Different Approaches•
on October 13th, 2010•
by Jorg Thonnissen (2010) Registered Psychologist
There are a differences in approach between psychiatry, hypnotherapy and psychotherapy (although hypnotherapy can be applied as part of psychotherapy). Typically, psychiatry and psychotherapy deal mostly with the conscious mind, even though there are approaches that are called ‘free associations’. As the conscious mind is regarded as analytical, technical and largely critical of information entering, these approaches usually take a lot of convincing.
Psychotherapy works by going step by step through the problems or issues and talking things through while at the same time looking at the issues from many different angles. There is no doubt that this helps to identify what needs to be addressed and it will eventually lead step by step to behavioural changes.
Nevertheless, this approach in dealing predominately with the conscious mind exclusively can also be a rather long and drawn out process (psychotherapy in some instances can take years to complete).
Psychiatry most typically includes the use of mind altering medicines. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor with a high degree of training in mental health. It is important to note that people suffering from severe mental conditions such as those who have an inability to separate reality from imagination or the desire to harm others or themselves are best directed to a psychiatrist as they can introduce medications that stabilises such conditions. It is not recommended to use hypnosis with people suffering from certain psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia for example, unless a psychiatrist has assessed whether this is the right way to go about it.
Compared to all the approaches I have outlined above, hypnotherapy aims to directly go to the subconscious source of the problem.Thus, in my experience, after initially defining what the problem is that needs to be resolved, the process of hypnotherapy seems to speed up the desired behavioural changes by a number of factors when compared to approaches that deal predominately with the concious (more critical) part of the mind. Most people that I come accross seem to know fair well what needs to be done on a conscious level, but even though they know, it doesn’t mean that unwanted thoughts, feelings and the resulting behaviour necessarily brings about the changes they so desperately desire. We just have to ask a smoker or someone that is a chronic procrastinator to understand what that means. Both people would know what needs to change but they may just cannot bring themselves to actually make it happen. Thus, motivating the subconscious mind through the use of hypnosis to do things differently often does the trick.
Today we know that many of our prevailing mindsets are formed at the subconscious level somewhere in the earlier, formative stages of our lives. But what does that mean? Well…to just use one example, for instance we will come to find that we have formed feelings and emotions that are deprived of language when we were much younger. This makes much sense if we think that a baby or younger children don’t have the same ability of language use or ‘critical’ understanding that a matured person has. When we are young we are much more impressionable and the ability for logic and deductive reasoning is much less prevalent. We take things literally – at face value, the boundaries between imagination and reality are blurred.
For instance, when we are very young and feel ‘hungry’ then we don’t even know what that means in terms of logical reasoning. Hunger is merely a feeling that cannot be described as we are lacking the maturity of an adult mind. Hence we feel ‘something’ such as love, warmth, fear or hunger, etc. and those feelings are strong and leave a lasting and powerful deep unconscious impression. Similarly, a little later on, when someone tells us that they have seen ‘pies fly in the sky’ and Santa living on the North Pole we are inocent enough to belief it. It is ‘real’. So everything, including the belief we hold about ourselves based on our earlier experiences has the potential to influence how we come to see the world around us and ourselves in it.
Many of us will still clearly remember our school days, our first embarrassment, or the feeling we had when things were ‘unfair’ and many of these emotions are still playing into our lives right now. Thus, psychotherapists talk about ‘the inner child’ within.
Consequently, our mind can be divided into different memory systems, one that is ‘childlike’ and the other one adult like or mature. Either way, hypnotherapy offers an excellent approach to change our thoughts and feelings on a subconscious level where many of these childlike emotions play out their part.
Physical Illness•
on October 8th, 2010•
by Jorg Thonnissen (2010) Registered Psychologist
The first thing that we need to understand when we are ill is that it is only common sense to see a medical professional first before attempting anything else. In other words, when we have a broken leg…we should always first and foremost go and see a medical doctor to get it fixed.
As such, there is a clear order of priorities that needs to be followed when one is affected by illness and that involves seeing a medical professional first to get a diagnosis of the problem.
It is important to understand that hypnotherapists should never make ‘blanket’ claims that hypnosis cures medical illness as such. However, having said this, hypnotherapy most certainly has the ability to motivate our mind to work to its fullest potential to assist cure the body more effectively.
