asgn4zb -- Perceiving Your Own Emotions
or How do I know I'm Angry? Part I
This exercise and the next ask how you know what emotion you are feeling: how you know that you
are feeling happy or sad or angry, for example. Three kinds of models are summarized: The
James-Lange body reaction models, the Zajonc direct reaction - automatic evaluation model,
cognitive-physiological interaction models
! James and Lange's body recognition model propose that you perceive your automatic body
reactions to emotion-producing events when you feel an emotion. In James' often-quoted example:
I see a bear [while walking in the woods]; I run away; I am afraid because I run away.
! Zajonc's direct reaction model proposes that affective (emotional) reactions to stimuli are direct and
automatic; they do not require conscious evaluation. When I see a wild bear in the woods, I don't
think to myself: that's a wild bear that might harm me and then feel fear. I feel fear immediately
without any conscious appraisal of the bear.
! Cannon's parallel process model proposes that body reactions are purely physiological adaptations
for actions that the emotion-producing events may require. Conscious experience of emotion does
not depend on body reactions. It is the conscious reaction to the emotion producing event,
independent of but parallel to the body reactions. Cannon would change James’ example to: I see a
bear, and my body reacts to get me ready to run away and climb a tree fast. At the same time I
recognize the possible danger and feel afraid, quite independently of my body's reaction.
! Cognitive-Physiological interaction models propose that emotion-producing events produce both
conscious interpretations and body reactions to them, but that these two kinds of reactions affect
each other.
" Schacter and Singer's situational interpretation model proposes that body reactions determine
intensity of emotions, and the situation determines what emotion a person feels. Schacter and
Singer would change James’ example to: I see a bear, recognize the possible danger, and use
my body reaction to tell me how strong my fear is. If my body is already aroused, say from a
steep climb, then my fear is stronger than if my body is not aroused, say after resting for 15
minutes.
" Lazarus's cognitive appraisal (evaluation) model proposes that cognitive appraisal determines
emotional reaction and can modify the body's reaction to emotion-producing stimuli. Lazarus
would change James’ example to: I see a bear, recognize the danger and start to run away. But
then I reappraise the situation: I realize it's a small bear that is much more interested in eating
the wild blueberries than in me. My reevaluation of the situation decreases my fear, and I don't
run away.
Match the following examples with the models they fit the best. I see a bear, so __.
Q1A. I am afraid whether or not I run away.
Q1B. I run away without thinking about whether or not I like or am afraid of bears.
Q1C. I decide I am in danger. This makes my body react more strongly. I am afraid.
Q1D. I run away. I experience fear because I perceive I am running away.
Q1E. I am afraid because I recognize I am in danger. My body tells me how afraid I am.
1. James - Lange 2. Zajonc
3. Cannon
4. Schacter - Singer
5. Lazarus
How do you know when you are feeling afraid or
happy? The obvious, though unsatisfactory, answer is
that you just know. But how do you know? What tells
you? An answer that seems to make sense is that
you consciously recognize and evaluate events.
Based on this evaluation you feel happy, sad, angry,
afraid, disgusted -- whatever is appropriate. But the
process of conscious evaluation is too slow, especially when you have to act promptly, and many obser-
vations about emotion do not fit this explanation.
Zajonc has claimed that affective (~emotional)
reactions to stimuli are ordinarily direct and require no
conscious evaluation. You do not have to think about
whether you like potato chips or the Chicago Cubs;
the evaluation is there as soon as the stimulus is
presented (assuming you have had experience with
potato chips and the Chicago Cubs).
Link to an article about Zajonc's idea.
asgn4zb
p. 2
Figure 1- 4zb.
Q2. According to Zajonc, as soon as you saw the face in Figure 1-zb, you had an
affective (emotional) reaction to it - - probably attraction. You did not
recognize a smiling mouth, pleasant cheeks, sparkling eyes and then decide
"that's an attractive face." Your reaction __.
A. was direct and was too quick to require conscious evaluation
B. depended on combining direct evaluations of each part of the face
C. affected your mood
D. came after you recognized consciously the individual features
Much objective data
supports the importance of affect. The
examples described
above are subjective,
so the may not be very
valid or reliable. more
objective data are
needed. Zajonc (1980)
summarized much
evidence indicating the primacy of affect.
For example, tone of voice carries much more
information about a person's attitude than do the
words s/he says. Measurement of word meaning
shows that words are mentally organized on affective
dimensions, specifically active-passive, positivenegative, and strong-weak, rather than cognitive
dimensions like living-nonliving or man-made vs.
natural. Consumers use their subjective likes and
dislikes than with rational decision rules. Both in
everyday life and in experiments, people remember
more about how they felt than about specific
information they were trying to remember. Although
such facts show how important affect is, they do not
rule out a conscious evaluative process in them.
Ruling out the role of conscious evaluations experimentally. Strictly excluding the role of conscious
evaluation in people's reactions to objects and events
is not easy. However, Zajonc (1980) has presented
evidence that evaluations take place without conscious decision. In one study, he took advantage of
the effect of familiarity on evaluations. Simply
presenting a stimulus repeatedly makes observers
prefer that stimulus to similar ones presented only
once. For example, make two random sets of shapes
-- call them A and B -- and show observers the A
shapes several times. When asked to evaluate both
the A and the B shapes, the observers on the
average prefer A shapes to B shapes.
Kunst-Wilson and Zajonc (1980) presented the ten
shapes in Group A to observers with a tachistoscope,
a device for flashing images very briefly. The flashes
were so dim and brief that the observers were at
chance in guessing which pattern had been
presented on a given trial. After five presentations of
the A shapes, they showed the participants both sets
of shapes. Although they had not consciously seen
them, on the average they still preferred A shapes,
which had been presented more often. Figure 2-4zb
summarizes this experiment.
Figure 2-4zb. Diagram summarizing the design of the
Kunst-Wilson and Zajonc (1980) experiment. Each
shape in Group A (10 of the 20 original drawings) were
made so dim and shown so briefly that observers could
not consciously see them. Then observers saw in full
view each shape in Group A paired with a shape from
Group B, which they had never seen. Although they were
at chance in deciding which pattern they had "seen"
before, on the average they preferred the shape they had
"seen" before.
Another method uses priming. In one study,
participants saw or heard concepts or terms, like
"kind"; "cruel"; "death"; "white male," which trigger
immediate evaluative reactions in people.
Immediately after they got these priming stimuli, the
participants got a test stimulus, to which they respond
in some way. The time between the prime and the
test is too short for conscious evaluation of the
priming term, yet the prime affects the participants'
responding to the test stimuli. Therefore, the priming
stimuli must have activated the evaluations
automatically (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999).
Another way of priming uses words flashed on a
screen in a way that subjects cannot consciously
asgn4zb
detect them. The words are chosen to trigger either
positive attitudes (e.g., "friend," "clown") or negative
attitudes (e.g., "cancer"; "worm"). These subliminally
p. 3
presented words produced reliable effects on
measures of mood taken after the priming task.
Q3. The research outlined in the preceding paragraphs was intended to show that
A. emotional conflicts are prevented from reaching consciousness because they are too painful
B. action requires perception
C. stimuli can affect evaluation without being consciously evaluated
D. stimuli can be excluded from conscious awareness
E. simple repetition can influence preference
Different ideas about how you recognize what
emotion you feel.
Wundt's idea: Basic emotions are unanalyzable
primary experiences. Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of
modern experimental psychology, proposed that
mental processes are built from combinations of
primary, unanalyzable experiences. Basic sensory
processes like color, taste, and sound pitch are
examples of such primary experiences. These
interact with each other and with other processes to
produce perceptions of objects and events in the
world. According to Lang (1994), Wundt claimed that
basic emotions are also primary, unanalyzable
experiences. They combine with each other and with
processes like attention and expectation to create the
complex mental experiences of naturally occurring
emotions.
