Transcript STRESS - Beauchamp Psychology

Starter
Recap of personality
Complete the past-exam question
(June 2011)
It is worth 5 marks.
You have 5 minutes in silence to
complete the question individually.
Question 4a
Mark scheme
4. Mark is very competitive and he hates losing any
game he plays. At work, he is often impatient and
likes working to tight deadlines. He can become
quite hostile when challenged.
4a) What personality type is Mark likely to have? (1
mark)
1 mark = Type A / A Type / Personality Type A / Type
A Personality (TAP) / Type A Behaviour (TAB)
Question 4b
Mark scheme
4b) Using your knowledge of how personality factors
can affect the body’s response to stress, explain
how Mark might respond to the effects of stress (4
marks).
1 mark = very limited knowledge
2 marks = basic knowledge
3 marks = reasonable analysis
4 marks = detailed and effective analysis
Remember to relate your answer back to the
scenario.
Question 4b
Exemplar answer

People with Type A personality are more likely to
suffer the negative effects of stress.

Mark’s behaviour patterns are typical of Type A
personality i.e. competitive, impatient and hostile.

These characteristics make him more prone to stressrelated illnesses such as coronary heart disease.

This is because these Type A characteristics can lead
to raised blood pressure and raised levels of stress
hormones, which over a long period of time can lead
to a range of stress-related illnesses.
Psychological
methods of
stress
management
Stress
Biological Psychology
AQA A Specification
Biological Psychology: Stress
Stress in
everyday
life
Life changes and daily hassles as sources
of stress.
Workplace stress including the effects of
workload and control.
Personality factors, including Type A and
Type B behaviour, and hardiness.
Psychological and biological methods of
stress management, including stress
inoculation therapy and drug therapy.
Psychological methods
of stress management
Psychological interventions used by
professionals which train individuals to deal
with stressful situations, rather than just dealing
with the symptoms.
It aims to increase resistance to the negative
effects of stress.
Psychological methods
1.
2.
Stress Inoculation Therapy (SIT)
Hardiness Training
Stress Inoculation
Therapy
Meichenbaum (1985)
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Believed that we cannot change the causes
of stress BUT we can change how we THINK
about stress.
Emphasis on positive thinking rather than
negative thinking to avoid negative effects
of stress.
Form of CBT.
Definitions
What is CBT?
Involves changes in the way you think which result in
changes in behaviour.
Individuals should develop a form of coping before
stress arises i.e. ‘inoculate’ themselves against stress
like you would receive inoculations against diseases.
What other word could we use to replace inoculate?
Conceptualisation Phase – learn about nature and
impact of stress, view stressors as problems to be
solved, break down into smaller components.
Skills Acquisition Phase – coping skills taught and
practiced in clinic, skills include positive thinking,
relaxation, and time management. Think
differently and behave adaptively.
Application Phase – opportunities to apply skills in
real life situations which become increasingly
stressful. Techniques include imagery, modeling
and role play.
Independent task
Complete the colour-code activity in your
booklet.
Identify whether the term is a strength or a
weakness of SIT and elaborate.
You have 5 minutes.
Evaluation
Research to support SIT effectiveness
Meichenbaum (1977) compared SIT with
systematic de-sensitisation.
What is systematic de-sensitisation?
The process of gradually introducing an
individual to an object/event they feel anxious
about to eliminate the anxiety.
Evaluation
Research to support SIT effectiveness
Patients used SIT or de-sensitisation to deal with
snake phobias.
Both forms of therapy reduced the phobia; SIT
was better as it helped clients deal with a
second non-treated phobia.
This shows that SIT can inoculate against future
stressful situations as well as offering help in
coping with current problems.
Hardiness Training
Kobasa identified the ‘hardy’ personality type that
was resistant to the negative effects of stress.
Argued that this could be turned into a stress
management technique.
I.e. Teach others how to become more ‘hardy’
and thus manage stress better.
Aim is to increase self-confidence and sense of
control so individual can more successfully
navigate change.
Hardiness Training
Stage 1
Focusing – client is taught how to
recognise the biological signs of
stress (increased HR) and to
identify the sources of stress.
Hardiness Training
Stage 2
Reliving stress encounters - client
relives stress encounters and is helped
to analyse these situations and their
response to them. Gives them insight
into current coping strategies and how
effective they are.
Hardiness Training
Stage 3
Self-improvement – The insights
gained can now be used to move
forward and learn new techniques of
dealing with stress. In particular the
client is taught to focus on seeing the
stressors as challenges that they can
take control of, rather than problems
they must give in to.
Evaluation of hardiness
training
+ College in Utah offered hardiness training to
their at-risk students; HT helped them to stay in
and graduate from college by helping them to
deal with the many stressors they encounter.
- HT must address basic aspects of personality
and learned habits of coping which are difficult
to change. Not quick solution as it will take time
for individuals to change their learned habits.