For those of us who doubt that there is a connection between our physiology and psychology, research over the last few decades has given a lot of credibility to this notion. To explain further, we all have probably heard of medical doctors who can foretell based on personality how well a patient is likely to be able to cope with stressful situations such as that following the diagnosis of a severe illness. A good example to show how our mind affects our body would be what medical practitioners call the ‘cancer personality’.
This is not a farfetched assumption rather clinical studies have shown that depending on how a person reacts to stressful stimuli based on subjective awareness, as well as conscious perception there is indeed something that can be called a ‘type C’ personality. In other words, studies have shown that people can experience emotional stress with clearly measurable physical effects but they might manage to suppress their actual feelings about the stressful event beyond their conscious awareness.
Thus, the kind of mindset that the ‘Type C Personality’ has come to be associated with is defined as being the type of person who is passive, patient, accepting with a lack of assertiveness and overall extremely cooperative. In short, these are people who have a tendency of suppressing their reactions in order to avoid conflict. This follows that the Type C personality is assumed of practicing a pushing down of necessary emotional responses and with that is somewhat disregarding their healthy need for self assertion.
Based on this research the long held traditional Western medical view of a split between body and mind becomes increasingly outdated and the view that our physiology, including our immune system, is directly affected by our emotions gains more and more recognition. This follows that repressing necessary emotional responses can be thought of as threatening our psychological as well as physiological health by first and foremost suppressing immune responses which in turn leaves a person susceptible to viral or bacterial invaders as well as malignant changes from within.
Seen from this perspective, we can certainly say that our mind is of utmost importance when it comes to our well being. A healthy mind offers the body a better fighting chance. Therefore, it is only reasonable to assume that the expected outcomes of an illness will be affected depending on the given strength of a person’s mindset.
So…how can hypnosis or hypnotherapy make a difference?
Well…it is often mentioned that the subconscious (unaware) part of our mind takes up most mental processes whereas we are only ever really conscious (aware) of the few things that we choose to focus on. In other words, everything other than what we are consciously thinking about is regarded as subconscious or unconscious. For instance our body temperature, our hormones, blood flow or the management of pain are largely regulated by subconscious processes which seem to happen somewhat automatic.
There is no doubt that these processes can be manipulated with the help of modern medicine but often we also have to take the undesired side effects into consideration that the introduction of medications could bring. Hypnosis on the other hand aims to encourage the body to do this naturally through stimulating the body’s own resources. Nevertheless, it would be foolish to exclude either option available to us when dealing with illness, and as mentioned earlier, the first priority is always to seek medical advice first before considering other approaches.
Depending on the kind of illness that is experienced, there is certainly merit for the application of both, medical treatment first and foremost and hypnosis to strengthen our mind with the effect of strengthening our body. These two approaches can be seen as working together in a body/mind approach to give a sufferer of disease the best possible outcome when going through the different stages of illness.
Today there are several recognised applications of hypnosis in medical settings. For example, in addition to dealing with pre and post surgery anxiety, as well as general anxiety, hypnotherapy is commonly used in the treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Hypertension, Multiple Sclerosis, and pain management in general.
Self Esteem•
on September 9th, 2010•
by Jorg Thonnissen (2010) Registered Psychologist
A study shows that children & adolescents high in task or goal orientation have higher self-esteem. Accordingly, Baldwin (2002) believes that in order to increase self-esteem, one’s expectations have to be lowered or successes have to be increased. Abel (1997) on the other hand, views high self-esteem as adaptive as it is associated with an individual’s greater capacity for a number of personality characteristics such as self –regulation, persistence and successful performance as well as higher expectations of success.
In other words, if persistence exceeds expectations where performance is related to efforts, a person of high self-esteem will experience success that will heighten self-esteem.
However, there is a clear distinction between typical (realistic) and atypical (unrealistic) expectations, as the latter often presents itself as an individual’s maintenance of goals in situations where failure is the obvious result. Thus, one has to consider the effects of attainment and non attainment of future expectations (expressed as realistic or unrealistic goals or tasks) as it will have a direct effect on a person’s development of self-esteem.
Studies found that a ‘positive goal discrepancy’ is achieved when performance exceeds expectations. On the other hand, a ‘negative goal discrepancy’ is achieved if performance fails to meet expectations.
Thus, the consequences of failing to meet expectations are likely to be expressed as a lowering of expectations each time failure occurs, creating highly stressful and emotional situations negatively affecting judgment and the failure of setting realistic goals in future. In other words, under such circumstances self-esteem is in systematic decline.