James & Lange's Idea: Emotions are perceptions of
body reactions to emotion-producing events. The
commonsense view of experiencing emotion says
that you see something, evaluate its emotional
significance, your body reacts, and then you feel the
emotion. More than 100 years ago William James,
the American psychologist and philosopher, and Carl
Lange, a Danish physiologist, independently turned
the order of events around: you see something, your
body reacts, and the emotion you feel is your
perception of your body's reactions. To use James'
often-quoted example, we see a bear in the forest, we
run away, and because we run away we feel
frightened. Figure 3 summarizes the James-Lange
model.
Figure 3-zb. Summary of the James - Lange model.
Many people think this doesn't make sense: how can
you react to something without knowing what you are
reacting to? But that’s what people do, as Zajonc,
Bargh, and others showed. Stimuli they did not
consciously recognize affected their evaluations of
test stimuli. It also fits an experience many of you
have probably had: After you have a sudden,
unexpected, brief brush with real danger (like a
near-miss to a serious traffic accident), people may
experience fear only when they notice their pounding
hearts trembling hands.
Testing The James-Lange theory. The James-Lange
theory generates several testable ideas. First, each
emotion should have its own pattern of body
response. Second, changes in the body reactions to
events (or our ability to perceive them) should affect
the emotions people experience. Third, considerable
perceptual processing must occur without conscious
awareness for the body to be able to respond without
conscious processing.
Q4. The James-Lange theory predicts that __.
A. your body reacts differently to happy and sad events
B. lots of caffeine, which stimulates the body, will makes emotions easier to trigger
C. if your body doesn't react, you won't feel much emotion
D. all of the above are correct
Cannon's Idea: Emotions are parallel and
independent mental events and body reaction.
Walter Cannon tried to test some predictions from the
James- Lange theory. Recall the theory’s prediction:
Modifying the body's reaction or the ability to perceive
its reaction to an emotion- producing event will
change the emotion that the event produces.
To test this prediction, Cannon
put cats in emotional situations
after he had removed the
sympathetic nervous system,
which controls many body
reactions associated with
emotion. When these cats were
Figure 4-4zb.
Walter B. Cannon.
asgn4zb
p. 4
exposed to a barking dog, they ran away, yet they did
not show many of the normal body reactions of fear
or anger (pupils of eyes did not get big, hair on the
neck did not stand up, etc.). Cannon asked patients
with spinal cords cut in accidents about their
emotional experiences. They all reported that they
still felt emotions.
Another researcher, Maranon, injected observers with
adrenalin, which mimics the sympathetic nervous
system’s effects. It makes the mouth dry, the heart
beat faster and stronger, blood pressure go up, the
hands tremble, etc. The observers described their
reaction as "cold emotion." They felt "as if" they
were angry.
Based on such data, Cannon concluded that the
body's reactions and the conscious experience of
emotions were parallel but independent reactions to
the emotion-producing event. You can change one
(body reaction or emotion) without changing the
other. Figure 5-4zb summarizes Cannon's model of
emotional experience. Normally, body reactions and
emotional experience go together, and this makes
good sense. The body's reaction to fear-producing
stimuli, for example, prepares the individual to react
based on the emotional experience.
The main feature of the body's reaction to fearproducing stimuli is activation of the sympathetic
nervous system, which also releases adrenalin.
These reactions mobilize energy stores and speed
blood clotting. They shut down the gut and shift blood
flow from the skin and gut to the skeletal muscles (the
ones the move the skeleton). (When you are in a fight
or are running away, you don't want to devote energy to
digesting food or cooling the body; you want to concentrate
it where it will do the most good: in the muscles.) These
reactions form what Cannon called the fight or flight
reaction, which is described further in asgn4ad. But
according to Cannon this reaction is not necessary for
the emotion of fear.
Figure 5-4zb. Summary of the Cannon model.
Q5. Cannon concluded that the body reactions and the psychological experiences of emotion triggered by
emotion producing stimuli are parallel but independent events because __.
A. people do not know the internal state of their bodies
B. artificially increasing body activity did not produce true emotion
C. reduction of sensory information from body does not block emotion
D. damage to the sympathetic system did not block fear-motivated behavior
E. B, C, and D are all correct
The current status of the evidence that Cannon used
to develop his model is unclear. Some research has
failed to confirm it. Some more recent research
appears to support Cannon's basic finding. But
whether it really tests the James-Lange theory,
especially James' version, is not clear. The main
problem with Cannon's tests of the James-Lange
theory is that his methods did not change or block all
emotion-related inputs from the body. Important parts
of the body feedback remained unaffected: facial
expressions and body postures. Furthermore,
patients with spinal cord damage do report emotions,
but they are “colder” and less intense. Maranon's
report on effects of adrenalin injections has been
reinterpreted considerably, as the next exercise
(asgn4ac) describes. Finally, more recent research
with modern technology demonstrates several
measures of body reactions that do discriminate fairly
well among emotions (Levensen, 1999).
asgn4zb -- Perceiving Your Own Emotions, or How do I know I'm Mad? Part I
Copyright © 2001 by Gabriel P. Frommer
asgn4zc, f01
P. 5
asgn4zc -- Perceiving Your Own Emotions,
or How do I know I'm Mad? Part II
Cognitive-physiological interaction models propose that the
body reaction and the psychological reaction to emotional
events affect each other. They state that the emotionproducing stimulus triggers both body reactions and the
psychological evaluation of the stimulus, which together
produce the experience of emotion. In addition, the two
reactions to the stimulus affect each other. Figure 1-4zc
summarizes this kind of model.
Schacter and Singer (1962) proposed that body
reactions affect the intensity of emotion, but the kind of
emotion depends on the interpretation of the situation.
In their original experiment, they gave shots of
adrenalin to subjects who were told that the experiment
was about visual perception and that the injection
contained a "vitamin."
Figure 1-4zc.
Figure 2-4zc. The effect of an angry model on
participants who were correctly informed or misled about
the effects of the injection.
Some subjects got correct information about the shot's
arousing "side effects": a dry mouth, increased heart
rate, mild trembling, etc. Other participants were misinformed; they got incorrect information about the shot's
"side effects" and expected to feel drowsy and calm.
So both groups got adrenalin, so their bodies were
about equally excited. The two groups differed in what
they expected the "vitamin" (really adrenalin) to do.
Therefore, this experiment shows the effects of
expectations, with the body reactions held constant.
Previous experiments tested emotion-producing stimuli
that the participants knew about. Therefore, body
reactions and expectations were confounded.
Figure 3-4zc. The effect of a happy model on participants
who were correctly informed or misled about the effects of
the injection.
While a participant waited for the shot to take effect, a
confederate (~stooge) sent by the experimenter
entered the room and started acting either silly and
happy or angry and rude. Later the participants rated
the emotion s/he had felt from this experience.
Subjects who had correct information about the "side
effects" of the injection reported little emotional
response. Participants who were misinformed about
the "side effects" reported emotional responses that
matched the confederate's actions: anger when he
acted angry and positive emotion he acted happy.
Figures 2-4zc and 3-4zc summarize this experiment.
Q1. Schacter and Singer's experiment tested how body reactions affected emotional experience by__.
A. testing the effects of adrenalin-produced body reactions on emotion
B. testing the side effects of adrenalin on emotion
C. testing the effects of interpretation on experience of emotion
D. unconfounding (separating) activation of the body from interpretation of the situation
Hint
asgn4zc, f01
P. 6
Schacter and Singer (1962) interpreted these results
as showing that emotion has two parts:
1. Your aroused body reactions tell you how
emotionally aroused you feel.
