Laura M. Davidson

Natural Disaster and Technological Catastrophe

Against the backdrop of ever-expanding technological systems, the effects of accidents or breakdowns in human-made technology are examined and contrasted with those of natural disasters. A number of differences are identified, and research on these forms of cataclysmic events is reviewed. These data, as well as this analysis, suggest that technological catastrophes are more likely to have long-term effects, to affect people beyond the point of impact, and to pose different types of threat than are natural disasters.

Chronic Stress as a Factor in Physiologic Reactivity to Challenge

This study examined the hypothesis that chronic stress contributes to heightened cardiovascular reactivity. Chronic stress was operationalized as crowding stress associated with commercial-residential mixes in high-density neighborhoods. Seventeen residents of crowded neighborhoods and 24 residents of uncrowded neighborhoods worked on a challenging task while blood pressure and heart rate were measured. Self-report and biochemical measures indicated that the two groups differed in level of chronic stress. Results also indicated that chronic stress contributes to cardiovascular reactivity. Crowded residents showed greater increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate and took longer to return to baseline than did uncrowded residents. The few differences found between Type A and Type B residents were found only in the low-stress group.

Chronic stress, catecholamines, and sleep disturbance at Three Mile Island

The present study was concerned with the relationship between chronic stress and sleep disturbance. Previous research has provided evidence of chronic stress responding among people living near the Three Mile Island nuclear generating facility. Compared to control subjects, the TMI group has exhibited greater symptom reporting, poorer performance on behavioral measures of concentration, and elevated levels of urinary norepinephrine and epinephrine. Other research has suggested a relationship between arousal and insomnia. The extent to which stress and sleep disturbances were experienced by residents at TMI was examined and compared to levels of stress and sleep disturbance among a group of control subjects. The relationship between stress and sleep disturbances was also examined. Results indicated that TMI area residents exhibited more stress than the controls and reported greater disturbance of sleep. Modest relationships among stress and sleep measures suggested that the symptoms of stress measured in this study were not primary determinants of sleep problems.

Specificity and Stress Research

There are a number of different ways in which the psychological and physiological aspects of behavior have been interrelated. The connection between the two domains is fundamental. It is the distinction between them that is artificial. Yet there is some administrative virtue in partitioning the unitary responses of a human being or an animal into components that follow disciplinary lines. Each discipline—physiology, endocrinology, psychology, anthropology, and so forth—tends to focus on its aspect of the integrated biobehavioral response with its own set of questions and investigative concepts and techniques. This chapter discusses one of the most common and important of the biobehavioral responses, namely, stress. The perspective will be psychological, and the question to be examined will be the source of individual differences in the diverse factors believed to enter into the stress system.

Posttraumatic Stress in Children following Natural and Human-Made Trauma

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may represent one of the most profound consequences of exposure to a stressor. Although the disorder has been included as a diagnostic category in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Dis orders (DSM-III) (American Psychiatric Association, 1980), its symptoms resemble severe chronic stress and expression of these symptoms may not necessarily reflect psychopathology (Davidson & Baum, 1986). Despite the fact that the disorder is well documented in adults, less is known about the potential for a similar syndrome to develop in childhood. The severe traumas that children may experience, ranging from the kind of hostage situation at Cokeville, Wyoming, in 1986, to more common experiences of abuse or the witnessing of havoc or homicide, can produce stress symptoms in such children.