On the other hand, success will lead to the willingness to ‘raising the bar’ each time a task has been completed. Therefore, the setting of realistic goals is of crucial importance if self-esteem is to be increased. However, in order to truly increase a person’s self-esteem, it needs to be understood that it is one’s own observation of self that is of prime importance to the development of self-esteem.
Seen from such perspective, an individual’s achievements are only seen as appropriately reflecting the self, if they have been internally caused. Externally motivated achievements on the other hand, are said to have little effect on self-esteem. This view is consistently supported by a number of self perception and self attribution theories which indicate that when people perceive their behavior as internally motivated, the consequences for the self are stronger. Therefore, the importance of achievements and attainments based on self direction are of crucial importance for the development of self-esteem.
Self Esteem•
on September 9th, 2010•
by Jorg Thonnissen (2010) Registered Psychologist
How people maintain their self-esteem has been extensively researched. It is believed that after formation, it enables those who are high in the construct to maintain high feelings about the self, whereas those with a lesser degree of self-esteem, are proportionally less able to do likewise.
The results of a study in which participants were given success or failure feedback on intellectual ability assessments seems to supports this. In the assessment, participants with high levels of self-esteem reported consistently higher feelings of self esteem, than those whose levels were low.
It was consequently discovered, that in order to achieve this, participants with high self-esteem employed various strategies to protect, promote, and thus restore their feelings of self worth by methods such as the attribution of failure to the selection of ineffective strategies.
Such strategies have been described by Mullis & Chapman (2000) who found that adolescents with higher self-esteem used different coping styles than those considered lower in the construct.
For example, adolescents with low self-esteem preferred to rely on emotion based strategies (emotion focused) such as the ventilation of feelings for example, whereas those of high self-esteem were more likely to rely on strategies designed to solve problems (problem focused).
Perhaps it is this difference in coping styles which leads to the perceived success or failure of an individual’s goal or task achievements. For example, Tafarodi (1997) associates low self-esteem with an individual’s tendency to show decreased efforts following a performance failure which in turn affects the individual’s willingness to be persistent in his/her pursuit of future goals or targets.
Self Esteem•
on August 29th, 2010•
by Jorg Thonnissen (2010) Registered Psychologist
Parental behaviors have a strong influence on children and adolescent self-esteem. For example, Nielsen et al (2002) reports parental affection and support to be positively related to the development of self-esteem in children.
Researchers found that good support from parents was an adequate predictor for mental health. Generally, vulnerability and low self-esteem was greatest in those children and adolescents whose parental support was low, this applied especially for males. On the other hand, a study investigating the relationship between family dimensions and self-esteem in early adolescents indicates that girls’ self-esteem in particular is strongly related to a parent behavior, that displays an intellectually cultural family orientation, whereas boys’ self-esteem was positively related to their parents’ moral global orientation.
Overall, children and adolescents from high conflict families reported lower Self-esteem, higher levels of anxiety and weaker inward control. This can be seen in support of a study that found that the greater the perceived happiness of parents, the higher their children’s self concept. In addition, parents who avoid the use of guilt, anxiety and the withdrawal of love in order to control children/ adolescent behavior are likely to strengthen the self-esteem of their children.
However, parenting styles utilizing moderate levels of discipline at the same time are believed to further enhance the construct, whereas excessive parental control has the opposite effect (Nielsen et al, 2002). Besides strong evidence of parental support as a factor in developing self-esteem in children and adolescents, there is also reason to believe teacher and peer support to be of similar importance.
For example, low teacher and classmate support have been linked to low self-esteem and consequently behavioral problems. There is a relationship between low self-esteem and peer rejection as well as low academic achievement in children and adolescents.
Further, as youth evaluate themselves across adolescents, contemporary social influences have a major influence on the formation of their Self-esteem. This is unsurprising if one is to consider the impacts of media and advertising on social trends and lifestyles.
For example, the ‘perfect body’ may be something to be idealized by many, however, achieved by only a few. Similarly, children and adolescents may idealize a particular brand of footwear or soft drink used by the ‘in’ group, thereby perceiving themselves as ‘outsiders’ or as ‘lesser’ individuals for as long as these ‘brand icons’ haven’t been achieved.
