Selye's GAS: Resistance and Exhaustion

Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome: Resistance

• Body adapts to a persistent stressor with high levels of bodily arousal.
• This stage is adaptive as the body adjusts to physiological changes from the initial shock.
• Energy is primarily directed at confronting the stressor.
• Bodily resources are used at an increased rate to maintain heightened arousal.
• Prolonged stress hormones, like cortisol, suppress immune function, increasing illness susceptibility.
• The individual can still cope with the initial stressor's demands during resistance.

Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome: Exhaustion

• The final stage involves depletion of energy and bodily resources, hindering the ability to cope with the stressor.
• Exposure to the stressor has been prolonged and persistent.
• The body runs out of reserves after fighting the stressor for an extended time.
• Weakness and low resistance to physical and psychological illnesses may develop.
• Individuals can no longer cope with the stressor's demands and cannot confront new stressors.
• The body is unable to maintain heightened physiological arousal due to depleted bodily resources and stress hormones.

Stages of GAS

• Stage 1: Shock
  • Acute stress response occurs.
  • Muscular tone decreases resulting in lower body temperature and blood pressure.
  • The body’s state is below normal.
• Stage 1: Counter Shock:
  • Fight-or-flight-or-freeze response is triggered to confront the stressor.
  • Adrenaline and cortisol are released initially.
  • Muscles tense, heart rate and breathing rate increase, and pupils dilate.
  • The body’s state initially drops but rises above normal.
• Stage 2:
  • Cortisol levels are at their highest.
  • Energy levels increase due to higher blood sugar.
  • Immune system functioning becomes impaired.
  • Physical signs of wear and tear, such as colds, flu symptoms, headaches, and lethargy, begin to appear.
  • The body’s state is well above normal and begins to drop.
• Stage 3:
  • Energy stores become depleted.
  • Susceptibility to physical conditions like infection, stomach ulcers, sleep disturbances, and fatigue increases.
  • The body’s state is well below normal.

Explanatory Power of Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome

• Selye provided a valuable method for scientists to understand the relationship between stressful modern lives and disease.
• It serves as a useful model for explaining the biological process.
• The research was mainly conducted on rats, which limits its application to the human stress response.

Strengths of GAS

• Suggests a predictable pattern of responses easily tested in a laboratory.
• Identifies biological processes in the stress response, like hormone secretion and immune system depletion.
• One of the first theories suggesting stress can weaken the body's resistance to illness.
• Research suggests that the GAS stages exist, signifying the physiological reality of the body's non-specific response to a stressor.

Limitations of GAS

• Human stress responses tend to be more complex and variable.
• Does not acknowledge psychological or cognitive processing in the human stress response.
• Does not account for individual differences in stress responses.

Factors that influence stress (Lazarus & Folkman)

• Psychological factors influence how stress is perceived and processed; this is unique for each individual.
• Optimism vs. pessimism influences stress perception.
• Risk-taking and challenges contribute to stress levels.
• Lifestyle pace and demands affect stress.
• Competing and compounding pressures add to stress.
• Past experience with stress informs current responses.
• The influence of family and friends impacts stress.
• Resources and support network affect stress.
• Personality influences how stress is handled.

Stress as a Psychological Process

• Psychological processes, including cognitive and emotional functions, impact how stressors are interpreted.
• These processes are subjective, based on personal feelings or preferences.
• Psychological processes are unique to each individual, resulting in diverse responses.

Lazarus & Folkman Transactional Model of Stress & Coping (1984)

• Explains stress response as an 'output' resulting from an 'input'.
• The unique stress response is from an individual's appraisal of the stressor and their ability to cope with it.

Key Psychological Factors:

• Focus on the meaning of the event to the individual.
• Focus on the individual's judgment of their ability to cope with it.
• Stress is not solely a result of the individual or the environment alone.
• Emphasis on two key psychological factors determines the extent to which an event is experienced as stressful:
  • Stress is experienced when there is an imbalance between a person's appraisal of the demands of the situation and their estimation of their ability to meet those demands.

Primary Appraisal Substages

• Two substages complete the primary appraisal.
• This is the initial process of evaluating the nature of the incoming stressor.
• It decides if the incoming stimulus will cause stress.

