Factors Contibuting to Individual Differences in Stress Response Coursework

Factors Contibuting to Individual Differences in Stress Response - Coursework Example Suffering from some chronic illness may be a source of stress for many people. It is important to understand how to respond to these stresses and factors contributing to differences in individual responses to stress. For instance, while alcohol proves effective in managing stress in some people, it has contradicting results in others (Sher & Walitzer, 1986). Stress response is the natural coping mechanism of the body to respond to stressful events and it involves the release of ‘hormones and glucose into the bloodstream to provide extra energy and alertness’ (Gilles, 2009). Researchers in response to stress often employ different approaches such as a consideration of the stimulus, the response, or the transactional perspective. However, regardless of the approached used, it is generally recognized that the individuals exhibit differences in the ability to respond to different stressful events. The differences can be attributed to the environmental, socio-cultural, and ge netic factors specific to the individuals. Some of the individual factors include personality traits (Kazmi et al, 2009), gender, social class, culture, ethnicity, age, and genetic composition (Davidyan, 2008). This paper examines the background of these observed individual differences with a focus on three contributing factors namely the environmental, cognitive, and genetic factors. ... mographic or historic developmental factors include gender, age, ethnicity, genetic predisposition, history of trauma or abuse, and the individual medical history (Davidyan, 2008). The psychological factors include whereas the social factors include acculturation, social support, socio-economic and educational status, leisure time activities (Davidyan, 2008). Environmental factors Various studies on human epidemiology have indicated that the early life experiences contribute significantly to the development of differences in how the individuals respond to stressful events in later stages of their lives. The differences that are observed in the psychological environment in which a physical stressor occur account for the variability in stress response (Sapolsky, 1994, p.263). The researches on the developmental programming of the stress system have examined the roles played by the environmental stressors or the exogenous glucocorticoids in the development of sensitivity to stress by an individual (Claessens et al, 2011). It must be noted that these factors do not stand alone in providing the influence. The environmental factors interplay other factors like the gene combination to define the differences. The outcomes of early experiences do not determine precisely the fate of an individual in the later stages. A class of environmental, cognitive, and genetic factors takes part in molding the overall outcome of the early life experiences. Personality traits and other dispositional traits have a stake in explaining the stress responses (Avitsur et al, 2006, p.289). However, there are cases in which the environmental factors are powerful and can override other factors like the genetic factors (Claessens et al, 2011). Various aspects of the environment working at specific