2. Your interpretations of the situation tell you what
emotion you feel.
Subjects who had incorrect information about the
"side effects" of the drug could not interpreted their
dry mouth, trembling, pounding heart as side effects.
They could only attribute them as a reaction to the
situation. Therefore, they felt happy with the happy
stimulus person or angry with the angry, rude
stimulus person).
Subjects who had accurate information about the
"side effects" of the shot could attribute their body
responses to the shot, so they did not have to look for
another cause to explain their body responses.
Q2. If Schacter and Singer are correct, then body arousal produced by any method (not just adrenalin shots)
will produce some kind of emotion. The kind it produces depends on the participant's perception of the
situation ___.
A. if they cannot explain their body arousal by its real cause
B. whenever the body's arousal exceeds a certain threshold
C. whenever the body becomes at all aroused
D. when that arousal method makes the body produce adrenalin
Body arousal produces in other ways has the same
kind of effect that an adrenalin injection does. This
kind of result has also been obtained using body
arousal triggered by vigorous exercise or by a
moderately scary situation. When participants were
tested some time after the exercise or the scary
situation, but while the body was still aroused, they
showed evidence of stronger emotional response to
stimuli than did controls.
In one study, male participants rated indirectly the
attractiveness of a female assistant a few minutes
after crossing a very flimsy looking bridge over a
deep gorge (Dutton & Aron, 1974). In another,
vigorous exercise produced the body arousal that
affected a measure of aggression (Zillman et al.,
1972). Ten minutes after vigorous exercise,
participants delivered more intense "shock" (none
was really delivered) to retaliate against the
experimenters' confederate (~"stooge"). The
10-minute interval between the exercise served to
separate the source of the arousal (exercise) and the
task (administering "shock"). Therefore, the
remaining body arousal affected the unrelated task,
because it was no longer associated with the exercise
that actually produced it.
A review of research on the Schacter-Singer model,
concludes that several parts need revision
(Reisenzein, 1983). First, negative emotions seem to
show the situational effect more than do positive ones
(even the original data show this: compare Figures
2-4zc and 3-4zc). Second, intense emotions appear
to override any situational effect: they are accurately
perceived, regardless of the situation. Nevertheless,
the research does show that expectations and
interpretations of the situation play a role in the way
people experience and recognize their own emotions.
Q3. Other researchers have used other methods of activating the body to test Schacter and Singer's model. To
test the model, the researchers had to dissociate the __.
A. arousal from its true source (exercise or fear)
B. arousal from experience of attraction
C. arousal from experience of fear
The interpretation of emotion-eliciting events can
modify the body's reaction to those events. Lazarus
(1964) described another kind of interaction between
cognition and emotion: The way people evaluate an
emotion-producing stimulus can affect the strength of
their body reactions and their emotional response to
that stimulus. The emotion-producing stimulus he
used was a film showing the (bloody) ritual circumcision of an Australian Aborigine youth, which was
part of his initiation into his adult role in his culture.
The interpretation of emotion-eliciting events can
modify the body's reaction to those events. Lazarus
(1964) described another kind of interaction between
cognition and emotion: The way people evaluate an
emotion-producing stimulus can affect the strength of
their body reactions and their emotional response to
that stimulus. The emotion-producing stimulus he
used was a film showing the (bloody) ritualcircumcision of an Australian Aborigine youth, which was
part of his initiation into his adult role in his culture.
asgn4zc, f01
Lazarus showed this film to participants, giving different explanations on the sound track. One explanation
emphasized the pain and gore in the film (Trauma
group). Another explanation was very detached
(Intellectualize group); It emphasized the importance
of achieving adult status and full participation in the
culture. A third explanation denied the painfulness of
the events on the film (Denial group). The baseline
control heard no sound tract (Silent group). Figure
4-cz shows the body reaction of the four groups. The
participants who heard the gory explanation rated the
film as more emotional, and their bodies responded
more than did the participants who heard the Intellectualize and Denial explanations. The Silent control
group was in between.
P. 7
Figure 4-4zc. Skin conductance reaction to watching a
stressful film. Skin conductance reflects palm sweatiness
and is a measure of autonomic body response: increased
conductance reflects more body reaction and more stress.
The graph shows observers' reaction with four different
narratives (sound tracks). Silent has no sound; Trauma
emphasizes the pain and gore. Denial says it isn't as gory
and painful as it looks. Intellectualize describes its social
importance, ignores gore and pain. Denial and
Intellectualize lower the body reaction from the Silent
condition; Trauma increases it. After Lazarus, 1964.
Q4. If Lazarus is correct, then emotional movie music
(happy music for happy scenes, sad music for
sad scenes, etc.) should __.
A. help people recognize their body reactions as emotions
B. affect the strength of people's emotional reaction
to the movie
C. have no effect on emotion because it works unconsciously
D. be heard with the right ear to produce the biggest
effect on mood
Coping strategies affect reactions to emotional stress
in natural settings outside the laboratory much as
they do in it. For example, younger and older adults
reported on the emotional reactions they felt during a
recent stressful event in their lives and the different
coping strategies they used to deal with it (Folkman &
Lazarus, 1988). In general, positive coping strategies
associated with decreased negative emotional
reactions and increased positive emotional reactions.
Negative coping strategies had the opposite effect.
Positive coping strategies included playful problem
solving and positive reappraisal. Negative coping
strategies included confrontation and distancing.
Q5. If Lazarus is correct, Mark can decrease the stress of breaking up with his steady girl friend after a nasty
fight by __.
A. using positive coping strategies
B. thinking about the freedom he now has to meet new people.
C. by using the strategy: don't get mad, get even.
D. A and B are both correct
Which theory is correct? The study of emotion is too
fragmented to say that any one existing theory is
much more successful than the rest. Each theory
appears to account for some aspect of emotional
reactions but not others. Each has implications that
can be tested.
! Zajonc emphasizes immediate evaluative
reaction to emotional stimuli. His model depends
on automatic unconscious processing of stimuli
!
!
!
!
The James-Lange theory requires that the body
react differently for different emotions. Such
differences can be demonstrated, but they seem
to be rather modest.
Schacter and Singer's model implies that even
strong emotions should be able to shift in kind,
depending on the situation. Such changes have
been described, but it can be difficult to get good
data on them.
Lazarus's model indicates that evaluation can
modify at least the strength of an emotion.
Q6. The theory of emotion that most researchers consider correct is __.
A. James-Lange theory of recognizing body states
B. Schacter-Singer theory of interpreting body states
C. Lazarus theory of evaluating the emotion-triggering condition
D. each approach emphasizes parts of emotion, and each has some supporting evidence
asgn4zd
p. 8
Asgn4zc -- Perceiving Your Own Emotions, or How do I know I'm Mad? Part II
Copyright © 2001 by Gabriel P. Frommer
asgn4zd -- Stress and Disease: Part I
The following terms refer to basic ideas about the
relation between stress and disease:
! Stress "the non-specific response of the body to
any demand, whether it is caused by, or results
in, pleasant or unpleasant conditions" (Selye,
1978, p.74). Hans Selye was one of the founders
of the stress concept and is today probably the
best know. He is credited with establishing stress
as a biological concept. He applied it only to
physical stressors but accepted the idea that
psychological events also elicited stress.
Currently the concept is more widely used in a
psychological than in a biological context. Link to
other definitions. Link to a useful summary of
methods for controlling stress.
! Sympathetic division of autonomic nervous
system (ANS) -- on command from the
hypothalamus, the sympathetic nervous system
rapidly activates body systems important for
intense activity and inhibits systems used mainly
for maintaining the body. This system uses
adrenalin (also called epinephrine) both as a
hormone and a chemical neurotransmitter.