Initial Ways of Appraisal:

• Benign-Positive: Stimulus as neutral or good that does not cause stress.
• Irrelevant: Stimulus as a non-issue for the individual.
• Stressful: Stimulus as a source of worry or emotional significance.
  • If a stimulus is seen to be benign positive or irrelevant, it’s disregarded.
  • Appraisal is always subjective and depends on the the estimation of ability to cope with the stressor.
  • Appraisal is not necessarily a conscious process.
• If the initial component of primary appraisal evaluates an incoming stimulus as stressful, it undergoes further appraisal.

Additional Appraisals following "Stressful":

• Harm/Loss: Appraisal of a stressor having caused some damage to the individual.
• Threat: Appraisal of a stressor as potentially causing damage in the future, causing distress.
• Challenge: Appraisal of a stressor as potentially providing positive opportunity for growth or change.
• Harm/Loss: A further appraisal of a stressor as having already caused some damage and direct distress.

Secondary Appraisal

• The individual evaluates the required and available resources to cope with a stressor.
• This stage is called secondary appraisal
• Stress results when coping resources cannot meet the stressor's demands.
• Coping options/resources can be internal (strength, determination) or external (money/support from friends).
• Lazarus & Folkman discuss 2 kinds of coping strategies:
  • Emotion-Focused Coping
  • Problem-Focused Coping
  • They can reappraise the outcome to determine its success and modify their coping strategy.
  • Improving coping skills or reappraising the stressor in a positive light is possible to avoid negative stress responses.

Emotion-Focused Coping Strategies:

• Target emotional components of a stressor, rather than directly confronting its source.
• They do not directly address the source of stress, but are still effective when problem-focused strategies are not enough.
  • Examples include: wishful thinking, denial, reframing, optimism, venting emotions, meditation, or distraction.

Problem-Focused Coping Strategies:

• Directly target the source of the stressor, aiming to reduce it practically.

Explanatory Power of Transactional Model of Stress & Coping

• Emphasizes the subjective nature of the stress response, illustrating diverse reactions to different stressors.
• Difficult to test through experimental research.
• Individuals may not always be aware of stress response factors.

Strengths of Transactional Model of Stress & Coping

• Allows tracking of an individual's subjective stress response.
• Considers cognitive processes within the stress response.
• Uses human subjects as a data source.
• Helps explain why the same stressor affects people differently.
• Offers coping stage suggestions (emotion and problem-focused strategies).

Limitations of Transactional Model of Stress & Coping

• Primary and secondary appraisal stages may occur simultaneously.
• Individuals may not consciously be aware of why they feel stress.
• Does not include biological processes of stress.
• Difficult to test, as human subjects may not be fully aware during appraisal.

The Gut-Brain Axis

• A 'second brain' exists in humans, commonly known as the gut.
• Also known as 'Gastrointestinal Tract'
• Responsible for processing food, absorbing nutrients and excreting waste.
• Multiple living microorganisms maintain gut heath.
• Gut Microbiota and Gut Microbiome help maintain gut health.

Composition of Gut Microbiota

• The health depends on the type and amounts of microorganisms.
• Imbalance of microbiota = Microbiota Dysbiosis
• Balance of Microbiota = Microbiota Symbiosis
• Gut Microbiota live inside gastrointestinal tract.
• Gut Microbiome are the genes of the microorganisms that live inside the gut.
• The health of the gut can change based on the types and amounts of microorganisms present in the gut.

Nervous system:

• The enteric nervous system (ENS) is embedded in the walls of the gastrointestinal tract.
• The ENS is referred to as a 'second brain’ given its degree of autonomy.
• It has more neurons than the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system combined. -Detects the physiological condition of the gastrointestinal tract. -Integrates information about its state. -Provides outputs to control gut movement -Performs other functions like nutrient management, gastric acid secretions, and changing local blood flow. -Interacting with the parts of the immune and endocrine systems that are located in the guy. -Can regulate response to food and drink, e.g., ENS can respond by initiating vomiting and diarrhoea in the case of food poisoning.

Gut-Brain Axis:

• Refers to the bidirectional connection between the gut and the brain through the enteric and central nervous systems.
• Nerves within the enteric nervous system communicate with nerves in the central nervous system.
• This reflects the relationship between gut and brain.
• Emerging research suggests there are possible connections between these concepts.
• Gut microbiota causes an individual to experience stress or develop mental illness.
• Gut-Brain Communication is bidirectional.
• Communication is completed through the Vagus Nerve (longest cranial nerve connection).
• 10-20% of nerves convey information from the brain to gut and 80-90% convey to the brain.
• A potential link exists between the gut and the experiences of stress.

