Type of stressors

4 important questions on Type of stressors

Important facts about the SES- Health gradient

- Gradient is everywhere in human world even in equalitarian Sweden - But gradient less steep when national social security (e.g. UK) in stead of no national social security (US: steepest of whole world! )
- Where are you on the social status ladder’ (subjective poverty) predicts disease outcomes as good as objective measures (objective poverty) (Adler)
- The more income inequality the more ‘subjective poor’ have worse health, independent of average income (Wilkinson)
- SES-disease link not statistically trivial: sometimes 20x bigger risk !!!
- Famous study: nuns who lived exactly same live: premature death if born with low SES …..: partly rooted in childhood (genes?)

Why does SES have such impact on humans?

Sapolsky speculates:
“Agriculture is a fairly recent (JB: 8-10.000 yrs ago) human invention, and in many ways it was one of the great stupid moves of all time” *
- Stockpiling surplus food / unequal stockpiling
- Stratification of society (classes; repression)
- Invention of haves and havenots ‘poverty is a recent invention of mankind’? - Denigrating the poor, subordinate classes, etc: nowhere in animal kingdom…

What are the most important factors of low SES?

Low SES: more life events, daily hassles, and chronic stressors;


Modulators: less social support (feelings of social exclusion & lower self esteem), less controllability /predictability of life in general


Chronic stress response*: physiological & psychological (negative emotions: anger, anxiety, depression)


NB. Low SES children already high cortisol levels! (again: genes?)
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Example of social exclusion; what is cyberball?

You get excluded from trowing a ball with two other.


psychobiological stress effects
also on emotion/ pain Brian centre: 'bullying really hurts'

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