Self Esteem•
on August 29th, 2010•
by Jorg Thonnissen (2010) Registered Psychologist
There are a number of models by which self-esteem is believed to develop. For example, the affective model assumes that it develops early in life in response to temperamental and relational factors. However, as self esteem is intrinsically connected to an individual’s ‘self concept’, the term will have to be addressed for clarification. Perhaps the most noted psychologist to explain the development of an individual’s ‘self concept’, from early childhood to adulthood is Piaget (1969).
In his ‘theory of mind’ he makes a distinction between four stages of cognitive development in individuals, namely, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational stages. In the sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2), the child is believed to have no conceptual or reflective thought, and therefore the notion of self-esteem is of no consequence. From about the preoperational stage (2-6 years), the child engages in symbolic thinking, at which moment the child understands the world only from its own perspective and thus has only one point of view – that of its own.
In the concrete operational stage (7-11 years), the child begins to interpret experiences objectively and understands the basic concepts of conversation and other scientific ideas such as classifications and numbers. The formal operational stage (12 years and older), enables the adolescent or adult to think about hypothetical concepts and abstractions. Throughout these four stages an individual’s cognitive abilities are consistently increasing, which in turn also causes an increase in the individual’s self awareness due to physical and mental attributes, as well as social roles. What emerges is the person’s ‘self image’. At the same time, the individual usually develops a concept of who they would like to be, a characteristic referred to as the ‘ideal self’.
Together, self image and ideal self are part of a person’s ‘self concept’. In other words, an individual’s self concept can be seen as an umbrella term for self image and ideal self, two terms that between them give rise to self-esteem. As such, the level of self-esteem is determined by the discrepancy between an individual’s perceived self, and an expectation of who they ‘should’ be. Branden (1995) understands self-esteem as the reputation individuals acquire within themselves. Put simply, by satisfying personally defined roles an individual is able to measure or perceive his/her ‘self-esteem’.
Self Esteem•
on August 18th, 2010•
by Jorg Thonnissen (2010) Registered Psychologist
Poor self-esteem, when internalized, is often associated with a number of mental disorders and social problems, ranging from depression, suicidal ideations, eating disorders and anxiety, and if externalized, it may find expression as violent behavior or substance abuse.
Especially low global and academic self-esteem in children and young adolescents was found to be a predictor of such health compromising behaviors. For example, a study by Phyllis (2000) shows that poor grades and deviant behavior of children as early as in grade 7 are a possible indication of such behavior 5 years later.
There are a number of characteristics displayed by children and adolescents with low self-esteem. For example the frequent voicing of negative statements about the self as well as excessive criticism of others, overreaction to constructive criticism or other anxiety provoking situations may all indicate low self-esteem.
A relationship between Self-esteem and accomplishment has been identified in the classic ‘Principles of Psychology’ by William James in 1890. Ever since, many researchers have sought to define the construct. However, researchers are still rather undecided in their understanding of how many dimensions are considered reasonable, to ‘truly’ capture the construct of self-esteem in its entirety.
Some belief that especially early adolescent self-esteem is multidimensional in structure, as it is influenced by individual and contextual factors linked to adjustment outcomes that can both hinder or promote overall development of an individual’s self-esteem.
Brown, Dutton and Cook (2001), on the other hand, found the construct of self-esteem to have three meanings; global or trait self-esteem, self evaluation, and feelings of self worth. The concept of global self-esteem is commonly used to refer to the way people characteristically feel about themselves, whereas the same term has also been used to refer to the way abilities and attributes are evaluated, thus the name ‘self evaluation’. Conversely, feelings of self worth are used to identify rather momentary emotional states arising from positive or negative situational outcomes.
Across the literature, gender has been cited as a significant indicator of the individual’s perceived self-esteem. The construct has been found to have gender specific characteristics with global male self-esteem being on average higher than that of females. This follows that particularly age and gender are considered to present significant predictors of ‘Global’ self-esteem, and, as such, may vary substantially across contextual and/or developmental domains in youths.
Self Esteem•
on August 18th, 2010•
by Jorg Thonnissen (2010) Registered Psychologist
For Hypnotherapy in Perth and Fremantle visit Hypnotic Impact
“Self-esteem is a set of attitudes and beliefs that a person brings with him- or herself when facing the world. It includes beliefs as to whether he or she can expect success or failure, how much effort should be put forth, whether failure at a task will “hurt,” and whether he or she will become more capable as a result of different experiences.