! Fight-or-flight reaction -- the name that Walter
B. Cannon (1929) gave to actions of the
sympathetic nervous system to prepare for
intense action. These include shutting down the
gut, increasing heart rate, breathing, and blood
pressure, shifting blood from the gut to skeletal
muscles, etc. The sympathetic nervous system
produces these effects directly and by stimulating
the adrenal medulla (~core) to secrete adrenalin
and noradrenalin (also called epinephrine and
norepinephrine)
! Pituitary gland -- the "master gland" of the body
located just below the hypothalamus at the front
end of the brain stem. The hypothalamus controls
!
!
!
the pituitary, which in turn controls many other
glands. Most importantly for stress, it secretes
more of the hormone ACTH, which increases the
secretions from the cortex (~outer layer) of the
adrenal glands.
Adrenal cortex -- outer part of adrenal glands,
which secrete, among other things, a family of
hormones called glucocorticoids, such as cortisol.
The amount of ACTH that the pituitary secretes
controls the level of these hormones.
Glucocorticoids are hormones that activate
processes that help prepare the body for
relatively short periods (hours) of intense physical
action. However, long-lasting extra
glucocorticoids can have harmful effects,
suppressing the immune system below normal
and producing temporary or permanent damage
in the brain.
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) -- a
concept developed by Hans Selye (1956) to
describe the stages of the body's response to
acute (~brief, quick onset) and chronic
(~long-lasting) stress. The glucocorticoid
hormones play an essential role in producing the
GAS. The alarm reaction is the immediate
response to a stressful event. The resistance
phase takes over when a stressor remains for
more than a short time. A person in this phase
looks fairly well but body reactions show that the
stressor is still active, and the person will not
tolerate new stress well. The exhaustion phase
occurs if the stress is severe enough and lasts
long enough to exhaust the body's coping
capacity. Clear signs of serious disease appear.
The GAS is the common feature of any illness,
physical or psychological stress.
Match the following with the terms they go with the best.
Q1A. the rapid reaction to acute stress that depends on extra adrenalin a) to increase oxygen and blood flow to
parts of body used for intense activity and b) to shut down nonessential body systems
1. pituitary gland 2. fight-or-flight reaction 3. glucocorticoids
4. General Adaptation Syndrome 5. sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system
Q1B. long-lasting body reactions that depend on the stress-related glucocorticoid hormones
Q1C. ACTH controls the secretion of these hormones, which prepares the body to cope with stress
Q1D. secretes ACTH by direct command from the hypothalamus
Q1E. the system that the hypothalamus turns on to prepare rapidly for intense action
asgn4zd
The idea of stress activating the body's defenses is a
very old one, dating at least to the time of
Hippocrates (~470 - ~410 BCE) in ancient Greece.
He taught that the body fights to restore itself from
disease (Selye, 1978, p11), which is a key feature of
the body's protective response against stress.
A modern approach to stress states that:
1. The response to stress involves three systems of
the body:
A. the sympathetic division of the autonomic
nervous system(ANS).
B. pituitary-adrenal (cortex) axis of the endocrine
(hormone) system.
C. the immune system, through the action of the
sympathetic ANS and the pituitary-adrenal axis.
p. 9
2. These three systems are all controlled by the
brain's limbic system through the hypothalamus,
and all three feed back onto the brain.
3. The response to acute stress is protective,
mobilizing the body's defenses against the effects
of the stressor. The response to chronic stress
can be very damaging to the brain, the
cardiovascular (cardio = heart; vascular=blood
vessels) system, immune systems, etc.
4. Psychological as well as physiological stressors
can trigger the response to stress.
This exercise and the next develop these ideas.
Mark the following with the number of the best matching point about a modern approach to stress summarized
above. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Q2A. What happens in Emil's body when his spouse trips and smashes her elbow.
Q2B. Why Emil could deal effectively with the immediate task of getting his spouse's elbow treated, and why
he was tired all the time and got sick more often during his spouse's painful, year-long recovery.
Q2C. What turns on the system(s) in Emil's body.
Q2D. Preparing a speech about alcohol use among undergraduates to be presented before an audience.
Figure 1-4zd. Summary of the stress system. The neural
structures are in red, endocrine glands are in blue, parts of
immune system are in green, and mixed parts are in dark
grey
1. The Response to Stress Involves Three Systems
of the Body.
Figure 1-4zd summarizes the main parts of stress
system:
1. neural structures, including limbic system,
hypothalamus, and sympathetic division of the
autonomic nervous system shown in red;
2. parts of the endocrine (~hormonal) system,
shown in blue;
3. parts of the immune system, shown in green.
Figure 2-4zd
shows the
locations of the
parts of neural,
endocrine, and
immune
systems that
make up the
stress system.
2. The Three Parts of the Stress Systems Are All Controlled by the
Brain's Limbic System Through the Hypothalamus, and All Three
Feed Back onto the Brain.
The diagram in Figure 1-4zd also shows how the three systems affect
each other. The brain affects body functions through the hypothalamus,
its main output to the body. The hypothalamus in turn controls three
systems: the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system and
the endocrine system, which in turn affect the immune system. These
systems feed back onto the brain, especially to the limbic system.
Figure 2-4zd. Location of the neural,
endocrine, and immune parts of the
body's stress system.
asgn4zd
p. 10
Figure 3-4zd. The medial (~inner)
surface of the left cerebral
hemisphere showing the flow of
information (white arrows) from
cortex to limbic system to
hypothalamus.
In Figure 1-4zd, red lines and arrows show neural connections; blue lines and
arrows show hormonal connections; green lines and arrows show immune system
effects. The letters by the green lines give the names of the hormones that make
those connections: CRF = hormone from the hypothalamus that stimulates the
pituitary; ACTH = hormone from the pituitary that stimulates the adrenal cortex
(~outer part of adrenal gland); glucocorticoids = family of hormones that affect
immune system and metabolic systems. Adrenalin is also a hormone, but it is
released by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.
The hypothalamus controls the
adrenal cortex through its control
over the pituitary gland located
underneath it at the base of the
brain, as shown in Figures 3-4zd
and 4-4zd. The pituitary gland
secretes (among other hormones) ACTH, which stimulates
the adrenal cortex to secrete a
group of hormones called glucocorticoids, the main one of which
is cortisol.
Figure 4-4zd. The middle of the top
end of the brain stem with parts of the
surrounding temporal, frontal, and
limbic lobes. The hypothalamus is in
the bottom front end of the brain stem,
with the pituitary gland immediately
below it. During stress, the
hypothalamus releases a hormone,
CRF. It goes directly to the pituitary
through a specialized vascular (~blood
vessel) system.and stimulates the
pituitary to release more ACTH, the
hormone that increase release of
glucocorticoids (~stress hormones)
from adrenal cortex above the kidneys,
Cortisol acts to increase the availability of energy
1. by increasing glucose (blood sugar) utilization;
2. by signaling the liver to make glucose from protein and to break
down fats into a form that cells can use for energy;
3. by increasing blood flow, especially to skeletal muscles, which
become very active if the stress event requires intense physical action
(like a mouse running away from a cat or two dogs fighting).
Q3. Marshala is giving the valedictory speech at graduation. As the
time for her speech approaches, she becomes more and more
nervous and stressed. Which of the following shows an increase?
A. activity in the sympathetic division of autonomic nervous system
B. activity in the hypothalamus and limbic lobe of the cerebral
hemispheres
C. hormones in the blood that make more glucose available
D. blood flow to muscles
E. stimulation of the adrenal cortex by ACTH
F. all of the above increase
The hypothalamus also controls the autonomic
nervous system. Its sympathetic division has several
effects that anticipate the action needed to deal with
the stress-triggering threat. It slows the gut and the
flow of digestive juices, including saliva, which is why
your mouth gets dry when you are angry or afraid.
