大学生考期应激的特征及原因分析

旨在研究考期应激的表现特征,并探讨其产生的原因和影响因素。以问卷方法测量了261名在校大学生。结果发现47．89％的被试有不同程度的考期应激症状,其中以睡眠症状为最典型的特征。考期应激症状很少受性别、专业、年级、是否担任班干部和个性倾向等因素的影响,且具有较明显的时间特征。诱发考期应激的主要因素有：考生“对考试目的的认知”、“对考试内容的认知”及“生恬和学习环境”等。结论为,考期应激是一种大学生中较普遍且具有多重原因的应激现象。     

应对风格与焦虑水平、任务完成效率关系的实验研究

通过实验的方法来考察应对风格、应激情境对焦虑水平、任务完成效率的影响。结果表明：应对风格和应激情境对焦虑水平和任务完成效率影响的主效应和交互效应都非常显著。在实验中,控制型应对风格的个体总体上表现出较低的焦虑水平和较高的任务完成效率。在低任务难度情境下,灵活应对风格和控制型应对风格的个体比非控制型应对风格和反常应对风格的个体表现出更低的焦虑水平和更高的任务完成效率,而且不同应对风格被试在焦虑水平和获胜率上的差异显著。     

Job stress in university,corporate, and military personnel

The Job Stress Survey (JSS) was administered to large samples of university and corporate employees and senior military personnel. Differences in the perceived severity, frequency of occurrence, and overall level of occupational stress were evaluated for individuals working in these settings. Gender differences in job stress and the factor structure of the JSS were also evaluated. Two occupational stress factors were identified, Job Pressure and Organizational Support, which were remarkably stable for males and females and for individuals working in university, corporate, and military settings. Corporate employees reported higher levels of perceived severity of job stress than the other groups, whereas military personnel reported that they more frequently experienced almost all of the job stress events. No overall differences were found for the three groups in the JSS Job Stress Index.     

Manda suppresses emotional stress-induced stomach ulcers in rats

Manda, a natural product made by yeast fermentation of many fruits and black sugar, has antioxidant activity. In the present study, manda prevented stomach ulcers caused by immobilization-induced emotional stress. Manda [5% manda solution (w/v)] and saline as control, were administered by a canula into the stomach of each experimental animal subsequently after 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 hours from the start of the emotional stress. We classified the severity of gastric lesion formation induced by immobilization with each rat lying on its back for 6 hours at room temperature on a five-grade scale. The control rats all showed congestion and some degree of bleeding in the mucosa of the stomach. However, of the experimental rats, one showed no hemorrhagic lesions only congestion in four cases, and slight or moderate bleeding in eight cases with no massive bleeding cases. The distribution of these data significantly differ from that of the control rats, which suffered the greater damage (X²=10.589,p<0.05). In light microscopic examinations, the control rats showed necrosis in the gastric mucous membranes, desquamation, and bleeding of gastric mucosa. However, the rats treated with manda showed only congestion and did not show erosion or hemorrhage. These results suggest that manda or manda metabolite(s) was absorbed from the stomach and may have produced these action. In the meantime, we are analyzing manda components to try to isolate the active ingredient(s)     

Positive impact of prior military combat exposure on Terrorism Prevention work: Inoculation to stress

Forty-four Israeli security agents employed by the Israeli Government Terrorism Prevention Agency providing security services for the national Israeli airlines and the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles were administered the Subjective Stress Experience Scale (SSES). This scale measures stress at terrorism-prevention work, past stress during combat exposure, and subjects’ most stressful life events. Results support the hypothesis that terrorism prevention personnel who are also combat veterans appraise their work as less stressful than their noncombat exposed counterparts. Combat veterans also rated their combat experience as significantly more stressful than prevention team member’s other stressful life events. Subjects presented a uniform stress- inoculation effect but, combat veterans of the prevention team were more stress-inoculated than their noncombat exposed counterparts.     

An evaluation of the perceived stress scale in two clinical populations

The relation of perceived stress and psychosocial dysfunction was examined in two clinical samples identifying stress as a personal problem. Perceived stress was significantly correlated with self-reported negative affect and physical symptoms. Negative and total major life event scores also were significantly correlated with self-reported negative affect and physical symptoms. However, the perceived stress scale and the life events measures were moderately correlated, indicating that the two scales assess different features of the stress experience. A major finding of this study was that perceived stress scores were significantly correlated with affective and physical symptoms even after the variance associated with life events had been partialed out.     

MK-801-Induced Disruptions of One-Trial Inhibitory Avoidance Are Potentiated by Stress and Reversed by Naltrexone

Five experiments were carried out to investigate opioid and NMDA receptor-mediated responses to one-trial inhibitory avoidance training in CD1 mice. In the first experiment immediate posttraining intraperitoneal administration of the noncompetitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist MK-801 impaired the performance of mice. The effects of MK-801 were time-dependent (they were absent in mice injected with the drug starting 120 min after training). No effect was evident in no-foot-shock groups, showing lack of proactive influence of the treatment on performance. In the second experiment preexposure of the mice to the testing apparatus decreased the effects of MK-801. In the the third experiment naltrexone antagonized the effects of MK-801, suggesting an involvement of opioid neurons. In the fourth experiment immediate posttraining immobilization stress exerted a potentiating effect on the performance of MK-801-injected animals. In the fifth experiment the potentiation of the impairing effect of MK-801 induced by immobilization stress was antagonized by naltrexone.     

Gender differences in acute and chronic stress in Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats

While females are considered more susceptible to depressive behavior, this assertion is not strongly supported by the experimental literature. Since stress contributes to depressive behavior, male and female Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats were exposed to either one session (acute stress) or 5 sessions (chronic stress) of restraint plus cold in order to study depressive behavior in male and female rats. After their respective treatment exposure, rats were tested in the open field test (OFT) and for retention of a passive-avoidance (P-A) task. One stress session resulted in significant immobility in the OFT for males, whereas 5 sessions were required to produce similar immobility in female rats. Acute stress interfered with the retention of the P-A response for males, while both acute and chronic stress produced poor P-A responses in female rats. Food consumption decresed, progressively, as a function of stress sessions, in female rats, whereas feeding in males returned to control levels after five stress days. Both acute and chronic stress exacerbated the stress ulcer response in male rats, but not in female rats. Chronic, but not acute, stress resulted in an increase in serotonin transporter mRNA levels in the dorsal raphe nucleus of both male and, female rats. The general consensus from these data suggested that female rats were more vulnerable to chronic stress and consequently supported the notion that females may be more susceptible to stress induced behavioral depression.     

The Daily Stress Inventory: Validity and effect of repeated administration

The Daily Stress Inventory (DSI) is a self-report measure of minor stressors which is administered daily. One test of the validity of a measure of daily stress is its sensitivity to the difference between the stressors of workdays and those of weekends. A second concern in establishing the validity of a test administered repeatedly is that self-monitoring may influence the obtained scores. The present study investigated these two issues using a sample of 70 community adults who reported full-time employment. These subjects provided a week of self-monitoring with the DSI. The results indicated that the DSI was sensitive to the difference between weekends and weekdays. The analyses of the effect of repeated administration suggested that the first day of self-monitoring may differ from the other days of self-monitoring. When the first day was eliminated, there was no significant difference among the days of self-monitoring, and the difference between the weekdays and the weekends remained. The data suggest that the DSI is a valid measure of the construct of daily stress and that any influence of repeated self-monitoring with the scale may be easily resolved.