Evaluate Strategies for Coping with Stress Stress has been defined as a pattern of negative physiological and psychological

processes occurring in situations where people perceive threats to their well being which they may be unable to meet. These situations involve stimuli which can be either real or imagines and are generally known as stressors. Stress is a biological response that is exposed through an emotion although the form it takes can vary depending on the nature of the stressor as we respond differently in a variety of situations, and if we experience these situations continuously our bodies produce a sustained stress response. This leads to a prolonged state of arousal that can eventually lead to coronary heart disease and other stress relates illnesses. Because more and more people are becoming ill through stress. Many different psychological and physical strategies have been put forward to help cope with stress. For example, Meichenbaum (1983) came up with the idea of Stress Inoculation Training (S.I.T); this is a three-step procedure for producing stress inoculation. It was designed to teach people skills for alleviating stress and achieving personal goals. It aims to control irrational and catastrophising thoughts that to coincide with stressful situations. The first step is known as conceptualisation, this is where the person analyses and identifies where their stress comes from in their lives and the ways they have coped with it in the past. The step provides to person to reach a more realistic understanding of the demands being made upon them. The second step is known as skills and acquisition and rehearsal, this is where the person receives training in general coping strategies for stress such as relaxation and a realistic appraisal of demands. The third step is known as application and follow through where the persons new skills are put into practice with a therapist in a relaxing environment, these strategies are then put to the test in the real world although the person remains in contact with the therapist where they receive follow up sessions and further help should they require it. The strengths of the Stress Inoculation Training is that it aims to look at both the source of the stress and the strategies being used to cope with it. It combines cognitive and behavioural therapies and in theory this makes it a good method of stress management. However, very few studies have been carried out into its effectiveness and it takes up a lot of time and money. Kobasa (1982) came up with a similar approach to reducing stress known as Increasing Hardiness. Kobasa believed that the concept of hardiness is the central understanding of why some people are more prone to stress than others. The research was on a group of managers, which they followed for three years. Kobasa obtained the Holmes-Rahe scale measurements from each of the managers and monitored their levels of stress and amount of illness they had. Kobasa found two different groups between the managers. One group who suffered from high amounts of stress but had very little illnesses and the other group who had high amounts of stress and a high amount of illnesses. Kobasa found that the group the had high amounts of stress but only low amounts of illness also had high scores on the hardiness scales and this group were also less

likely to suffer from stress-related illnesses compared to the other group which had low hardiness scores. From his research Kobasa came up with three coping strategies to increase a persons hardiness. The first strategy was known as focusing, this is where the individual is trained to identify signs of stress and so recognise their sources. The second strategy is known as reliving stressful situations in which the individual learns to analyse a stressful situation and is given examples of how it could have been better or worse. This helps the individual gain insight into the strategies theyre currently using and how they are most likely to be more effective than the individual thought. The final strategy is known as selfimprovement, this is where the individual is encouraged to take on and carry out challenges that theyll be able to cope with. Successful coping is a form of assertiveness training and it also helps to deal with other stressors and avoids the development of helpless-like tendencies. There has been a lot of support for Kobasas work as there is evidence for the role of control in reducing responses to stress and also Ganellen and Blaney (1984) found that hardiness was only available to offer protection from stress even though social support is available showing that Kobasas work draws attention to the role of exercise and social support in the management of stress. However, Kobasas work has been heavily criticised firstly because there have been few studies since showing the effectiveness of hardiness training. The sample Kobasa used in his work tended to be white middle-class business men therefore, the results cannot be generalised to the rest of the population and also the concept of hardiness has been criticised because the relative importance of its factors (control, commitment etc.) are unclear. The other problem with it is its similar to Meichenbaums Stress Inoculation Training and this also takes up a lot of time, commitment, motivation and money. There are many coping different strategies that can be used to alleviate stress. Overall, it has been shown more effective to use more than one strategy at a time because each one has different ways of dealing with stress. For example, Meichenbaums Stress Inoculation Training only looks at the underlying reasons of the stress and why it occurred rather than what actually happens to the person physically. Discuss the formation and development of gender roles One interpretation of gender is that it refers to the sociocultural aspect of being male or female, not just the physiological aspects that make up a gender. Every child develops a gender, and with this has to come a gender role, which is a set of expectations that prescribe how males and females should think, act and feel. The first explanation into the development of gender identity is the Social Learning Theory or Social Cognitive Theory, developed by Bandura (1991). Bandura suggested that gender roles develop through several modes of influence, principally modelling, enactive experience and direct tuition. Bandura demonstrated modelling through the Bobo doll experiment where young

