Evaluation points for Stress

As requested, I've done some evaluation points for stress. They aren't the only ones, so if you think of any more, feel free to use those. 

Causes of Stress

• You could evaluate the extent to which each of these were nomothetic - does everybody have lack of control/work/daily hassles/life events? Does it cause each person stress?
• You could look at situational versus dispositional - all of these actually tend to favour situational explanations of stress, but the treatments tend to be dispositional, so this could be a good issue to look into. 
• You could maybe also look at how simple these causes would be to fix, and how the knowledge that they cause stress could be use. This leads you to evaluation issues such as usefulness and application. 

Measures of Stress

• Validity is a major issue here. You've got low construct validity in that it's hard to define stress and thus hard to know when you're measuring it, as well as face validity because the measures of stress can be affected by lying, memory, demand characteristics, illness, emotion, etc. Also, different people experience stress differently so using only one measure on participants may not be a valid approach.
• Reliability is also important. As different people experience stress differently, measures are unlikely to give consistent results if used again in similar situations. Too many things affect measures of stress and stress itself in order to give consistent results on physiological or self-report measures.
• Reductionism is a potential issue. Obviously, measures which are only self-report (e.g. SRRS) or only physiological (e.g. heart rate monitor) are reductionist and don't look at many features of stress response or the dynamic between them, whilst combined measures are holistic and thus may be more appropriate and useful.

Managing Stress

• Situational versus dispositional is also appropriate to evaluate here. Social support takes the situational approach whilst cognition is dispositional, as is behaviourism (biofeedback). Though, behaviourist ways of managing stress emphasise the role of positive reinforcement, so it has a situational element as well. You could obviously link this to reductionism and holism. 
• You could look at whether symptoms or causes of stress are targeted, and evaluate whether this is a good approach to managing stress. SIT attempts to prevent stress as well as help the individual overcome their current stress which Meichenbaum suggests is the actual cause of stress, thus it targets causes rather than symptoms. Biofeedback treats the symptoms of stress response rather than the causes as it teaches relaxation, though this may prevent stress too. Social support targets the symptoms and causes in that having strong social networks can provide support to prevent stress, and provide support once stress has onset. 
• You could also look at effectiveness by looking at whether research supports it, or by cost and time effectiveness. Biofeedback in the form of EMG machines are expensive and require a practitioner, it's somewhat difficult and expensive to get a therapist but once you've learned the skills it lasts a long time, and social support is free and lasts a long time, but is not instantaneous. 

Also, some of the studies are pretty unethical, such as Geer and Maisel, and those which put participants on waiting lists rather than giving them therapy. Though control groups help with internal validity checks, they aren't the most ethical. E.g. Meichenbaum's study had a control group of students who did worse on their exams than the experimental groups - if they were in the other group, they'd have benefited and thus they lost out. 

Lack of control (physiological measures)

The NHS has reported that one of the major causes of stress is feeling overwhelmed by a situation and thus feeling out of control.

It's important to recognise the applications of this explanation, because control is a part of so many activities relating to stress, including work, life events, and hassles. It also suggests why people with physical illnesses such as cancer feel more stressed, and why we get stressed when we're not sure what's going on. 

One study which looked at lack of control as a cause of stress was Geer and Maisel. The study was a laboratory experiment using a sample of 60 students, who were made to look at photographs of dead car crash victims. 

The sample was split into three conditions, each with a varying amount of control. Group 1 were told the timings of the photographs so they knew when they'd appear and disappear, and they were also told how to get rid of the photographs from the screen. Group 2 knew the timings only, and Group 3 were unaware of timings and how to stop the photographs remaining on-screen. 

Stress response was measured physiologically by two measures: an ECG machine measuring heart rate (though this measurement was discarded) and through galvanic skin response, which is essentially the change in your skin's ability to conduct electricity due to an emotional response, such as fear or stress.

Group 1 had the lowest stress according to the GSR, and Group 3 had the highest, suggesting that lack of control can increase stress, and that control over your environment could help to reduce stress. 

Work-related stress (Combined approach)

Work-related stress is generally caused by when the pressures or demands of a job are not suited to the employee. The daily pressures of work can consist of a lot of stressors, including responsibility, meeting deadlines, long hours, repetitiveness and lack of control. High stress can lead to both poor mental and physical health and can lead to heart problems and depression if a high stress response is maintained for a considerable length of time. 

Stress at work also costs businesses billions of pounds per year and is a common reason for sick leave from work. Thus, it's important that work as a cause of stress is considered.

One study which looked at work as a cause of stress was Johansson's Swedish Sawmill study. It was a quasi-experiment in a field setting which compared the stress experienced by maintenance workers and piece workers.

The first part of the sample was 14 "finishers", who completed piece work. The work was repetitive, mechanised, socially isolated, complex and pressured, and so this group was given the category of "high risk". Also in the sample were 10 maintenance workers, who were deemed as "low risk" workers; they worked as technicians or cleaners. 

Psychological and physiological measures were taken from the participants. Psychological measures included self-reported mood and wellbeing, as well as nicotine consumption, whilst physiological measures consisted of urine sample and body temperature checks. These measures were taken at various intervals throughout the day.

The results showed that the adrenaline levels of the high risk workers was 2x their baseline reading, and that this increased throughout the day, whilst the low risk workers had adrenaline 1.5x their baseline reading, and this dropped throughout the day. Thus, physiological measures suggested stress was more pronounced in the finishing group. Self-report measures showed similar findings; the finishers reported being more irritable, and having lower well-being.

Thus, it was concluded that work which is repetitive, mechanised and paid per piece may be more stressful than work which is paid per hour and is less pressured. 

Introduction to Stress

Stress is generally considered to be the psychological and physical response of the body that occurs when the (perceived or actual) demands of an individual do not match the perceived abilities of the individual. 

Stress consists of two parts: the stressor (what is causing the stress) and the stress response. 

Stressors may include part of the daily routine, such as work and daily hassles, or may be part of a larger feeling of being out of control. 

However, not all stress is bad and that's important to remember. Stress is what causes you to revise for your exams because you realise you don't know enough yet, and it's what makes you fight or flight when there's perceived danger. But, too much stress is damaging to both psychological and physical health, and can lead to heart problems, skin problems and psychological disorders such as depression.

Thus it's important that causes of and ways to manage stress are identified. 

Studies to use for "Causes of Stress" and "Measuring Stress"

The number of studies is one of the more daunting aspects of A2 psychology.

Some areas, though, allow you to use the same study for different areas, which can make quite a big difference to you. A couple less studies gives you more time to revise the rest, so it could be pretty useful. 

One area you can do this for is Stress. The causes of stress (work, hassles and lack of control)  studies obviously measure stress, so you can use these studies and their measuring technique for the second part of the subtopic.

Here's the studies I use:

Johansson (work as well as combined approach)
Kanner et al (hassles/life events as well as self-report measures)
Geer and Maisel (lack of control and physiological measures)