Section 14.2 Stressors

Learning Objectives

-Describe different types of possible stressors -Explain the importance of life changes as potential stressors -Describe the Social Readjustment Rating Scale -Understand the concepts of job strain and job burnout

Life changes

Most stressors that we encounter are not nearly as intense as the ones described above. -Many potential stressors we face involve events or situations that require us to make changes in our ongoing lives and require time as we adjust to those changes. -EX: include death of a close family member, marriage, divorce, and moving

Some people who are exposed to chronically stressful work conditions can experience _____ ___________, which is a general sense of emotional exhaustion and cynicism in relation to one's job

Job burnout -Job burnout occurs frequently among those in human service jobs (e.g., social workers, teachers, therapists, and police officers).

____ _________ appears to be one of the greatest risk factors leading to job burnout, which is most commonly observed in workers who are older (ages 55-64), unmarried, and whose jobs involve manual labor.

Job strain -Heavy alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, being overweight, and having a physical or lifetime mental disorder are also associated with job burnout

True or False: Thus, The SRRS remains one of the most well-known instruments in the study of stress, and it is a useful tool for identifying potential stress-related health outcomes

TRUE

True or False: daily hassles (including cyber hassles) can add up and take a toll on us both emotionally and physically.

TRUE

True or False: In addition, depression often co-occurs with job burnout

TRUE -EX: One large-scale study of over 3,000 Finnish employees reported that half of the participants with severe job burnout had some form of depressive disorder

True or False: Despite its widespread use, the scale has been subject to criticism

TRUE -First, many of the items on the SRRS are vague; for example, death of a close friend could involve the death of a long-absent childhood friend that requires little social readjustment -In addition, some have challenged its assumption that undesirable life events are no more stressful than desirable ones

True or False: Job strain can have adverse consequences on both physical and mental health

TRUE -it has been shown to be associated with increased risk of hypertension, heart attacks, recurrence of heart disease after a first heart attack, significant weight loss or gain, and major depressive disorder -EX: A longitudinal study of over 10,000 British civil servants reported that workers under 50 years old who earlier had reported high job strain were 68% more likely to later develop heart disease than were those workers under 50 years old who reported little job strain

Researchers have demonstrated that the frequency of daily hassles is actually a ________ predictor of both physical and psychological health than are life change units.

better -In a well-known study of San Francisco residents, the frequency of daily hassles was found to be more strongly associated with physical health problems than were life change events

Extensive research has demonstrated that accumulating a high number of life change units within a ________ period of time (one or two years) is related to a wide range of physical illnesses (even accidents and athletic injuries) and mental health problems

brief -In an early demonstration, researchers obtained LCU scores for U.S. and Norwegian Navy personnel who were about to embark on a six-month voyage. A later examination of medical records revealed positive (but small) correlations between LCU scores prior to the voyage and subsequent illness symptoms during the ensuing six-month journey -In addition, people tend to experience more physical symptoms, such as backache, upset stomach, diarrhea, and acne, on specific days in which self-reported LCU values are considerably higher than normal, such as the day of a family member's wedding

In general, stressors can be placed into one of two broad categories:

chronic and acute

Job burnout is often precipitated by feelings of: ...Dad... :(

having invested considerable energy, effort, and time into one's work while receiving little in return (e.g., little respect or support from others or low pay) -EX: CharlieAnn the CNA

Although the specific stressors for these occupations are diverse, they seem to share two common denominators:

heavy workload and uncertainty about and lack of control over certain aspects of a job. -Both of these factors contribute to job strain, a work situation that combines excessive job demands and workload with little discretion in decision making or job control -Low-status jobs can also contribute to a bit of lack of control and big workload..

Chronic stressors

include events that persist over an extended period of time, such as caring for a parent with dementia, long-term unemployment, or imprisonment

Acute stressors

involve brief focal events that sometimes continue to be experienced as overwhelming well after the event has ended -EX: such as falling on an icy sidewalk and breaking your leg

In addition, daily minor hassles, especially interpersonal conflicts, often lead to negative and distressed _______ _________.

mood states

Daily hassles

the minor irritations and annoyances that are part of our everyday lives (e.g., rush hour traffic, lost keys, obnoxious coworkers, inclement weather, arguments with friends or family)—can build on one another and leave us just as stressed as life change events -Potential daily stressors do not always involve major life events

What is the most serious criticism of The Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)?

the scale does not take into consideration respondents' appraisals of the life events it contains -As you recall, appraisal of a stressor is a key element in the conceptualization and overall experience of stress. -Being fired from work may be devastating to some but a welcome opportunity to obtain a better job for others.