children copied aggressive behaviour, particularly when the modeller was the same sex as the child. This suggests children copy same sex models in everyday life and thereby learn whats considered appropriate behaviour from the behaviour of those around them. This may be reinforced or inhibited through enactive experience where the childs actions are rewarded or punished by peoples reactions. This is also shown through peers, as a child may see them getting rewarded or punished for something and therefore model their behaviour on that outcome. People can also model their behaviour on gender roles shown in the media, which affects their self-efficacy. Additionally, the principle of self-efficacy suggests that we learn what is possible for our own gender through seeing others succeed or fail. Therefore we are more likely to engage in behaviour that weve seen our own gender succeed in. Perry and Bussey (1979) support modelling by showing that children copied the fruit choices of same sex models but this was limited by existing stereotypes e.g. men dont wear dresses. However, fruit choice is a trivial example and it is not clear that one modelling session had long-term effects. Furthermore the failure to overturn stereotypes might suggest that complex schemas are in operation, which the theory doesnt allow for. Another criticism is that research has also shown that children do not always model their behaviour on a same-sex model. This is strengthened by Barkley et als study (1982) where they found that out of 81 studies, only 18 found that same-sex modelling was more important than direct instruction. Durkin et al also described Banduras theory as adevelopmental; however, this is weakened by the fact that Bandura did state when each stage started to occur i.e. modelling begins once the child can tell males and females apart. This theory also doesnt account for the fact that a child is not completely passive in his or her development. Bussey and Bandura (1992) state that a child will move from external reinforcement from parents and peers to self-evaluation and self-regulation as they get older which the theory doesnt explain. For example, Bussey and Banduras study found that four-year-old children would feel bad playing with cross-sex toys, showing that they learn early through self-evaluation. A second explanation into gender roles is the gender schema theory. This theory states that we have all have gender schemas, which tell us how we should act in order to be accepted. Martin and Halverson (1981) suggested that when children have a basic gender identity, they look at the environment around them in order to build on their gender schema. Martin suggested that once children know what sex they are, they know their group as in the ingroup, and the other sex as the outgroup, developing different schemas for each. From this, they then learn activities and behaviour appropriate to their gender and learn to like people of the same gender and discriminate against the outgroup. Yee and Brown (1994) strengthen this, as they found that children were more positive about their own sex than the other. By playing with other children, they believe that girls share the same interests and vice versa, and this leads to them ignoring the other sex because they are different. They also learn that they will get teased if they talk to the other sex, and so avoid doing it. Bems theory suggested that instead of ingroups and outgroups, it is better to describe them as gender schematic and gender non-schematic. Being gender schematic means that you organise

activities and behaviours into masculine and feminine categories, and therefore leads to gender stereotyped behaviour. Those who are non-gender schematic develop an androgynous gender schema, and therefore behave in ways that represent males and females. The theories all take different perspectives, and help us to understand the development of gender role. However, it could be that it is the amalgamation of all the theories that would help us truly understand gender development. Examine psychological research into adolescence Adolescence refers to The period of physical and psychological development from the onset of puberty to maturity. During adolescence, the transition from childhood to adulthood is most important. Children are becoming more independent, and begin to look to the future in terms of career, relationships, families, housing, etc. During this period, they explore possibilities and begin to form their own identity based upon the outcome of their explorations. The formation of identity is a key feature of adolescence according to several theories. For example, Erikson's psychosocial theory of personality development, adolescence involves a 'crisis' resulting in either identity formation or role confusion. This concerns the adolescent having to establish who they are and what they will do with their adult life. The theory suggests that, in childhood, people incorporate the values of those who are most important in their life, and in adolescence some of these values are retained but some are abandoned. All of this is a process of the development of an individual identity, which, albeit applicable to modern individualist cultures where individual identity is valued, may not be temporally or culturally valid. That is, in most collectivist cultures, group identity is much more valued than individual identity, and often choices are limited as to what will happen in the future. This used to be similar in many Western cultures: it was often a given that men would continue their father's career and women would get married and look after the house and children. This implies that, in such cultures, there are not many decisions with regard to life in the future as there are in modern individualist cultures. The population validity of Erikson's explanation of adolescent identity formation can also be questioned since, much like other psychoanalysts, his theory was grounded on case studies. Although they provide a deep insight into how the human brain may work, using case studies in the development of theories may be open to misinterpretation on the part of the researcher, as the majority of people studied are psychologically abnormal. It could therefore be that the adolescents that Erikson encountered had higher levels of stress, causing him to overemphasise the idea of a crisis. This emphasis of crisis is disputable. Some would say that it is a time of stress, such as Smith & Crawford (1986) who found that more than 60% of secondary school students reported at least one instance of suicidal thinking, and Larson

(1981), whose experiment involving 'bleeping' through pagers found mood swings of adolescents to be much more rapid than those of adults. Marcia (1966) produced a theory similar to that of Erikson. He did so by interviewing adolescents going through a crisis, and found that in the formation of identity adolescents may be in any of four 'statuses': identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, moratorium and identity achievement. These statuses depend on two variables: crisis and commitment. Crisis is described as the examination of opportunities and identity issues, and commitment as the extent to which the individual commits to aspirations and other plans for the future. For example, an adolescent who has a wide range of choice open to them, who examines these choices and who succeeds in fulfilling them will have been through a crisis and committed, and is therefore in the identity achievement status; however one which has all of the above choices and yet fails to commit is said to be in moratorium. Although each status is not a prerequisite for the next, moratorium is required in order for identity achievement to be fulfilled. This theory can be commended for providing an explanation of why adolescents in other cultures and those living in our own culture two centuries ago may experience less of what Erikson would describe as a 'crisis', since there is (or was) less choice about the future. The possibility of such differences also offers an explanation of why some researchers believe that adolescence is stressful and yet some don't (see above), and provides much more flexibility with regard to explaining individual differences, for example why some children in secondary school proceed into college and further education, whereas some enter employment at a relatively early age. Also, there exists research evidence to support Marcia. Kroger (1996) found that those in identity achievement functioned better under stress than those in moratorium, which supports the idea that moratorium is a period of ongoing crisis. In conclusion, identity and the crisis identified with this idea is particularly associated with adolescents, particularly as society changes. It is quite possible with the demands that society puts on the individual to be perfect, identity will be made even more difficult to understand and almost impossible to be content with. Explain factors and examine one prevention strategy related to the development of substance abuse or addictive behavior