Association of Commonly Studied Personality Variables with the Stress and Immune Response

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Beulig, Alfred

Keywords

Psychoneuroimmunology, Personality, Stress, Locus of Control

Area of Concentration

Biological Psychology

Abstract

Perception of the world around us is vital to the human experience of stress. This study directly quantified the effects of locus of control (LoC) and coping on the body's physiological response to stress. LoC when analyzed in combination with coping effectiveness presents a compelling and broadly applicable picture of how humans perceive life events. Individuals who express internal versus external LoC tend to have very different responses to stress. Physiological factors have come become increasingly important to the understanding of the stress response. Commonly studied is cortisol, whose levels are associated with both the chronic and acute affects of stress. Secretory Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) is useful in measuring immune competence relative to stress. Individuals with an external LoC and more effective coping skills tend to have reduced stress and increased immune competency compared to those with an internal LoC. Thus this association would likely hold for physiological indicators of stress. Strong correlations confirmed the association between LoC, coping and perceived stress, but associations with physiological variables were weaker. They were not significantly linked to LoC and coping but showed promise for future research.

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