Effects of punishing the coping response (conflict) on stress pathology in rats.

Abstract

Extended previous findings that when rats avoid and/or escape electric shock that is preceded by a warning signal, little gastric ulceration normally develops. In an experiment with 72 male albino rats, severe gastric ulceration developed when ss were given a brief punishment shock each time they performed the avoidance-escape response, and thus were exposed to a conflict situation. Yoked "helpless" ss did not develop as much ulceration as avoidance-escape ss, showing that coping behavior can, under certain circumstances, be more ulcerogenic than helplessness. Results support a proposed theory which relates ulceration to certain psychological (or behavioral) variables. It is concluded that this theory subsumes conflict. An explanation is derived for why conflict situations are particularly pathogenic. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)