Some stressors involve ___________ events or situations in which a person is exposed to actual or threatened death or serious injury.

traumatic -Stressors in this category include exposure to military combat, threatened or actual physical assaults (e.g., physical attacks, sexual assault, robbery, childhood abuse), terrorist attacks, natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, floods, hurricanes), and automobile accidents.

The Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

-In the 1960s, psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe wanted to examine the link between life stressors and physical illness, based on the hypothesis that life events requiring significant changes in a person's normal life routines are stressful, whether these events are desirable or undesirable. -consisting of 43 life events that require varying degrees of personal readjustment (LCUs) -Many life events that most people would consider pleasant (e.g., holidays, retirement, marriage) are among those listed on the SRRS; these are examples of eustress. -Holmes and Rahe also proposed that life events can add up over time, and that experiencing a cluster of stressful events increases one's risk of developing physical illnesses. -The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) provides researchers a simple, easy-to-administer way of assessing the amount of stress in people's lives, and it has been used in hundreds of studies

Other stressors

-Stressors can include situations in which one is frequently exposed to challenging and unpleasant events, such as difficult, demanding, or unsafe working conditions -Although most jobs and occupations can at times be demanding, some are clearly more stressful than others -For example, most people would likely agree that a firefighter's work is inherently more stressful than that of a florist. -Equally likely, most would agree that jobs containing various unpleasant elements, such as those requiring exposure to loud noise (heavy equipment operator), constant harassment and threats of physical violence (prison guard), perpetual frustration (bus driver in a major city), or those mandating that an employee work alternating day and night shifts (hotel desk clerk), are much more demanding—and thus, more stressful—than those that do not contain such elements.

Job burnout consists of three dimensions:

1) The first dimension is exhaustion—a sense that one's emotional resources are drained or that one is at the end of her rope and has nothing more to give at a psychological level. 2) Second, job burnout is characterized by depersonalization: a sense of emotional detachment between the worker and the recipients of his services, often resulting in callous, cynical, or indifferent attitudes toward these individuals. 3) Third, job burnout is characterized by diminished personal accomplishment, which is the tendency to evaluate one's work negatively by, for example, experiencing dissatisfaction with one's job-related accomplishments or feeling as though one has categorically failed to influence others' lives through one's work.

Whether chronic or acute, potential stressors come in many shapes and sizes

They can include major traumatic events, significant life changes, daily hassles, as well as other situations in which a person is regularly exposed to threat, challenge, or danger.

The Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) uses the ______________ research method to identify the connection between stress and health.

correlational -That is, respondents' LCU scores are correlated with the number or frequency of self-reported symptoms indicating health problems. -These correlations are typically positive—as LCU scores increase, the number of symptoms increase. -Consider all the thousands of studies that have used this scale to correlate stress and illness symptoms: If you were to assign an average correlation coefficient to this body of research, what would be your best guess? How strong do you think the correlation coefficient would be? Why can't the SRRS show a causal relationship between stress and illness? If it were possible to show causation, do you think stress causes illness or illness causes stress?

Men, non-Whites, and individuals in lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups report experiencing a __________ number of traumatic events than do women, Whites, and individuals in higher SES groups

greater

Finally, our close relationships with friends and family—particularly the ___________ aspects of these relationships—can be a potent source of stress

negative -Negative aspects of close relationships can include adverse exchanges and conflicts, lack of emotional support or confiding, and lack of reciprocity. -All of these can be overwhelming, threatening to the relationship, and thus stressful. Such stressors can take a toll both emotionally and physically. -EX: A longitudinal investigation of over 9,000 British civil servants found that those who at one point had reported the highest levels of negative interactions in their closest relationship were 34% more likely to experience serious heart problems (fatal or nonfatal heart attacks) over a 13-15 year period, compared to those who experienced the lowest levels of negative interaction

Cyber hassles

occur on social media and may represent a new source of stress -In one investigation, undergraduates who, over a 10-week period, reported greater Facebook-induced stress (e.g., guilt or discomfort over rejecting friend requests and anger or sadness over being unfriended by another) experienced increased rates of upper respiratory infections, especially if they had larger social networks

However, most of the available evidence suggests that, at least as far as mental health is concerned, undesirable or negative events are more strongly associated with ______ outcomes (such as depression) than are desirable, positive events

poor

Some individuals who are exposed to stressors of extreme magnitude develop ______-___________ ______ ____________:

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -a chronic stress reaction characterized by experiences and behaviors that may include intrusive and painful memories of the stressor event, jumpiness, persistent negative emotional states, detachment from others, angry outbursts, and avoidance of reminders of the event

For an individual to experience stress, he must first encounter a _________ ___________.

potential stressor