The sympathetic system has many effects. It
increases heart rate and blood pressure, shifts blood
flow away from the gut and into the skeletal muscles,
opens bronchial tubes to let air flow in and out of the
lungs more easily, and makes available glucose
stored in muscle. It also releases epinephrine
(adrenalin) and norepinephrine from the adrenal
medulla. These hormones produce the same effects
on the body as does sympathetic activation itself.
Q4. Cannon called the effects of epinephrine (adrenalin) and the sympathetic system the-fight-or flight reaction
because ___ prepares an individual for the intense activity required by fighting or fleeing.
A. increased heart rate and blood pressure
B. increased flow of digestive juices
C. increased adrenalin
D. decreased blood flow everywhere in the body (to minimize bleeding)
E. increased availability of glucose
F. increased ease of breathing
G. A, C, E, and F are all correct
asgn4zd
3. The Response to Acute Stress Is Protective,
Mobilizing the Body's Defenses Against the
Effects of the Stressor. The Response to Chronic
Stress Can Be Very Damaging to the Brain, the
Cardiovascular System, Immune System, etc.
Acute stress activates the sympathetic division of the
autonomic nervous system to prepare for "fight or
flight." Walter Cannon, the American physiologist,
used the term stress early in the 20th century to
denote the body reactions that threatening or
aversive (unpleasant) events elicit. These events can
be physical (illness, injury, or reaction to toxic
substances) or psychological. Cannon described the
reactions to activation of the sympathetic nervous
system and its fast-acting stress hormone,
adrenalin. This pattern of reactions is Cannon's
fight- or-flight response, which is a good name,
because it makes the body ready to respond to the
triggering threat.
The fight or flight response produces the acute
reactions to a stressful event. It provides extra
energy by
! increasing blood glucose (~sugar) level.
! shiftimg blood flow from the gut to the muscles
! dilating (~opening) bronchi (~air passages in
lungs) to increase air flow
Figure 6-4zd.
Stress also activates a
slower, much longer lasting
endocrine protective system.
Hans Selye, the
Austro-Hungarian-Canadian
endocrinologist (1907-1982)
established the concept of
stress firmly in the biomedical
and public consciousness.
While looking for a new sex
hormone he noticed that the
extracts of glands he injected
into rats all caused a characteristic pattern of
changes in the body. He then tried injecting many
other substances, and they all produced the same
pattern. Selye realized that this response to anything
that caused illness is the body's reaction to stress,
especially intense and/or lasting stress.
The most obvious changes Selye found were
enlarged adrenal glands and shrunken thymus,
spleen and the lymph nodes of the lymphatic system.
The adrenal cortex secretes glucocorticoid hormones,
and the lymphatic system forms a large part of the
body's immune system. The enlarged adrenal glands
produce more than normal amounts of the
glucocorticoid hormones, which suppress the immune
p. 11
system as shown by the shrunken lymphatic system.
These changes increase the risk of illness and of
more severe illness. The extra glucocorticoids can
also damage parts of the brain temporarily or
permanently, if the stress is intense and/or long
enough.
Extra glucocorticoid hormones are secreted in reaction to
stress. In acute stress, the increased level of glucocorticoid
hormones protects against the stress in two ways: by
mobilizing energy and by preventing the immune system
from responding too strongly. The immune system
normally attacks and removes foreign and abnormal
substances (including bacteria, viruses, foreign proteins and
other chemicals) from the body. But an overactive immune
system can start attacking the body itself. So it needs to be
kept in check when it is strongly activated, as it is during
acute stress (Steinberg, 2000). In humans the acute
changes in the body go with "the feeling of being sick," no
matter what the disease or other stress may be (Selye,
1978). The acute changes show up anatomically in the
shrunken thymus, spleen, and lymph nodes and
functionally in a depressed response to chemicals that
normally activate it.
A chronic high level of glucocortiod hormones is harmful
to many body systems. Among other effects, chronic
excess glucocorticoids suppresses the lymphatic system, so
the body's immune system is abnormally suppressed after it
is no longer overactive in response to acute stress. The
suppression of the immune system appears anatomically in
the shrunken thymus, spleen, and lymph nodes and
functionally in a depressed response to chemicals that
normally activate it.
Because their immune systems are suppressed, chronic
stress increases the chance that an individual gets sick.
The correlations between chronic stress and illness in
humans and in wild animals confirms this idea.
Experimental studies with rats and tree shrews also show
increased illness and even death due to chronic stress.
Chronic excess glucocorticoids produces another serious
problem; it can destroy brain cells, especially in a part
involved in the hippocampus . The cell loss is associated
with memory problems.
4. Psychological as well as Physiological
Stressors Can Trigger the Response to Stress.
Psychological factors can trigger stress responses
because psychological factors can affect the limbic
system, which controls stress responses. The limbic
system gets information about what's happening in
the external environment from the neocortex. This
tells the limbic system whether it's your beloved or a
fierce grizzly bear approaching you.
asgn4zd
p. 12
The limbic system adds the emotional and motivating
properties to such perceived events and behavioral
actions. It activates body reactions that fit with the
information it gets. So if it is your beloved
approaching, you also approach, but if it is an angry
grizzly bear, you leave . . . fast! As you prepare to
approach or escape, the limbic system also activates
the sympathetic nervous system and of the adrenal
cortex by way of the hypothalamus. (See asgn2a)
The body's stress reaction helps protect it from the
effects of acute stress, but if the stress is long-lasting,
the same reactions become harmful. The secretions
of the adrenal glands, especially the glucocorticoids
from the cortex, have particularly important protective
effects for short term stress. For example, rats with
the adrenal glands removed are much more susceptible to damage from even brief stress, because they
cannot produce glucocorticoids. It can even kill them.
The body's reactions deal effectively with brief stress.
This is what they are "designed" to do, because brief
stress occurs much more often in nature than does
chronic stress. Long-lasting stress is another story. It
increases the risk of a variety of disorders, including
high blood pressure (which contributes to heart attack
and stroke), ulcers, asthma, skin disorders, etc. Such
disorders are often called psychosomatic diseases,
which means that psychological conditions increases
the risk of developing them.
Long-lasting activation of glucocorticoid secretion
also speeds up loss of neurons from the nervous
system, especially in the hippocampus, which is
crucial for declarative memory. Severe torture can
produce such severe stress that the brain shrinks
visibly from the loss of cells.
Chronic oversecretion of glucocorticoids disturbs the
body's protection against injury. It suppresses the
inflammatory response to injury, slows healing of
wounds, and compromises the immune system,
which protects the body against infections and
development of cancer. Therefore, long-term stress
increases susceptibility to these disorders. For
example, diaries for pleasant and un- pleasant events
show that the number of unpleasant events increases
in the few days before upper respir- atory disease
("colds") appears (Stone et al., 1987).
Chronic stress differs from acute stress for another
reason: It is mainly a result of human culture. No bird
air traffic controller has to keep birds from crashing
into each other. Deer have no middle managers with
senior managers constantly pushing them to produce
more and more with less and less. This means that
the body was not "designed" by evolution to deal with
chronic stress. As the last section of this exercise
shows, chronic stress is almost certainly an important
risk factor for disease.
Q5. Damon has been out of work for nearly a year, and he has a lot of financial problems, which worry him a
lot. He is likely to show __.
A. slower healing of a knife cut
B. a less effective response against infections
C. increased chance of developing a disease like stomach ulcers or asthma
D. overactive adrenal glands
E. all of the above are correct
Selye developed the concept of the General
Adaptation Syndrome to describe the reaction to
lasting stress. A stressor initially triggers the alarm
reaction. Both the sympathetic nervous system and
adrenal cortex are activated, and the individual
experiences the stress. Lasting stress produces the
resistance phase. The sympathetic nervous system's
activity returns toward normal. However, the adrenal
cortex continues to secrete extra glucocorticoids,
because ACTH level from the pituitary remains high.
