From the video we watched in class, we can to the conclusion that stress is more common for those who are lower in the hierarchy or who are in multiple hierarchies. From the experiment of the baboons in Africa, we could see that there was one dominant male who was extremely carefree and expected everyone to follow him; he could pick a fight with those weaker than him and there was more aggression in the overall group of baboons. After that disease killed all of the dominant males in the group and left only the weaker, smaller baboons it was clear that there were now low levels of aggression with no alpha males around meaning that there was no stress in the group anymore. Also, with the experiment of the 28,000 British social workers, it was stated that diseases were more common for lower ranked people in the hierarchy. The women social worker who had more power stated that she had never been ill and had to miss work before, whereas the male social worker who was lower ranked (ranked 7) said he had been ill and missed work almost half the time he had been working which was three years. With this, we can see whoever is 'dominant' has low stress hormones and are healthier compared to people who are submissive who have high stress hormones.
2. DESCRIBE the relationship between stress and control
This relates to the first one with social status and stress. The more control you have ( the higher you are in the hierarchy), the less stress there is since you get more freedom to think for yourself and your life. The goal should not be to get rid of stress, but to find the right time and to have control. There are two main types of stress, acute and chronic. Acute stress is more of a 'good stress' like stimulation; whereas chronic stress destroys bodies, minds and lives, it is the never ending stress which is extremely difficult to get away from if even possible to overcome. With stress, control is not an option. You can't choose when to get stressed or not, it will just happen and you will have to deal with it. Researchers in the video stated that in society every person is included in multiple hierarchies meaning it is more common for us to get stressed. We need to find control in our hierarchies in order to become less stressed; if we are submissive, we feel more stressed, and need to find another hierarchy to be dominant in in order to ease the stress. Overall from the video I can conclude, we can't control how much stressed we become we can only try to avoid getting stressed by making ourselves feel more important in other things.
3. LIST the physical problems the 5 scientific studies have linked with stress.
- Depression
- Heart diseases
- High blood pressure/heart attack
- Poor judgement
- Aches and pains
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Frequent colds
