Discuss the Psychological Evidence Concerning the Relationship Between Personality, Stress and Disease.
3) Discuss the psychological evidence concerning the relationship between personality, stress and disease.
Many psychologists believe that stress is a common cause of many illnesses, both physically and psychologically. So how does a person’s personality contribute to their levels of stress and thus make them a target for stress related illnesses such as coronary heart disease? This essay aims to look at definitions for stress and personality and see how the relationship between these can produce disease in the human body. The essay will also look at evidence for stress and its affect on health and personality types and how stress is associated with them.
Stress can be defined as ‘a physical, mental, or emotional reaction resulting from individual’s response to environmental tensions, conflicts, pressures and similar stimuli’ (Fontana & Abouserie, 1993). Introduced to the world by a physiologist called Walter Cannon in 1914 and introduced to the scientific field with experiment by Hans Seyle throughout the 1930s, stress is considered a bodily response, with a stress causing stimulus referred to as a stressor. This essay aims to outline how personality is related to stress and how ultimately this can lead to disease in a person’s body as well as analysing existing evidence of the link between personality and disease.
Kiecolt-Glaser performed many studies on people to see if stress had an effect on the immune system. The aim of her experiments were not to find out if stress had an effect on psychological or physical health, but to see if stress to see if the immune system would decrease during periods of stress, leaving the body vulnerable to colds and other common illnesses. She found, through using control groups, that people in much more stressful situations would have a much weaker immune system (Kiecolt-Glaser et al, 1984, 1987)
Personality can be defined as ‘a person’s unique pattern of traits’ (Guilford 1959). They are the individual differences that
Many psychologists believe that stress is a common cause of many illnesses, both physically and psychologically. So how does a person’s personality contribute to their levels of stress and thus make them a target for stress related illnesses such as coronary heart disease? This essay aims to look at definitions for stress and personality and see how the relationship between these can produce disease in the human body. The essay will also look at evidence for stress and its affect on health and personality types and how stress is associated with them.
Stress can be defined as ‘a physical, mental, or emotional reaction resulting from individual’s response to environmental tensions, conflicts, pressures and similar stimuli’ (Fontana & Abouserie, 1993). Introduced to the world by a physiologist called Walter Cannon in 1914 and introduced to the scientific field with experiment by Hans Seyle throughout the 1930s, stress is considered a bodily response, with a stress causing stimulus referred to as a stressor. This essay aims to outline how personality is related to stress and how ultimately this can lead to disease in a person’s body as well as analysing existing evidence of the link between personality and disease.
Kiecolt-Glaser performed many studies on people to see if stress had an effect on the immune system. The aim of her experiments were not to find out if stress had an effect on psychological or physical health, but to see if stress to see if the immune system would decrease during periods of stress, leaving the body vulnerable to colds and other common illnesses. She found, through using control groups, that people in much more stressful situations would have a much weaker immune system (Kiecolt-Glaser et al, 1984, 1987)
Personality can be defined as ‘a person’s unique pattern of traits’ (Guilford 1959). They are the individual differences that
References: Friedman H.S. 1990. Personality and Disease. Canada: John Wiley and Sons, Inc Cook M Carwell, M. Clark, L. & Meldrum, C. (2000) Psychology for A level (2nd edition). London: HarperCollins Publishers Limited Cannon W.B Allen C. (2003) Psychology Today Publication Work by Yoshitaka Tsubono Online. Available: http://cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20030606-000001.html