A stressed person shows little outward sign of the
effects of stress, but s/he is more susceptible to
added stress. In addition, s/he may become less
active and performs tasks less well. If the stress is
last long enough and is strong enough, the
exhaustion phase sets in. Defenses against stress
begin to fail and the body becomes seriously ill.
Match the following body reactions with the stage of the General Adaptation Syndrome they go with best.
1. alarm stage 2. resistance stage 3. exhaustion stage
Q6A. appearance of serious illness
Q6B. little sign of stress but more sensitive to new stress
Q6C. high glucocorticoids, but normal adrenalin in blood
Q6D. autonomic nervous system, adrenal medulla (adrenalin), and adrenal cortex (glucocorticoids) are all
more active
asgn4zd
An especially important effect of stress is to decrease
the effectiveness of the body's immune system. The
immune system is very complex, but its basic job is to
neutralize specific invading foreign substances. It
does this by producing specific kinds of cells that
recognize, attack, and destroy invading bacteria and
viruses and other foreign substances.
Chronic stress can weaken the immune response to
invaders by several mechanisms. The most important
is to increase secretion of glucocorticoids from the
p. 13
adrenal cortex. Long-term elevation in the level of
these hormones can weaken or suppress the immune
system. The weakened immune system is less able
to protect against infectious diseases and cancers,
which makes the body more vulnerable to illness.
Removing the adrenal glands prevents secretion of
glucocorticoids. The absence of these stress hormones prevents experimental stress from decreasing
the number of lymphocytes (a type of white blood
cell), which is the normal reaction to stress.
Q7. Chronic (long-lasting) stress can decrease resistance to infectious diseases (e.g., colds, tuberculosis,
infected wounds, etc.) because __.
A. glucocorticoids act like antibiotics
B. secretion from the adrenal cortex increases white cell count
C. glucocorticoids suppress the immune system
D. your resistance is down
E. none of these. Stress makes the body defend against infection better.
Sources of Stress
Much stress comes from the jobs people do. For
example, air traffic controllers are responsible for
keeping airplanes from colliding. Most people find
such responsibility stressful. The stress becomes
even greater when bad weather, heavy traffic, etc.,
make the task still more demanding. Air traffic
controllers respond to their job situation with elevated
levels of glucocorticoids, which increases their rate of
psychosomatic illness aboce average. Even
accountants have job stress. As the tax filing deadline
approaches and work piles up, accountants also
show increased levels of glucocorticoids in the blood.
With the current accounting scandals, many probably
are stressed all year long.
diet, may contribute, the subtle and not-so-subtle
social pressures on Afro-Americans also contribute to
this effects.
Figure 7-4zd. "Life Change Units" produced by selected
life events as reported by people from three different
cultures. KEY: DE = death of spouse; DI = divorce;
MS = marital separation; J = jail term;DR = death of
relative; I = illness;
M = marriage; F = fired from
job; MR = marital reconciliation; R = retirement;
HF = family member's health;
P = pregnancy; S =
sexual problem;
N = new family member; B = major
business adjustment
Many other life situations also produce stress. Social
conflicts can be very stressful, even for animals. For
example, vervet monkeys, like many other monkey
species, live in a hierarchical group. Higher-status
animals can pick on lower-status animals, so all the
other monkeys can pick on the lowest-status animals.
These low- status animals are sometimes found
dead, with classic signs of stress: enlarged adrenals
and stomach ulcers.
But being at the top of the hierarchy does not prevent
stress. Dominant females have fewer successful
matings (ones that produce young) than do lowerstatus females (Packer et al., 1995). Apparently,
keeping dominant status activates stress hormones
more, which interferes with successful reproduction.
Humans also show an effect of social hierarchy. For
example, African-Americans have a higher incidence
of high blood pressure and its consequent diseases.
Although many factors, like genetic predisposition or
Holmes, Rahe, and others have attempted to
measure the stress caused by different life events.
They asked raters to rate the stress produced by
different life events compared to marriage, which was
set at 50. Figure 7-4zd shows the ratings given by
American (red bars), European (green bars), and
Japanese (blue bars) raters. Note that the American
raters rated all events as more stressful than did the
asgn4ze
!
p. 544
Europeans and all but three as more stressful than
did the Japanese. This may represent true cultural
differences in stress produced by life events, or it may
be that the raters used the numbers in different ways.
Scores on such scales have been used to see
whether higher levels of stress are associated with
more illness. Such a relation does appear to exist.
People with more life change units, especially
negative ones, are more likely to become ill with
diabetes, leukemia, heart disease, etc.
However, the scale has several problems.
!
!
!
It assumes that the items on the scale add up.
The actual effect of a combination of stresses can
be less than the sum, if they are psychologically
overlapping. Or it can be more, if each stress
event produces a stronger effect, because of the
stress response that other stress events produce.
It contains several items that involve illness, so it
already contains much of what it was supposed to
predict. If these items are removed from the
scale, then the correlation with future illness
becomes quite small.
It lacks important social stressors, like poverty,
community violence, racial conflict, etc.
Q8. Sam is divorced by his wife and loses his job. These events __.
A. increase his life change units by about 120
B. probably increase his risk of getting seriously ill
C. probably get a higher rating from Sam that they do from the average European or Japanese person
D. trigger a lasting alarm reaction
E. A, B, and C are all correct
F. A, B, C, and D are all correct
To get more information about stress and disease click:
HERE for an article about stress, social support, and colds.
HERE for a series of sites on stress and stress management from the University of Iowa Medical School's
Virtual Hospital.
HERE for an article from the National Institutes of Health on emotions and disease.
HERE for information about the effects of stress and how to deal with them from Harvard Medical School.
HERE for an article about stress, social status, and heart disease in female monkeys.
asgn4zd -- Stress and Disease. Part I
Copyright © 2001 by Gabriel P. Frommer
asgn4ze -- EMOTION:
Stress and Disease: Part II
This exercise deals with the following topics:
! Type A pattern of behavior -- a pattern of behavior that includes competitiveness, hostility, and
impatience. It is supposed to be associated with increased risk for developing heart disease.
! Type C pattern of behavior -- a pattern of behavior that includes unassertiveness, anger
suppression, and compliance with authority. It is supposed to be associated with increased risk for
developing cancer.
! Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -- intense emotional reaction that can appear even long after
intense, long-lasting or unexpected stress.
! Some methods for controlling stress:
" Predictability and controllability make a stressful event less stressful;
" Biofeedback uses instrumental conditioning methods to train people to learn to control their
body reactions. People can then use the learned control to counteract the effects of stress
! Polygraphy ("lie detection") -- a method of measuring body emotional reactions that are supposed
to occur when someone lies.
asgn4ze
p. 545
Match the following examples to the terms they go with the best:
1. predictability & controllability
2. Type C behavior pattern
3. Type A behavior pattern
4. polygraphy ("lie detection")
5. Post-traumatic stress disorder
6. biofeedback
Q1A. measures emotional reactions that are supposed to occur when a person lies
Q1B. competitive, hostile, impatient people (may) have more heart attacks
Q1C. unassertive, anger-repressing people (may) get cancer more
Q1D. intense, lasting, unexpected stress can produce delayed emotional reaction
Q1E. features that make a stressful event less stressful
Q1F. learning how to be less responsive to stress
The idea that stress contributes to susceptibility to
diseases is familiar to most people. Do the data
support it? Despite difficulties in measuring stress,
researchers have obtained some supporting data.
