THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS IN CAUSING ILLNESS

WITH REFERENCE TO STRESS THEORY, DISCUSS THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS (E.G. FEAR, ANIXETY, AND DEPRESSION) IN CAUSING ILLNESS. ILLUSTRATE YOUR ARGUMENT WITH EXAMPLES AND LITERATURE SUPPORT.

A. Introduction Stress causing illness, have you ever heard about it? If no, you do need to go into detail to this paper and you would know how the stress affects your body. In this paper, Hans Selye¡¦s theoretical propositions would be used to analyze some of the diseases in which stress was the dominating factor in causing the illness. It would firstly give a short description of Hans Selye¡¦s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). Then, it would go into details to understand how the stress causing illness. Some of the examples were used to illustrate the psychological factors predispose stressed people to have illnesses. Afterward, it will criticize the limitations of the GAS. And finally, it will give a short conclusion with recommendation to fellow nurses.

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Han Selye was a Canadian researcher of Austrian origin is regarded as the father of the stress. He was one of the first studied stress through his biological demonstrations at the early 1940. He defined the stress as a nonspecific induced biologic response of the body to any demand (Leidy 1989). His General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) has been used to realize physiological changes in the relationship between stress and illness (Leidy 1989). He also notion that the individual differences in expressions of stress are determined by variation in organ vulnerability (Leidy 1989).

A fully developed GAS consists of the alarm stage, resistance stage and exhaustion stage (Goldberger, L. and Breznitz, S. 1982). The alarm stage has been described as the initial stage of stress during which the body activates its large-scale forces of defence (Leidy 1989). With prolonged exposure to stress-inducing stimuli, stressed individuals are evolved...