In psychological terms, self-esteem provides a mental set that prepares the person to respond according to expectations of success, acceptance, and personal strength” –Stanley Coopersmith, Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories Manual
“To compare oneself favorably to others, to appreciate and evaluate oneself highly, to have a positive attitude, the conviction in ones ability, competence and the belief to be in ‘control’ of ones life are all associated with levels of ‘high’ Self-esteem. On the other hand, powerlessness, depression, self depreciation and helplessness are considered feelings of ‘low’ Self-esteem”Mecca, Smelser & Vasconcellos, 1989
Researchers suggest that the active protection and promotion of self-esteem is critical to improve mental and physical health. As it influences aspirations, personal goals and interactions with others, self-esteem is of crucial importance to mental and social well being and plays an important role as a protective and non specific risk factor in physical and mental health. Youth problems such as poor academic achievement, risky sexual behavior, insolence, drug and alcohol abuse, psychological distress and delinquency to name only a few have been associated with low self-esteem.
Hypnosis or hypnotherapy provides an avenue to effectively promote the development of self- esteem (please read next article).
by Jorg Thonnissen (2010) Registered Psychologist
For Hypnotherapy in Perth and Fremantle visit Hypnotic Impact
Uncategorized•
on May 13th, 2010•
Since the 1940’s mindfulness has been part of Gestalt therapy, either in theory and practice. In the most simplistic terms, Gestalt therapy founded by psychoanalyst Fritz Perls is concerned with teaching people a method of awareness that distinguishes between their pre existing attitudes and their actual perceiving, feeling and acting in a situation.
Put differently, in Gestalt therapy attempted interpretations and explanations of a situation are considered less reliable in terms of what ‘is real’, and thus it is better to communicate a phenomenological experience directly as it comes to the fore of the mind (saying/noticing it as it is) rather than filtering the experience through perceptional filters.
As such, the aim for practitioners of Gestalt therapy is to create awareness of what it is they are doing in the present moment, understanding how they are actually doing it, and how they can change themselves, while learning and accepting to value themselves at the same time.
As such, Gestalt therapy focuses more on process than on content. Put differently, the focal point is on what is happening right now (process) rather than thoughts of the should’s, could’s and must’s which are thoughts believed to have their origin in past or future oriented schema patterns (content).
Stress•
on May 11th, 2010•
Based on the (Khoozani & Hadzic, 2010) ontology, the model identifies 3 general factors inducing stress based on relativity, objectivity and duration.
Relativity – psychological (perceived) versus biogenic (absolute) factors
Considering the relativity of perceived stress (Lupien, Maheu, Tu, Fiocco, & Schramek, 2007) separate stressors into psychological and biogenic (absolute) groups. Whereas biogenic stressors are defined as stimuli that produce effects regardless of a person’s perception (i.e. drugs or environmental stimuli that lead to physiological arousal such as temperature or… ), psychological stressors are very much of a perceptual nature (Lupien, et al., 2007). Put differently, whether an event is perceived as stressful and to which extend is largely dependent on the way we appraise or interpret it (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). For example …
Objective versus Subjective stressors
Similarly, (Pervin, 1978) describes stressors either as subjective (i.e. the belief of a person perceiving an event as stressful) or objective (i.e. based on observable facts). For instance (Hamama-Raz, Solomon, Schachter, & Azizi, 2007) found that the lower the participants of a study appraise their situation as a threat and more as a challenge the better they would cope with stress. This is in line with (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) theory that stress results from an imbalance between demand and resources, or put differently, once a stressor exceeds ones perceived ability to cope with it we are experiencing stress.
Acute or Chronic stressors
(Khoozani & Hadzic, 2010) also found that stressors can be categorized as either chronic or acute based on of the length of time they are present. Whereas chronic stressors are defined as of long duration, less intense and ambiguous in nature, acute stressors are more intense, typically of short duration and for example can lead to symptoms such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Khoozani & Hadzic, 2010) or increases in asthma attacks in children already suffering from asthma (Sandberg et al., 2000).
Stress Mediators
There are a number of stress mediators. For instance whether people experience stress or not depends on situational factors (Lupien, et al., 2007), or the level to which presenting stimuli is perceived as uncontrollable, unpredictable or unfamiliar(Mason, 1968) and to which extend a specific situation is perceived as threatening (Kemeny, 2003) are all thought to contribute to the stress experience.