The increased risk of cardiovascular (cardio = heart;
vascular = blood vessels) disease, like heart attacks
and strokes, have received the most attention as a
consequence of stress. These diseases are a leading
cause of disability and death in the US. Some effects
of stress on the cardiovascular system (blood
pressure, heart rate, cholesterol level, etc.) can be
detected fairly easily.
For example, a population of participants was found
who as children had received a cold pressor test. This
test measures the rise in blood pressure when the
arm is placed in ice water for a minute. Among these
children, 70% of those who had shown large
increases in blood pressure in this test had high blood
pressure when measured some 50 years later,
whereas only 19% of those who had shown small
increases had developed this problem. These data
indicate that a person's cardiovascular response is
quite stable over a lifetime (Wood et al., 1984).
These studies indicate that individual differences
affect the predisposition for developing heart disease.
In 1959 Friedman and Rosenman proposed such a
model. They identified a behavior pattern they called
Type A pattern, which is associated with a greater
risk of developing heart disease. They described a
Type A person as very competitive, impatient, and
hostile. He (they are usually males) speaks rapidly
and finishes other people's sentences if they don't
speak fast enough. He will try to win at everything,
even games against his children. He is early for
appointments and is annoyed when others are late.
People whose personalty can be described as the
absence of Type A traits are labeled Type B; they
handle even stressful situations, including jobs, in a
more relaxed way.
A set of questions like the following can be used to screen
people quickly for Type A personality. Do you:
1. hurry other people's speech (e.g., finish their sentences)?
2. feel guilty taking extra time to relax?
3. try to do more than one thing at a time (e.g., eat and
read)?
4. get involved in many projects at the same time?
Other studies have shown that laboratory monkeys
also differ in their cardiovascular response to stress
triggered by threat of capture (something they
disliked, even after lots of experience with being
captured). These animals were also fed a diet high in
cholesterol, which can slowly clog arteries up. The
animals that reacted more strongly to the capture
threat were also the ones that developed more
clogged coronary (heart) arteries (Manuck et al.,
1983, 1986).
5. race through yellow lights (more than others)?
6. need to win to enjoy a game?
7. move, walk, eat fast?
8. take on more responsibilities than you can handle?
9. hate waiting in line?
10. want very much to succeed and impress others?
If you answer "yes" to more than five of these questions, you
may have a Type A personality. More accurate measures are
needed to classify people reliably.
Q2. Graham is a very impatient, competitive person. He is always in a hurry, and takes on more responsibilities
than he can realistically handle. He____.
[Hint: avoid applying stereotypes]
A. is probably a mid-level business executive
B. has an increased likelihood of having a heart attack
C. has Type A personality
D. has high need for achievement
E. B and C are both correct
F. A, B, C, and D are all correct
asgn4ze
p. 546
Although Type A behavior is widely accepted as a
risk factor for heart disease, subsequent studies have
often failed to confirm the relation as was originally
reported. One study indicated that although Type A
people were more likely to suffer heart attacks, they
had a longer survival rate from non-fatal attacks than
did Type B people (Ragland & Brand, 1988).
Other studies suggested that the effect of Type A
behavior may be indirect. It may have its effect by
increasing the strength of other risk factors
(Lombarda & Carreno, 1987). For example, Type A
people inhale cigarette smoke longer, letting more
nicotine into the body. The nicotine in tobacco smoke
is the main way that smoking increases risk of
cardiovascular disease (heart attacks, strokes). It
makes arteries smaller, which decreases blood
supply to the heart.
Other illnesses have also been connected to
personality traits. Some researchers believe that
people who show Type C personality traits are more
likely to develop and die of cancer. Type C
personality is supposed to be the opposite of Type A,
not just its absence. "Type C people" are
cooperative, unassertive individuals who suppress
anger and comply with external authorities. This
personality is supposed to be associated with
increased activity of hormones like the
glucocorticoids, which decrease the immune
defenses against cancer cells (Eysenck, 1988;
Temoshok, 1987).
Personality tests designed to measure Type C
personality have been given to patients suffering
from cancer. These studies have found that Type C
personality correlated with more severe disease
(Temoshok et al., 1985). Other studies, which
compared people with and without cancer found that
Type C personality occurred more frequently in
cancer patients than in controls.
However, these studies are difficult to interpret,
because they were retrospective studies (retro =
backward; spect = look, as in spectacles, spectator).
Retrospective studies study people who have already
developed the disease. They look backwards in time
to see what factors were associated with these
people more than with others who have not
developed the disease. For example, developing the
cancer could make people develop Type C personality
rather than the other way around.
Prospective studies (pro = forward; spect = look) are a
great improvement over retrospective studies,
because they prevent this problem. Researchers
measure a trait like Type A or Type C personality in a
large sample of people before they are ill. Several
years later they identify the people in the sample who
have developed heart disease or cancer. The
researchers compare these people with the rest of the
sample on the trait they measured at the beginning of
the study. Unfortunately they are much harder and
more expensive to do. In a prospective study, the
researchers measure some trait in a large sample of
people and follow them for many years. Then the
researchers can see whether the trait they measured
earlier is related to the condition or disease they
wanted to study. Because people are tested for the
trait before they develop the condition or disorder,
prospective studies exclude the later event (condition
or disease under study) as a cause of the earlier one
(the trait thought to be associated with the disease or
condition).
Grossarth et al. (1985, 1990) did a prospective study
on Type C personality and cancer, which confirmed
the earlier result that people with type C personalities
were more likely to develop cancer. Because
Grossarth et al. measured personality before the
cancer appeared, the cancer could not affect the
personality measure. Nevertheless, prospective
studies are still correlations, and they cannot tell how
directly personality type affects the disease process.
For example, as for Type A personality's effect on
heart disease and stroke, the effect of Type C
personality on cancer may be indirect. Passive people
may succumb to cancer more quickly because they
not actively do the things that will help survival (like
taking good care of themselves and following their
physician's instructions carefully). They may not
accept responsibility for treatment, leaving it to the
physician and other health professionals. For an
article (Benowitz, 1996) about some recent
approaches to the study of psychological factors
affecting disease through its effects on the immune
system, click HERE.
Q3. Prospective studies of the relation between personality and developing disease __.
A. require that many people's personalities be measured before any are ill
B. eliminate the possibility that the disease affected personality, not the other way around
C. cannot exclude the possibility that some other factor produced the correlation
D. do not show how personality may affect disease: directly or by increasing some other risk factor
E. A, B, C and D. are all correct
asgn4ze
Severe stress, especially long-lasting or unexpected
stress, can trigger a condition called post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD). It has been recognized in
combat soldiers for a long time. In World War I, it was
called shell shock; in World War II, it was called battle
fatigue. About one-fifth of the U. S. soldiers wounded
in Viet Nam reported its symptoms. It also occurs in
survivors of airplane crashes, serious traffic
accidents, kidnaping, assault, or rape. Even
witnesses to a very stressful event, such as a murder,
can develop PTSD.
p. 547
he symptoms of PTSD include prolonged anxiety and
depression, frequent nightmares, anger, and guilt (for
surviving what others did not). A brief reminder of the
traumatic event can trigger an intense emotional
reaction. The symptoms appear to represent a lasting
change in the brain's biochemical functioning.
Some people are more vulnerable to developing
PTSD. For example, it occurred more often in
veterans with prior life problems (growing up in a
family that had money problems, drug dependancy,
affective disorder (depression, mania), or behavior
problems in childhood).
Q4. Long-lasting anxiety and depression, nightmares, and anger are __.
A. symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome
B. based on long-lasting changes in the nervous system
C. reactions that may result from intense, sudden, long-lasting stress
D. more likely to happen in people who were well-adjusted because they were less prepared for the stress
E. A, B, and C are all correct
F. A, B, C, and D are all correct
Coping with Stress
The way people cope with stress affects the body's
reaction to stressful stimuli. Two factors that have
been investigated extensively: whether the stressor is
predictable, and whether the stressor is controllable,
or even perceived to be controllable.
