Stress and Health (Ch. 11) Stress The term used to describe the physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to events that are appraised as threatening or challenging. • Stressors – events that cause a stress reaction. 1. Distress – the effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors. 2. Eustress – the effect of positive events, or the optimal amount of stress that people need to promote health and well-being. Causes of Stress • Catastrophe An unpredictable, large-scale event that creates a tremendous need to adapt and adjust as well as overwhelming feelings threat. • Major Life Events Cause stress by requiring adjustment. o Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) – assessment that measures the amount of stress in a person’s life over a one-year period resulting from major life events. o College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS) – assessment that measures the amount of stress in a college student’s life over a one-year period resulting from major life events. • Hassles The daily annoyances of everyday life. Everyday Sources of Stress • Pressure The psychological experience produced by urgent demands or expectations for a person’s behavior that come from an outside source. • Uncontrollability The degree of control that the person has over a particular event or situation. The less control a person has, the greater the degree of stress. • Frustration The psychological experience produced by the blocking of a desired goal or fulfillment of a perceived need. Possible reactions: o Aggression – actions meant to harm to destroy. o Displaced Aggression ¬– taking out one’s frustrations on some less threatening or more available target, a form of displacement. o Escape or Withdrawal ¬– leaving the presence of a stressor, either literally or by a psychological withdrawal into fantasy, drug abuse, or apathy. • Conflict Psychological experience of being pulled toward or drawn to two or more desires or goals, only one of which may be attained. • Suicide Types of Conflict • Approach-Approach Conflict Conflict occurring when a person must choose between two desirable goals. • Approach-Avoidance conflict Conflict occurring when a person must choose or not choose a goal that has both positive and negative aspects. o Double Approach-Avoidance Conflict – conflict in which the person must decide between two goals, with each goal possessing both positive and negative aspects. Bodily Reactions to Stress • Autonomous nervous system consists of: o Sympathetic System – responds to stressful events. o Parasympathetic System ¬– restores the body to normal functioning after the stress has ceased. • General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) The three stages of the body’s physiological reaction to stress, including alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Stress and the Immune System • Immune System The system of cells, organs, and chemicals of the body that responds to attacks from diseases, infections, and injuries. o Negatively affected by stress. • Psychoneuroimmunology The study of the effects of psychological factors such as stress, emotions, thoughts, and behavior on the immune system. • Heart disease, Diabetes, Cancer Cognitive Factors of Stress • Cognitive Appraisal Approach States that how people think about a stressor determines, at least in part, how stressful that stressor will become. o Primary Appraisal ¬– the first step in assessing a stress, which involves estimating the severity of a stressor and classifying it as either a threat or a challenge. o Secondary Appraisal – the second step in assessing a threat, which involves estimating the resources available to the person for coping with the stressor. Stress and Personality • Type A Personality Person who is ambitious, time-conscious, extremely hardworking, and tends to have high levels of hostility and anger as well as being easily annoyed. • Type B Personality Person who is relaxed and laid-back, less driven and competitive than Type A, and slow to anger. • Type C Personality Pleasant but repressed person, who tends to internalize his or her anger and anxiety and who finds expressing emotions difficult. • Hardy Personality A person who seems to thrive on stress but lacks the anger and hostility of the Type A personality. • Optimists People who expect positive outcomes. • Pessimists People who expect negative outcomes. Stress and Social Factors - Social factors increasing the effects of stress include poverty, stresses on the job or in the workplace, and entering a majority culture that is different from one’s culture of origin. • Burnout Negative changes in thoughts, emotions, and behavior as a result of prolonged stress or frustration. • Acculturative Stress Stress resulting from the need to change and adapt a person’s ways to the majority culture. o e.g. Integration, Assimilation, Separation, Marginalization • Social Support System The network of family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and others who can offer support, comfort, or aid to a person in need. Ways to Deal with Stress • Coping Strategies Actions that people can take to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize the effects of stressors. o Problem-Focused Coping ¬– coping strategies that try to eliminate the source of a stress or reduce its impact through direct actions. o Emotion-Focused Coping – coping strategies that change the impact of a stressor by changing the emotional reaction to the stressor. Meditation Mental series of exercises meant to refocus attention and achieve a trancelike state of consciousness. • Concentrative Meditation Form of meditation in which a person focuses the mind on some repetitive or unchanging stimulus so that the mind can be cleared of disturbing thoughts and the body can experience relaxation. Cultural Influences on Stress - ¬Different cultures perceive stressors differently. - Coping strategies will also vary from culture to culture. Religiosity and Stress - ¬People with religious beliefs also have been found to cope better with stressful events. Exercise - Raises good cholesterol and lowers bad cholesterol. - Strengthens bones. - Improves quality of sleep. - Reduces tiredness. - Increases natural Killer cell activity. - Wards off virus and cancer. - Reduces stress. End of Reviewer

Conflict

Psychological experience of being pulled toward or drawn to two or more desires or goals, only one of which may be attained.

Stressors

Event that cause a stress reaction

Exercise

Raise good cholesterol and lower bad cholesterol

Cultural influence on stress

Different cultures perceive stressors differently and coping strategy will also vary from culture to culture.