Based on the interaction between stress cause, stress feeling and stress experience (Khoozani & Hadzic, 2010)classify stress mediators into three categories defined as psychological, neurophysiological and situational factors.
Psychological Mediators
Coping Patterns
Coping patterns are acknowledged as a person’s attempt to apply a strategy for the purpose to lessen the as stressful appraised adverse psychological or behavioural effects of a stimulus (Everly $ Lating, 2002). Arnold (1960) investigated the link between stress stimuli and emotional responses and found that an individual’s personality type, age or situational factors would determine which kind of coping strategies are likely to be employed. Lazarus (1966) via his transactional theory identified a two stage cognitive appraisal, stage one is concerned with how an individual may perceive a particular stimulus or event, such as threatening or harmless, and the second stage of the appraisal is concerned with the evaluation of his/her abilities to find a resolution to the source of the stress.
Although the majority of researchers tent to agree with Lazarus’s (1966) findings (Everly and Lating, 2002), some argue that coping patterns do not explain all the responses to stress(Keil, 2003) and others have proposed that emotional responses to stressful stimuli could occur without the employment of pre-defined cognitive constructs (Zajonc, 1984)
Cognitive Factors
Cognitive factors have been suggested to play the most crucial role in how individuals cope with stressors (Dunkel-Schetter).Foa&Rothbaum (1998) identified that sufferers from PTSD usually hold world views in which living is seen as a dangerous and unpredictable undertaking over which they have little control in addition to a lack of competencies to deal with stressful situations or events that could occur at any moment.
Hence Bandura (1997) too pointed out that an individual’s perceived control over life’s demands is the most relevant factor in controlling a stress response to environmental stimuli. In other words the greater the perceived control in a situation or event, the lower the levels of perceived stress. There are a number of studies that confirm this equation. For instance Johnston, Gilbert….1992) found that patients would recover faster from surgery when they perceived having greater control over their recovery.
These findings highlight why most cognitive behavioural strategies dealing with an individual’s stress perception are primarily focused on establishing levels of control (Khoozani & Hadzic, 2010).
Personality Factors
A number of researchers found a correlation between personality type and stress responses (Vollrad, 2001, Eyseneck&Eyseneck 1969, Friedman &Rosenman, 1974, Lazarus 1990). For example,personality traits such as hardiness (King, King, Fairbank, Keane, & Adams, 1998) and conscientiousness (Friedman et al.) have been identified as significantly correlating with lower levels of stress experiences in individuals, and neuroticism and trait anxiety in individuals is significantly correlated with greater susceptibility to stressful stimuli (Eyseneck&Eyseneck 1985).
Similarly, Millon’s (1996) biosocial learning theory of personality proposes that an individual’s susceptibility to different kinds of stressors is dependent on their coping styles, needs and reinforcement patterns.
Developmental factors
Seiffge-Krenke, Aunola…(2009) found that stress perception changes based on the developmental stages of an individual. For instance during the adolescents stage the perceived stress of an individual is more likely to be determined by identity issues and conflicts resulting from interaction with parents, peers and the opposite sex.
Check Ryan Wenger, 1992).
Gender related Factors
Billings and Moos (1991) found that males respond different to stress than females with males tending to either confront stress head on or deny it to be an issue compared to women who would tend to be more emotionally affected and are more likely to proactively talk through their issues (La France &Banaji, 1992).
Neurophysiological Mediators
HPA Axis
The hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis (HPA) is responsible for the secretion of hormones that activate the bodies fight or flight response. This naturally occurring response of the organism can have adverse effects on an individual’s health if it remains active for too long, leading to adverse effects such as hypertension, or the suppression of the immune function (Avila, Morgan 2003; McEwen, 2003).
Limbic System Reactions
Exposure to consistent excitatory stressors or traumatic experiences have also been found to create a level of hypersensitivity which potentially causes the impulsive surpression of the convulsive threshold of the limbic system through endocrine and neuroendocrine arousal, which in turn could lead to a number of physiological or psychological disorders (Everly, 1985).
Stress Hormones
Stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline can influence cognitive functioning due to their ability to pass through the blood brain barrier. This potentially affects memory and learning of an individual experiencing distress. There are a number of different areas in the brain that are known to be affected by distress, such as the amygdala, the frontal lobes and the hippocampus in particular. The amygdala has been identified as that part of the brain where fear response information is stored and thus it is believed to play a major part in the fight or flight response once a threat has been identified, consciously or subconsciously. (Lupien, 2006).