An early study on this topic seemed to show that
having control over stress increased the incidence of
ulcers and other stress related disorders (Brady,
1958). This result fit the stereotype of the
stress-prone executive. However, research since then
has shown that the opposite is much more likely to
happen: lack of predictability and control leads to
more stress as measured by damage to the stomach
lining (as well as other measures).
Why did the first study seem to show that having
control produced more stress? Several factors
probably contributed, but one in particular was almost
certainly essential. Here is a summary of the
experiment. See if you can figure it out.
The task involved teaching monkeys to press a key to
avoid an electric shock. Some monkeys learned this
task very quickly. Others were much slower.
Presumably to speed up the experiment, the
monkeys that learned quickly were put into the
"executive" group, which could avoid or escape the
shock by pressing the key. The slower-learning
monkeys were matched with monkeys in the
"executive" group. They got the same pattern of
shocks the "executive" monkeys got when they
happened to miss preventing one, which was not
often. The "executive" monkeys developed ulcers,
whereas the "non-executive" monkeys did not.
Q5. You cannot conclude from the experiment described above that having control over the shock stressor
caused the ulcers to develop because __.
A. being in the "executive" group was confounded with fast learning
B. the monkeys were not put in the two conditions at random
C. the monkeys that learned fast may have reacted to shock differently
D. A, B, and C are all correct
Later experiments all show that having control
decreases stress and its effects on the body. In these
experiments, rats were tested in pairs under a variety
of conditions. The basic procedure was to have one
rat that could turn a wheel to prevent shock to itself
and also to a yoked control rat (~partner) that could
neither predict nor control the shock. The yoked
control rats, which could neither predict nor control
the shocks, developed more stomach damage than
did the rats with control. The most severe stomach
damage resulted from partial prediction and control:
only some of the shocks could be predicted and
controlled.
Even feeling you have control can reduce stress.
Participants did a proofreading task in the presence
asgn4ze
p. 548
of a loud, annoying noise. The experimenter told
some of the participants how to turn it off, but he said
he preferred that they leave it on. All the participants
left it on, but those who could have turned it off did
better on the task than did those who could not
(because they did not now how). Thus, knowing that
one can control a stressor is enough to reduce its
effects. Other activities can also reduce the effects of
stress. They can be as simple as keeping a healthy
life style (adequate diet, exercise, and rest)
A comment from a person in the class illustrates this
idea:
“If I feel that I am in control, whether or not I
really am, I feel a lot better and less stressed
than if i feel everything is just happening. I
want a part in playing out my life, leaving
nothing to chance. May all be chance, but at
least I feel I'm making a difference.”
Q6. The stress that a life event produces can be reduced if __.
A. you know you can do nothing to control it and just relax and quit trying and worrying about it
B. you control it, as in escape and avoidance learning
C. you think you can control it, even if you don't do anything about it
D. you can predict when it will happen
E. B and D are both correct
F. B, C, and D are all correct
More specific methods for controlling stress include
biofeedback and meditation. Biofeedback is an application of instrumental conditioning procedures to gain
voluntary control over body responses. For example,
it is used to teach people how to decrease muscle
tension, which is a sign of stress. The muscle tension
is measured electrically from the skin surface (often
the forehead) and displayed to the participant, by the
pitch of a soft tone, for example. The patient's task is
to lower the pitch, which s/he can do only by relaxing
the muscles. A lower pitch signals success in relaxing, which reinforces whatever the patient did to relax
his/her muscles. Once learned, this skill can be used
when needed to decrease the reactions of stress.
Asgn4e describes sensory deprivation and meditation
procedures that appear to have a similar effect on the
body. Experienced meditators can put themselves
into a mental state which empties the mind and
generates intense alpha activity in the EEG ("brain
waves"), a sign of deep relaxation. Meditation also
affects various body functions, even as fundamental
as metabolic rate. Some meditators in India can cut
their metabolic rate as measured by oxygen
consumption by 20% or more, compared to the rate
at rest. This also reflects reduced brain activity,
because at rest, the human brain uses about 20% of
the body's oxygen supply.
For some practical advice on reducing and controlling everyday stress, click HERE or HERE.
To go to a menu of brief articles about stress, its health effects, and coping strategies, click HERE.
To go to a menu of articles about mental effects on disease, found in the American Psychological Association
Help Center, click HERE
To go to a menu of articles about psychological effects on disease and the immune system, click HERE.
Q7. Biofeedback uses instrumental (operant) conditioning methods to get people to relax the body when they
are under stress. The relaxation is the _____ and the signal showing successful relaxation is the _____.
A. response to be strengthened; reinforcer
B. conditioned response (CR); unconditioned response (UR)
C. conditioned stimulus (CS); unconditioned stimulus (US)
D. triggered response; triggered stimulus
E. predictive response; predictive stimulus
Emotional Reactions as Measures of Lying
The emotional response than many people have
when they tell lies is the basis of polygraphy or "lie
detection." Lie detection assumes that telling a lie
triggers an emotional or stress response, which can
be measured from the body reactions it produces. So
a lie detector does not detect lies. It detects the
emotional response that telling lies triggers. The
typical polygraph measures breathing, heart rate,
blood pressure, and sweating (by changes in how
easily an undetectably weak electric current passes
through the skin). People are supposed to show
predictable changes in these measures when they lie,
and many people do. Professional polygraphers claim
accuracies of well above 90%. When put to a test
where the actual liar is known, polygraphers do not
do that well. Tests of polygraphic detection of lying
under carefully controlled conditions often yield
considerably lower accuracies.
asgn4ze
p. 549
Q8. What idea does the polygraph test for detecting lying depend on?
A. Telling lies consistently triggers an emotional response.
B. Telling the truth does not trigger an emotional response.
C. The body response to emotion cannot be voluntarily controlled.
D. A, B, and C are all correct
E. none of the above
The problem with polygraphy is that the correlation
between lying and emotional reaction, while high, is
low enough to leave considerable room for error.
Quite a few people don't show emotional reactions
consistently when they lie. Other people learn to
control their body reactions to avoid detection,
whereas still others show body reactions even when
they tell the truth. One way to minimize errors that
individual differences produce is to use the Guilty
Knowledge test. In this test, the subject is asked
specific information that only someone who is guilty
could know.
For example, if an embezzler has taken $2500 from
his employer, the polygrapher will ask: "How much
money was taken? $1,500? $2,000? $2,500?
$3,000?" Only the guilty person should react more to
the $2,500 than to the other numbers, if s/he is the
only suspect who knows the amount embezzled.
Properly done and using a strict criterion (remember
signal detection? See asgn2b) to define when a
response indicates a lie, psychologists estimate that
the false alarm rate will be as low as 1 in 100. On the
other hand, quite a few guilty people will be missed.
Q9. To avoid the chance of calling an innocent person guilty in the embezzlement example above, the person
administering the lie detection test should know __.
A. the amount that was stolen
B. the employment record of the person s/he tests
C. when the embezzlement occurred and how it was done
D. nothing about the case or the person s/he tests
E. A, B, and C are all correct
Click HERE to go to an article debating the validity of lie detector tests.
Click HERE to go to a summary of an article about the ability (or lack of it) to catch people who are telling lies.
Click HERE to go to an article about the use (or misuse) of polygraphy for screening to detect spies at three
national laboratories that work on nuclear weapons
Click HERE to go to the home page of the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute.
Asgn4ze -- EMOTION: Stress and Disease. Part II
Copyright © 1999 by Gabriel P. Frommer