Overview

This activity will argue that stress may indirectly contribute to health risk and reduced longevity to the extent that it produces deleterious changes in diet and/or helps maintain maladaptive health behaviours as well as directly by influencing biological processes across the life span (e.g., blood pressure, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning).

Studies investigating the relationship between chronic stress, perseverative cognition, the cortisol response and health outcomes will be presented.

The second half of the webinar will describe recent work investigating the effects of childhood trauma and the role of HPA axis responses to stress in vulnerability to suicide. The importance of studying the effects of stress across the life course and developing stress management interventions will also be highlighted.

Level of Learning

Foundational. This activity is targeted to those new to the topic.

Duration of access

Access to this activity is for 12 months from the date of confirmed registration.

APS CPD-Approved

This activity has been assessed against the APS Standards for CPD activities and approved for its education quality.

Learn more about the APS CPD Approval process

CPD Frequently Asked Questions

Refer to the APS CPD Frequently Asked Questions for general and technical information when undertaking APS Professional development actvities.

Activity details

• On-demand webinar recording

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

• understand how psychological stress can influence health by directly impacting on biological processes, and indirectly by producing changes in health, behaviours, and 

• understand research into the role of stress and childhood trauma in increasing vulnerability to suicide.

Presenter(s)

Daryl O'Connor, PhD, FAcSS, FRSA

About the presenter(s)

Daryl O'Connor is Professor of Psychology, health psychologist and psychobiologist at the School of Psychology, University of Leeds.
His current research focuses on: i) investigating effects of stress and psychological interventions on health outcomes and understanding the role of individual differences variables within the stress process, and ii) exploring the effects of implementation intentions-based interventions on screening behaviours.
Daryl has also been actively involved in promoting Open Science and improving psychological science nationally and across Europe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=7H-e_n_eGhE).
Daryl is a past Chair of the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) Division of Health Psychology and the BPS Psychobiology Section and he is currently Chair of BPS Research Board and Chair of the European Federation of Psychology Associations (EFPA) Board of Scientific Affairs and a Trustee of the BPS. Daryl was joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychology & Health from 2011-2019 and is the incoming Editor-in-Chief of Cogent Psychology. Twitter: @healthpsycleeds