explain the design of the original Yerkes-Dodson study.
Mice were trained to choose white vs. black box, shocked when they chose the black box, does strength of shock affect how fast mice learn to choose the white box?
What are the potential costs of microaggression training?
Microaggression training could lead minority individuals to be hypervigilant to potential slights, more tensions.
What are the main components of the stress response?
Mobilization of energy: need energy to go to muscles that will save you, adrenaline goes to energy storage sites and dumps glucose into circulation Increased cardiovascular tone: heart speeds up to deliver glucose to muscles more quickly Long term projects delayed: suppression of digestion, growth and reproduction Enhancement of immune system: needed to fight infection Sharpening of cognition, alertness, and pleasure: flashbulb memories
What are the largest protective factors for secondary traumatic stress/vicarious trauma?
More social support More work support More experience
What is the prevalence of self-reported PTG?
Most people (> 50%) report some positive life changes following traumatic events
How are daily stressors related to sleep?
Number of daily stressors significantly predicted a decrease in the total amount of sleep students received at night. Increase in total number of stressors also led to a slight decrease in that night's sleep quality. There is a small but significant association between daily stress and poorer sleep.
What is the stress generation theory?
People are not just passive recipients of stressful events; they play an active role in creating them
What is discrimination?
Poor treatment due to group membership, common among members of minority groups.
What is posttraumatic growth?
Positive psychological change experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances.
What is vicarious trauma?
Reaction to intensive indirect exposure to clients' traumatic stressor experiences (secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue).
What are microinsults?
Rude, insensitive, demeaning behaviors/remarks about a person's race, often done unconsciously Ex: assigning a degree of intelligence to person based on their race
What are some of the most commonly reported psychological symptoms following stressor exposure?
Sadness, anxiety and irritability
What are the most common positive life changes associated with PTG?
Sense of self, relationships, life philosophy, empathy Prosocial behavior
What are the key findings from the Mangelsdorf et al. (2019) meta-analysis about whether positive changes are unique to traumatic events?
Some people do change in positive ways after trauma: for self-esteem, positive relationships, and mastery in prospective studies; no genuine growth for meaning and spirituality. Negative events did not produce more positive life change than positive events. Individuals who experienced negative events did not have more positive change than comparison groups
What are environmental microaggressions?
Something in the physical or social context communicates a negative message to members of marginalized groups Ex: University buildings all named after White males
What is the relationship between stress and GPA among college students?
Stress and trauma are related to poorer academic performance and lower retention. Students who say stress negatively affects their performance have lowest cumulative GPAs. Current perceived stress was negatively related to cumulative GPA.
Is stress is related to cancer and heart disease risk?
Stress is related to cardiovascular disease: 51% of incidence of heart attack due to psychosocial factors. Stress is not related to risk of cancer: job strain is unrelated to cancer.
How stress and trauma affect each of these health outcomes?
Stress makes vaccinations less effective. You are more likely to get cold when experiencing chronic stress. Wounds take longer to heal when stressed.
What were the key points from Sapolsky video?
Stress response is adaptive for short term crises but maladaptive if chronically activated (keeps physiological system activated for chronic emergencies/situations).
How does stress compare to other predictors of academic performance?
Stress was -0.14 related to GPA while procrastination and test anxiety were -0.25 and -0.21 respectively.
What are the relationships between perceived and actual growth with distress?
Students who reported more perceived growth (PTGI) at T2 increased in distress from pre-to post-trauma Those who "actually" grew from T1 to T2 decreased in distress from pre-to post-trauma
What is the relationship between PTSD and college retention?
Students with PTSD were significantly more likely to drop out of college by end of 2nd year - only significant for female students.
What are the outcomes of vicarious trauma exposure including themes in qualitative research on vicarious trauma?
Symptoms of PTSD (intrusion, avoidance, arousal) Emotional and somatic reactions to trauma work Changes to schemas and behaviors: - negative changes to beliefs about the world, life, themselves, changes - changes in daily life - positive changes reported too
What is allostatic load?
The price the body pays for being forced to continually adapt to adverse psychosocial or physical situations.
What is allostasis?
The process of adaptation to acute stress: involves the output of stress hormones that act to restore homeostasis (stability) in the face of a challenge.
What are the premises of microaggression research that Lilienfeld concludes are unsupported?
They are operationalized with sufficient clarity and consensus to afford rigorous scientific investigation. They reflect implicitly prejudicial and implicitly aggressive motives. They are interpreted negatively by most or all minority group members. They can be validly assessed using only respondents' subjective reports. They exert an adverse impact on recipients' mental health.
What is the "second shift"?
This refers to the household and childcare duties that follow the day's work for pay outside the home. While both men and women experience the second shift, women tend to shoulder most of this responsibility.
What are the features (symptoms) of the historical trauma response?
Unresolved, complicated, and/or prolonged grief from cumulative losses, PTSD, depression, substance abuse.
How does our understanding of PTG change when people are given the opportunity to report negative or no changes?
When given the option, sexual assault survivors reported positive, negative, and no life changes. When given the chance, people report negative or no changes, allowing these responses seems to result in less "illusory growth".
Does vicarious trauma exposure counts as a Criterion A event in DSM-5?
Yes it was added to DSM 5 as criterion A event: repeated or extreme indirect exposure to aversive details of event(s), usually in the course of professional duties (e.g., first responders, child protection workers)
What is the size of the relation between stress and obesity?
r = 0.01 which is virtually zero.