Psychology - Human Stress - Essay Example

? Human Stress Introduction Stress is something which every human being on this planet experiences there are a number of reasons why people are stressed out, i.e. job, family, work environment, and work pressure etc. are all causes of stress. While scientists say that a degree of stress may be beneficial for us, for example if a person gets stressed out in a tennis game worrying about winning the match, his body will automatically increase the reflex rate, his attention, response and alertness which could prove to be beneficial for him, but if stress condition persists for longer period of time can cause a lot of health problems which might even be fatal. This paper includes three experimental studies which explore how stress exacerbates cancer. There have been studies conducted over the past three decades which have evaluated and analyzed the relationship between psychological factors, which mainly include stress and how stress, if at all, contributes to the prevalence of cancer, but those studies provided only with results which conflicted with each other. Although there have been some studies and results which indeed pointed out several links between cancer and psychological stress and how the latter influences the former, but still these links have been realized, however there are yet to be proven. This means that these links are still not yet proven to explain how stress can contribute in the development of cancer, but cannot directly cause it (National Cancer Institute). Study 1: Stress and Breast Cancer Purpose of study This study was conducted in order to gauge how a tragic event or emotional stress can trigger breast cancer in women (Peled, Carmil and Samocha). Study design/ Methodology Breast cancer is a malignant disease which is most common amongst women. According to reports made in America by scientists every third cancer which is diagnosed is breast cancer. And in Europe it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer amongst any other cancer. The experiment was based on tests which were histological, and women who were selected for experiment for questionnaires belonged to different age groups primarily 25 to 45; these women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998-2002. A questionnaire was made and sent to these women, and it included the following things, six things which analyzed depression, six things evaluating anxiety and three things analyzing happiness these were all stress factors, the other list contained 4 other such categories, i) losing a parent at an early age, before the age 0f 20, ii) divorce of parents at an early age, before 20, iii) death of a relative who had close ties and iv) death of a spouse. There was another list which consisted of different questions which were mild, for example unemployment, financial worries and etc. All these interviews were carried with the consent of those women in 2002. The people who responded back amounted to 25% (Peled, Carmil and Samocha). Results / Conclusions The results of the experiment suggested that there were no relationships between optimism and happiness and breast cancer; the experiment was negative. But the link between depression, tragic events in life, and breast cancer came out to be positive (Peled, Carmil and Samocha). Study 2: Stress and Smoking In a study conducted by Kouvonen, Kivimaki, Virtanen, Pentti and Vahtera on work stress, smoking status and smoking intensity there was an observational experiment composed in order to determine how work stress can lead a person to smoking (Kouvonen, Kivimaki and Virtanen). Purpose of study The main purpose of this study was to examine the association of work stress and job stress and smoking (Kouvonen, Kivimaki and Virtanen). Study design / Methodology The binary logistic models which showed the commonness of smoking were associated to a response which was from a survey consisting of 8,881 male and 37,309 Finnish female who were aged 17 to 65. Moreover, another logistic model was also included in which 16,277 former smokers new and old were listed. An analysis was made between different people and all age groups were categorized by age, education, job status, employment and whether they were married or not (Kouvonen, Kivimaki and Virtanen). Results / Conclusions It was found out that people who had a high rate of effort with unbalanced and minimal rewards became smokers and or were smokers. Amongst the people who were smokers, there was a chance of an increase in smoking due to work pressures and work overload and higher effort in order to get more rewards. There was also an increase in the intensity in smoking amongst women due to work and active jobs, and in between employees who had low incomes and rising expenditure. Amongst the people who quit there was a chance that they would start smoking again due to high effort reward. This experiment and the results gathered from it suggest that there is a strong associate between the work level and smoking, and that it is better to resort to a non smoking or quit smoking program (Kouvonen, Kivimaki and Virtanen). Study 3: Stress and Migraine It is often seen that stress causes migraine headaches and according to hospital reports stress is commonly reported as being the major contributor in causing a migraine headache. In a study conducted by Holm, Lokken, and Myers, there was an experiment conducted in order to gauge the relationship of stress and migraine (Holm, Cami and Myers). Purpose of study The main purpose of this study was to link an association of how stress, cognitive appraisal, coping may lead to chronic migraines. This study was done using a bunch of young women who were suffering with frequent and or non-frequent migraines. There were a total of 20 women used for the experiment (Holm, Cami and Myers). Study design / Methodology Stress is often In order to carry out the experiment a time series analytical approach was initiated in order to cross correlate the amount of stress each woman took on a daily basis, the appraisal and the coping data with a record which showed the number of headaches and was used for controlling purposes (Holm, Cami and Myers). Results / Conclusion After analysis and evaluations, it was revealed that subjects ranged from 50% to 70% displayed a substantial link between temporal correlations and daily stress combined with their migraines. Furthermore, the data which was gathered as a result of this experiment indicated that the relationship between stress and migraine is reciprocal (Holm, Cami and Myers). Summary This paper contains three experimental studies which indicate a direct relation of stress factors in exasperating conditions such as cancer and other diseases. The first study reviewed considered the relationship between stress and breast cancer, the second considered the relationship between stress and smoking, whereas the third study studied the impact of stress on development of migraine. Works Cited Holm, Jeffrey, Lokken Cami and Tricia Myers. "Migraine and Stress." Headache (1997): 553-558. Kouvonen, Anne, et al. "Work stress, smoking status, and smoking intensity: an observational study of 46 190 employees." J Epidemial Community Health (2005): 63-69. National Cancer Institute. Psychological Stress and Cancer. 2012. 26 May 2012 . Peled, Ronit, et al. "BMC Cancer." BMC Cancer (2008): 1-6. Read More