Newsgroups: bit.listserv.psycgrad
Date:         Thu, 30 Jul 1992 11:11:41 EDT
              <PSYCGRAD@UOTTAWA.BITNET>
From:         "Matthew Simpson" <054340@UOTTAWA.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: References on Stress-Moderating Variables?

On Wed, 29 Jul 1992 08:42:21 CDT Chris Cameron said:
>On Tue, 28 Jul 1992 11:51:35 EDT Matthew Simpson said:
>>I prefer to monitor something that is more tangible and easily monitored
>>from moment to moment, like heart rate, skin conductance level,
>>heart rate, finger skin temperature.  To me these are much more useful
>>while monitoring a person's reaction to various stimuli.
>
>These seem more like physical components of stress than moderators.  Also

As I understand things, these are physiological functions that change
in response to stimuli from the environment.  There are categories
of stimuli that the human race tends to label as stressful.  Sometimes
we even substitute the presence or absence of these categories of
stimuli with the notion of the presence or absence of stress.  Stress
can also be thought of as a person physiological response pattern.

We understand that people can learn to moderate these physiological
activities voluntarily.  The therapeutic goal, therefore, is to assist
a person in learning non-stressful physiological reactions to what
were previously considered stressful stimuli.

>
>>I see them
>>as being much more meaningfully related to what is typically called
>>stress.  Also, these are things that people can learn to regulate.
>
>What is the definition of stress you are using?  What good does it
>do to regulate the things you mentioned, and what does regulation of these
>things do to actually change the "event" leading to stress?  What is your
>outcome variable in this scenario?
>
Often we have influence over the presence or absence of stressful
stimuli in our environment.  If we can monitor and adjust the environment,
then we should.  However, there is a problem when a person has learned
a non-functional stressful reaction to stimuli which are beyond the
person's control (eg. the presence or absence of job demands).
We can teach a person patterns of physiological activity that
are indicative of relaxation.  If the person learns to relax in the
presence of stressful stimuli, then over time, the stimuli is no longer
stressful to the person.  This places stress more in the hands of the
person than the environment, viewed in this manner.

>>Whereas, the personality traits or states mentioned above are only
>>obtained by complex analysis of answers to questionnaires, and over
>>all, much more difficult for the client to monitor and regulate on
>>a moment to moment basis.
>
>I am trying to imagine walking around monitoring my finger skin temperature -
>would make concentrating on other things pretty difficult :-)!  Of course,
>walking around monitoring personality wouldn't be a easy either!

With biofeedback protocols, I can take a person who is heart-rate responsive
and afraid of riding in elevators and monitor his or her heart rate as
we walk down the hall towards the elevator.  Let's say the person has been
training to decrease or increase heart rate voluntarily.  The closer
we get to the elevator, the higher the heart rate.  When the heart rate
goes up, we stop and the person decreases the heart rate voluntarily.
Then we proceed toward the elevator.  Using a mobile biofeedback
apparatus, we can implement this systematic desensitization protocol.

Currently, personality psychologists have offered no technology to
monitor a personality state or trait from moment to moment.  We can't
measure the movement of a persons locus of control or hardiness over
an hours time.  We cannot yet monitor the change of locus of control or
hardiness within a single session of psychotherapy.

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