Stress Hormone receptors
By observing how these various stress hormones affect neural functioning in the brain researchers () concluded that there are two types of receptors (Type 1 for mineralocorticoids and Type 2 for glucocorticoid) responsible for positive or negative effects on cognition or memory. For instance if there are more mineralocorticoids than glucocorticoids occupying receptors the effects are largely positive on cognitive functioning, however if this ratio should be reversed cognitive functioning is thought to be impaired.
Situational mediators
Different situations call for different coping strategies depending on which strategy is perceived as working best when it comes to stress according to Terry, (1991) and Keil (2003). Socioeconomic as well as cultural factors also play a major role in how stress is perceived by individuals belonging to that group. People living in poorer socioeconomic conditions have been found to have lower expectations of the future and are therefore also likely to be more vulnerable to stress (Kopp, Scrabski 1998).
Stress Effects
In summary, the effects of stress are many and varied and as Koozani pointed out lead to a number physiological or psychological problems categorized as:
1. Stress-related disorders – i.e. all stress disorders can be considered a consequence of the excessive arousal of the limbic system,
2. Neuro-physiological changes- i.e. stress via the limbic system pathway potentially affects organs through activating excitatory (Post, Rubinow 1986) or inhibitory (Cain, 1992) neurotransmitters. Furthermore prolonged stress can also affect the micromorphological brain structures of hypocampus and amygdala (Cain, 1992), as well as the nucleus of neurons therefore potentially altering genetic messages (Cain, 1992),
3. Cognitive changes – i.e. all psychological mechanisms such as cognition, emotions, memory, and attention can be affected by stress. For example, studies show that cognition and information processing are affected when stress reaches a certain threshold. Perceptual narrowing by which an individual focuses entirely on the source of the distress to the relative exclusion of other stimuli is one such change that can take place (Wickens, Hollands, 2000) whereas the term cognitive tunnelling defines an individual’s focus on well learned and practiced material when faced with distress. Beversdorf, Hughes (1999) have demonstrated that the experience of chronic stress effects the prefrontal cortex and so can lead to a reduction in creativity and flexible problem solving.
4. Similarly, stress has been linked to certain emotions such as surprise, fear or joy for example (Lupien, 2007). However, Lupien points out that although all stressful experiences elicit an emotional response and concludes that these responses are overlapped, not all emotions cause the individual to have feelings of distress, hence, there is a clear distinction between the experience of stress and emotions under certain conditions and situations. Stress due to stressful life events too have been linked to mood fluctuations in individuals (Bolger, DeLongis 1989).
5. Stress significantly affects memory and learning as studies by Roozendaal (2000) show. Whereby the type of stressor, gender and emotional excitement are all factors that play part in how memory and learning are affected, it has been shown that stress experienced after a learning experience enhance memory retrieval however, if excessive feelings of stress are experienced before a learning experience memory retrieval can be negatively affected. This is due to increased levels of cortisol in the hippocampus area of the brain where memory and learning processing takes place. This follows that increases in glucocorticoids in the hippocampus area can not only affect an individual’s declarative memory (Lupien, McEwen, 1997) but also his or her working memory (Young, Sahakian…1999) as well as emotional memory (Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001).
There are a number of researchers who have also looked at the positive effects of stress and found that increases in glucorticoids can actually improve the encoding of emotionally loaded information with individual’s being able to better recall the information thus learned and processed at a later stage (Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001). However, Lemaire, Koehl (2000) emphasise that intense experiences of stress early in life can lead to lasting learning deficits.
6. The effects of stress on attention have also been well researched. On the one hand Oitzel & De Kloet (1992) found that stress causes the activation of Type 1 receptors which in turn increases an individual’s ability to be more vigilant and focus his or her attention on the source of the stressful stimuli rather than on what is happening around it.
On the other hand chronic stress evident through high levels of cortisol can have the effect of significantly interfering with tasks that require focus and attention (Lupien et al 1994).
7. Similarly, interpersonal relationships can also be affected through stress as studies show that people experiencing stressful events together can form a long lasting strong bond with each other (Lindy,1985) whereas on the more negative side traumatic stress could lead to problems with intimacy or closeness with significant others (Escobar et al 1983).
The Stress Article Series:
Stress Article 1
Stress Article 2
Stress Article 3
Stress Article 4