Causes of Stress

Causes of Stress

Introduction

So, what causes the stress that can be so bad for you?

Some people may have a nervous system that goes into a stress reaction

more readily than others. This could be due to individual differences

in genetics and brain chemistry.

To try to understand stress better, we need to consider the

psychological factors involved - emotional and cognitive (thinking)

factors.

Research has suggested that major stressors in our lives are life

changes, for example, moving house, marriage or relationship

breakdown. Work-related factors, including unemployment and boredom,

are also common causes of stress. Differences in personality may also

play a part.

A stress reaction is a response to a perceived threat. Different

people perceive things in different ways, so a situation that one

person finds very stressful might not be to someone else.

The next QuickLearns look at some of these major factors in turn.

Life events and stress

In 1967, Holmes and Rahe came up with the idea of a 'social

readjustment rating scale' (or SRRS for short). This was an attempt to

quantify life change - any change in your life that might cause

stress.

Scores are calculated for a person's experiences over the past year.

Studies using the scale have found that high life change scores (300+)

are related to relatively high frequency of illness, accidents and

athletic injuries.

The table below shows a few life changes identified by Holmes and Rahe

as serious stressors.

See if you can place the events shown in order of stressfulness, the

top of the list, with highest scores being assumed to be the most

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...xecutive' partners to stop the

shocks for them.

Weiss, however, repeated this study with rats using a warning bell to

let them know when a shock was about to arrive - giving them an extra

level of control - this was found to reduce stress-related symptoms.

Think a bit - what would you conclude from these 'executive stress'

experiments?

In the 1970s, Seligman carried out another control-related study and

came up with the idea of 'learned helplessness'.

Seligman found that when animals had experienced inescapable electric

shocks, they did not escape later even when they were given the chance

to.

This phenomenon also occurs in humans in response to loud noise.

Seligman's work suggested that if life seems uncontrollable, it could

lead to symptoms of depression - and depression is often

stress-related.