Gut-Brain Axis - Psychological Process & Behaviour

• Composition of gut microbiota can impact the processes and behaviour.
• Positive psychological process and behaviour is the result of; Presence of “good” and absence of “bad” bacteria.
• Influence is researched through; Germ-free animal studies, microbiota in humans and gut related diseases.
• ‘Butterflies in your stomach’ highlights the link between the state of the brain and the state of the gut
• Anxiousness can result in stomach discomfort and vice versa.

Germ-Free Animal Studies

• Germ-Free Animals have had microorganisms from their gut removed. Role of Gut-Brain axis based on studies:
  • Significant changes in anxiety-like behaviour and anxiety responses in germ-free mice.
  • Poorer memory function in germ-free mice.
  • Increased secretion of stress hormones in germ-free mice.
  • Less social engagement and interaction in germ-free mice.
• Germ-free animals are not healthier or unhealthier than 'conventional' animals.
• Germ-Free animal studies show the Gut-Brain influence, cannot be generalized to humans.
• These studies compare behaviours of those in comparison to animals non germ-free.
• One study implanted microbiota from patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) into germ-free mice.
• Those mice with implanted microbiota began to exhibit depressive-like behaviours (Zheng et al., 2016).

Microbiota Composition in Humans

• Research suggests that the composition of gut microbiota can influence the likelihood of experiencing:
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Mental Health disorders, i.e. Depressive, Anxiety & Psychotic Disorders
  • Cognitive Decline
  • Stress can influence Gut Microbiota and vice versa.

Shows how:

• Stress can impact the diversity/composition of gut microbiota.
• Higher stress is linked to unhealthy levels of gut microbiota.
• Individuals may have digestive discomfort when experiencing stress
• Digestive discomfort can occur when experiencing stress, or stress can be the is the result to the discomfort.

Gut-Related Diseases

• Emerging research shows gut related disease impacts anxiety, depression, and other cognitive problems.
• Researched; Irritable bowel syndrome and Inflammatory bowel disease
• Potential links between these gut-related diseases, and the presence of anxiety and depression symptoms.

Coping with Stress

• To effectively deal with stress, individuals must assess the needs of each stressor to respond.
• Coping is the process of dealing with stress to which some aim to directly confront or reduce the source of stress.

Essential to mental wellbeing:

• Strategies/coping mechanisms.
• effective coping include:
  • Context-Specific Effectiveness
  • Coping Flexibility
• Take contextual factors into account when using a coping strategy.

Context Specific effectiveness

• Refers to when a coping strategies or mechanism is suitable for the demands of the stressor.
• Ensures a good balance between the coping strategy used, or a specific situation.
• The effectiveness of a particular strategy is depending upon when and where it is used.

Coping Flexibility

• Refers to changing coping strategies depending on stressor.
• Demonstrated when coping strategies change based on situations.
• High levels of ensures achieve effective.
• If any changes happen, initial strategy may not be the most effective.
• Individuals high in coping flexibility quickly adjust their strategies.
• Are flexible and predictable when dealing with stress.

Approach Strategies

• Directly confront the source of stress and thus reduce or eliminate it
• Actively focused on the stressor via engagement with the stressor
• Seeking expert advice.
• Developing a plan to increase one's sense of control around an issue.

Limitations of Approach strategies:

• Initially or in the short term, it may increase stress levels.
• May require a lot of the individual's energy and focus to stressor, which means they might neglect other aspects of their lives.

Benefits of Approach strategies:

• Considered to be more adaptive and effective.
• People that cope experience few psychological symptoms.

Avoidance Strategies

• Involve evading or distancing oneself from the source of stress.
• Generally maladaptive due to one's behaviour to avoid thinking about, feeling or doing thing.
• Take focus away from it and are usually temporarily stress in the short term.
• Examples include: procrastination, napping, oversleeping, substance use or abuse, denial and television.

Limitations of Avoidance strategies:

• Can make your situation worse.
• Tends to be maladaptive.
• Negative consequences is the result of reliance on.
• Long-term use can contribute to other problems.
• Delaying actually with might be detrimental.

Benefits of Avoidance strategies:

• Selectively with aspects by switching off adaptive.
• It allows conserve on stressors that can be changed.
• In the can be done.
• Ignoring for while minimising is effective in term.

Exercise as a Coping Strategy?

• Exercise strategy does not deal with you are,
• Used to or is you condition
• To in need training like run,