Stress: Evolutionary, Biosocial and Clinical Perspectives

217 Pages·1996·19.989 MB·English

by  Alan H. Bittles, Peter A. Parsons (eds.)

STUDIES IN BIOLOGY, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
General Editor: Robert Chester, Department of Social Policy and
Professional Studies, University of Hull
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Published titles
Milo Keynes, David A. Coleman and Nicholas H. Dimsdale (editors)
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF HEALTH AND WELFARE
Peter Diggory, Malcolm Potts and Sue Teper (editors)
NATURAL HUMAN FERTILITY
Milo Keynes and G. Ainsworth Harrison (editors)
EVOLUTIONARY STUDIES: A Centenary Celebration of the Life of Julian Huxley
David Robinson, Alan Maynard and Robert Chester (editors)
CONTROLLING LEGAL ADDICTIONS
D.F. Roberts and Robert Chester (editors)
MOLECULAR GENETICS IN MEDICINE: Advances, Applications and Ethical
Implications
Alan H. Bittles and D. F. Roberts (editors)
MINORITY POPULATIONS: Genetics, Demography and Health
Milo Keynes (editor)
SIR FRANCIS GALTON, FRS: The Legacy of his Ideas
S.L. Barron and D.F. Roberts (editors)
ISSUES IN FETAL MEDICINE
Robin Dunbar (editor)
HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE DECISIONS: Biological and Social Perspectives
Alan H. Ditties and Peter A. Parsons (editors)
STRESS: Evolutionary, Biosocial and Clinical Perspectives
Stress
Evolutionary, Biosocial and
Clinical Perspectives
Proceedings of the thirty-first
annual symposium of the Galton
Institute, London 1994
Edited by
Alan H. Bittles
Foundation Professor of Human Biology
Edith Cowan University, Perth
and
Peter A. Parsons
Professor, Faculty of Science and Technology
Griffith University, Brisbane
in association with
Palgrave Macmillan
©The Galton Institute 1996
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 978-0-333-66611-1
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Contents
List of Tables vii
List of Figures viii
Notes on the Contributors X
Preface XI
1 Long-term Responses to Physical Stress: Evidence from the
Fossil Record 1
Peter R. Sheldon
2 Environmental Stress and Evolutionary Adaptation 24
R.J. Berry
3 The Galton Lecture for 1994: From Energy Budgets to
Adaptive Limits under Stress: Sexual Ornaments,
Senescence, and Outlier Human Populations 41
Peter A. Parsons
4 Population Differences in Blood Pressure Genes 61
Nicholas D. Carter
5 Sub-threshold Effects of Maternal Alcohol Consumption
on Craniodental Development 70
Jules A. Kieser
6 The Assessment of Stress in Traditional Societies 81
Lincoln H. Schmitt
7 Stress, Gender and Leadership 100
Marianne Frankenhaeuser
8 Stress, Work, and Health: the Role of Individual Differences 113
Katherine R. Parkes
9 Stress in Hospital Patients 152
Jenifer Wilson-Barnett
10 Cardiovascular Disease and Stress: from Aetiology to
Intervention 159
Andrew Steptoe
v
vi Contents
11 Psychosocial Stress and Cancer 174
Hans J. Eysenck
Index 193
List of Tables
3.1 Dessication selection, metabolic rate and longevity
in strains of Drosophila melanogaster 51
3.2 Stature weight ratios in various human populations 53
3.3 Stress and the effect of shelter on lamb mortality in
Australia 54
4.1 Approaches to the identification of hypertensive genes in
human populations 63
4.2 Examples of loci shown to cosegregate with increased
blood pressure in crosses involving inbred rat strains 65
5.1 Differences in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome between children
of alcoholic and non-alcoholic control mothers as
measured on deciduous and permanent teeth 73
5.2 Student t-tests for significant directionality of antimeric
asymmetry in the teeth of children of alcoholic mothers
and controls 74
5.3 Levels of fluctuating asymmetry in the teeth of children
exposed to mild and severe alcohol abuse 77
10.1 Psychosocial factors and cardiovascular disease 163
10.2 Abnormal cardiac responses during mental stress
testing in post-infarction patients 166
11.1 Lung cancer as a function of smoking and stress;
mortality from lung cancer of 2,374 probands followed
up over a ten-year period 183
VII
List of Figures
l.l Model illustrating the hypothesis that, over geological
timescales, phyletic gradualism is characteristic of narrowly
fluctuating, relatively stable environments, whereas stasis
(with rare punctuations) tends to prevail in more unstable
environments 7
1.2 A testable prediction of the model shown in Figure 1.1 II
2.1 Wallace's classification of selection and Southwood's
habitat templet complement each other, putting the
adaptive adjustability of genetical constitution alongside
environmental heterogeneity and introducing the variable
stresses experienced by organisms 34
3.la The size of sexual ornaments plotted against fitness under
three stress levels: low, medium and high 48
3.lb The size of non-sexual traits plotted against fitness under
three stress levels: low, medium and high 49
4.1 Frequency distribution of diastolic blood pressures 61
4.2 Prevalence of hypertension among white and black men
and women in the USA 62
4.3 A graphical representation of the restriction fragment
length polymorphism distribution among Black and White
London populations 64
4.4 A graphical representation of the frequency of the point
mutation methionine 235 ~ threonine 235 in the
angiotensinogen gene among Black and White individuals
in a London population 66
4.5 A graphical representation of the frequency of the
angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion
polymorphism in different ethnic groups 67
5.1 Chronology of development of the second maxillary
deciduous molar (m2) and the first maxillary permanent
molar (M1) 76
6.1 Mean urinary adrenaline excretion rates (with standard
error bars) in three Kimberley communities and in Oxford 92
6.2 Mean urinary cortisol excretion rates (with standard error
bars) in three Kimberley communities and Oxford 93
viii
List of Figures ix
6.3 Population pyramid of the Kalumburu Aboriginal
Community (n=353) in November 1993, and the total
Australian population (n=17 825 593) in June 1992 94
7.1 A biopsychosocial model for stress-health interaction 101
7.2 Schematic representation of adrenal-medullary and
adrenal-cortical responses to effort and distress 103
7.3 Adrenaline excretion (expressed as a percentage of
baseline level) in male and female groups during various
stress situations 104
7.4 Adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol excretion in male
and female engineering students during a colour-word
conflict task 105
7.5 Adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol excretion in mothers
and fathers arriving at a hospital for a medical checkup
of their 3-year-old child 106
7.6 Noradrenaline excretion in male and female managers
during and after a day at work 108
7.7 Self-reports of social support at work 110
8.1 Schematic representation of additive and interactive models 116
8.2 Work satisfaction in relation to Type A 'Competitive Drive'
scores among onshore and offshore employees 137
8.3 Anxiety in relation to Type A 'Speed and Impatience'
scores for onshore employees and for offshore employees
at different ages 139
10.1 Chronic and acute physiological components of the stress
response in humans 162
11.1 Mortality from cancer and coronary heart disease of
persons belonging to Type 1 (cancer-prone), Type 2
(coronary heart disease-prone) or Type 3 and 4 (healthy) 181
11.2 Continuation of the follow-up shown in Figure 11.1 for
another 4.5 years 182