Two Key Studies of Cognitive Explanations of Stress (DP IB Psychology)

Key study one: Gomes et al. (2013)

Aim: 

• To analyse the mediating role of cognitive appraisal in the relation between occupational stress and burnout

Participants: 

• An opportunity sample of 333 academic teaching staff (129 males; 194 females; 10 gender not given) from a public university in Portugal

• Participants’ ages were between 23 and 65 years old (mean age = 42.67 years)

Procedure: 

• Participants completed the following questionnaires:

  • A demographic questionnaire (age, gender and employment details)

  • A stress questionnaire evaluating the teachers’ sources of stress

  • A cognitive appraisal scale identifying primary cognitive appraisal:

    • work importance – how important participants felt their job was to them

    • threat perception – how difficult participants felt job their job was

    • challenge perception – whether or not the job was dull or stimulating

  • A cognitive appraisal scale measuring secondary cognitive appraisal: 

    • coping – how well the participant felt they could cope with their work

    • control – how much control they felt they had over what they did in their job

• Responses were measured on a 7-point Likert scale

• Participants who attached very little or no importance to their work were removed from the data (they would have been unlikely to experience stress from something they considered to be unimportant)

Results:

• Stress was positively correlated with:

  • work overload

  • the need to increase scientific productivity (research and publication)

  • the home-work relationship (pressure at work affecting quality of home life)

  • threat perception

  • emotional exhaustion

  • depersonalisation

• All of the above were found to contribute to burnout

• Stress was negatively correlated with:

  • challenge perception

  • coping potential

  • control potential

  • personal accomplishment

• Even when the cognitive appraisals were taken into account, the positive correlation between stress and burnout was still present

Conclusion:

• The results demonstrate distinct sources of job stress and a relation between stress, cognitive appraisal and burnout

• Primary and secondary cognitive appraisals partially mediated the relationship between occupational stress and burnout at work, though they did not remove it

Stress is positively correlated with work overload and a feeling of not being able to cope

Evaluation of Gomes et al. (2013)

Strengths

• The results  from this research could be used to identify ways for management to reduce job stress and for employees to increase coping mechanisms through modifying their primary and secondary cognitive appraisals

• The quantitative measurements of the stress, appraisals and burnout were objectively taken using the Likert scale, which increases the reliability of the findings

Limitations

• There may be a bidirectional relationship between stress and burnout, with burnout affecting stress levels rather than vice-versa; this would need to be tested using a longitudinal design

• The participants were all Portuguese university teachers, which limits the generalisability of the findings

Key study two: Jamieson et al. (2011)

Aim: 

• To investigate whether reappraising stress-induced arousal could improve cardiovascular outcomes and decrease focus on threat-related information

Participants:

• A volunteer sample of 50 USA university students (25 male, 25 female) was recruited

• The mean age of participants was 21.88 years

• Participants were pre-screened to ensure they had no previously undetected heart problem

Procedure: 

• Each participant underwent a  5-minute baseline cardiovascular recording

• Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 

  • reappraisal – in which participants were instructed that arousal (i.e. some degree of stress) is functional and aids performance 

  • ignore external cues – a distraction task

  • a ‘no instructions’ control group

• The reappraisal and ignore conditions began with scripted instructions about the benefits of reappraising arousal or ignoring stress, respectively 

• Participants then read three summaries of journal articles (to match the message conveyed in each condition) on the computer

• Participants then completed a stressful public-speaking task while their cardiovascular responses were recorded 

• The speech was followed by a test of  attentional bias, measuring how long they spent  stating the print colour of 100 threat-related words compared with stating the colour of 100 neutral words

Results:

• Participants in the reappraise arousal condition exhibited no attentional bias towards the threat-related words

• Participants in the other two groups showed significant attentional bias towards the threat-related words, which interfered with their speed in stating the colours

• Participants instructed to reappraise arousal also showed improved cardiovascular functioning compared to the other two groups

Conclusion:

• Interpretation of bodily signals impacts how the body and mind respond to acute stress

• This supports the CAT, as those instructed to reappraise their bodily responses to stress anticipated being able to regulate these signals and achieve a positive outcome

Evaluation of Jamieson et al. (2011)

Strengths

• The findings could lead to interventions being implemented for those affected physically by stress

• The three conditions and a single-blind design, where the researchers involved in the testing did not know the participants’ groupings, increased the reliability of the findings

Limitations

• The study only conducted research into an artificially-induced acute stress situation and so the results may not apply to chronic stress

• The study should be replicated with an older and more diverse group of participants to test the validity of the theory with those who may be more resistant to reappraising the physiological symptoms of stress