WJEC A Level Psychology Stress Exam Questions

About WJEC A Level Psychology Stress

Stress is one of six WJEC Unit 3 behaviours, three of which you prepare for the Section A structured essays. You need the characteristics of stress, explanations from social psychological, individual differences and biological perspectives, and an evaluation of beta blockers and stress inoculation training for effectiveness, ethics and social implications. This page starts with everyday sources of pressure, such as hassles and life events, then asks why people differ in how they cope, and finally covers the body's response. Strong WJEC answers name specific studies, distinguish fast and slow physiological pathways, and question how much correlational, self-report research can prove.

What you need to know

• Recognising stress Stress arises when a person judges that the demands on them outweigh their resources to cope (the transactional view). Signs include racing heart and tension, irritability and worry, and changes such as disturbed sleep, overeating or withdrawal.
• Daily hassles Kanner et al. (1981) defined hassles as minor everyday irritations, such as misplacing things or traffic, balanced by uplifts. DeLongis et al. (1982) found hassles were a better predictor of later health problems than major life events.
• Life events and locus of control Holmes and Rahe's SRRS scores major changes in life change units. Rahe, Mahan and Arthur (1970) found a small positive correlation (about +0.12) between US Navy sailors' scores and illness on a tour of duty. Rotter's internal locus of control, believing outcomes depend on your own actions, is linked to more active coping.
• Hardiness and self-efficacy Kobasa (1979) studied business executives and found those who stayed healthy under high stress showed commitment, control and challenge. Bandura's self-efficacy, confidence in your ability to succeed at a task, makes people more likely to tackle stressors than avoid them.
• Type A and Type B Friedman and Rosenman's Western Collaborative Group Study followed 3,154 men and linked the impatient, competitive, hostile Type A pattern to heart disease. Ragland and Brand's (1988) follow-up found no link with later death from heart disease, and hostility now looks like the key ingredient.
• Adrenaline, evolution and genes In an acute stressor the hypothalamus triggers the sympathetic nervous system, which stimulates the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline, raising heart rate and diverting blood to muscles. This fight or flight response evolved for short physical threats, so it is mismatched with modern long-term pressures. Caspi et al. (2003) found a variant of the serotonin transporter gene made depression after stressful life events more likely.
• Beta blockers and SIT Beta blockers such as propranolol occupy beta-adrenergic receptors so adrenaline has less effect on the heart and blood vessels. Meichenbaum's stress inoculation training prepares people in advance through conceptualisation, then skill acquisition and rehearsal, then application and follow-through.

Common mistakes in Stress

• Placing adrenaline in the adrenal cortex. Adrenaline comes from the adrenal medulla; the cortex releases cortisol in the slower HPA response.
• Treating uplifts as a type of hassle. Uplifts are small positive events that may buffer the effects of hassles.
• Getting locus of control the wrong way round. An internal locus means believing you control outcomes; an external locus means believing luck or powerful others do.
• Describing Type A as a single trait. It is a pattern of competitiveness, time urgency and hostility, and research increasingly points to hostility as the part linked to heart disease.
• Presenting SIT as a quick fix. It takes time, effort and motivation over several phases, which limits who completes it.

Try three Stress exam-style questions