The roll of stress in the development of ulcers.

AS and A Level Psychology

2/10/02

The roll of stress in the development of ulcers

Brady study (1958)

Brady linked high levels of stress to increased hormone production and the development of ulcers (Perforated ulcer).

Placed a monkey in a restraining chair and taught them to press a lever.
They had an electric shock every 20 seconds unless they pressed the lever within that time.

There were 2 levels of stress:

Physical stress – from getting the shock
Psychological stress – from having to press the lever

The experiment came to a halt when all his monkeys died, he found out they all died of ulcers and had high levels of gastro intestinal hormone

He had to test what gave the monkeys the ulcers
Next they used 2 monkeys in separated chairs

1 was the executive monkey that had control of the shocking as it had the lever, if he pressed the lever within the 20 seconds, and then none of the monkeys got the shock.

Only the executive monkey suffered from psychological stress as it had the lever to deal with
After 23 day’s. 6 hours on, 6 hours off, they died of a perforated ulcer
He tried various other routines such as different time intervals, but no other monkeys died, and the acidity of the stomach was no way as high.
The acidity of the stomach was the highest during the period off.
When kick backs of stress starts, there is a high level of parasympathetic hormones and there is an overload of this.

Evaluation

Confirmed that ulcers were related to stress

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Only the executive monkey suffered from psychological stress as it had the lever to deal with
After 23 day’s. 6 hours on, 6 hours off, they died of a perforated ulcer
He tried various other routines such as different time intervals, but no other monkeys died, and the acidity of the stomach was no way as high.
The acidity of the stomach was the highest during the period off.
When kick backs of stress starts, there is a high level of parasympathetic hormones and there is an overload of this.

Evaluation

Confirmed that ulcers were related to stress

Weiner et al (1957)

He did a study on army recruits
He put them into 2 groups

Under secreting of digestive hormones
Over secreting of digestive hormones

After 4 months of intensive and stressful training, 14% of the over secretors had formed ulcers, non of the under secretors formed ulcers
Because not all of them got a ulcer, then individual differences must have an effect

Criticisms:

The monkeys were not randomly selected as the executive monkey was selected because it was good at learning
Marshal et al proved Helicobacter caused stomach ulcers (he infected himself with this and got the stomach ulcers
The problem with this account of stress was that it ignores the fact that the stress response often depends somewhat on the type of stressor.

Mason (1975)

Mason compared the reactions of individuals to stressors that varied in the degree of how much fear, anger or uncertainty they created. The various stressors produced different patterns of adrenaline and nor adrenaline of secretion in different individuals

Another limitation of this psychological account is that it assumes that people respond in a passive way to stressors. In fact, people typically respond to stressors in an active way. According to Macon (1975), there is an active process of psychological appraisal (judgment) when people confront a stressor and this response helps us to determine the psychological response of the body.

E.g.

Symington et all (1955)

He looked at psychological responses of 2 groups of dying patients:

1 group in a coma
1 group remain conscious

The group that were conscious showed higher levels of psychological stress because those in a coma were not able to make a psychological appraisal of themselves.

The general adaptation syndrome

Most of our emotional reactions have evolved because they are adaptive and functional in some way.

It has been argued that stress has a range of negative effects, e.g. making people unwell.

Why then do we continue to have a stressful reaction if it has harmful effects, surely this would suggest that the stress response is maladaptive rather then adaptive?

Han Seyle (1950) quoted that the stress response is adaptive in the short-term because it helps us to cope with emotional distress, prolonged stress is very damaging.

He studies first of all rats, and then patients in hospital with various injuries and illnesses and noticed they all seemed to show a similar patterns of bodily response. He called this pattern the general adaptation syndrome.