HDFS 3920 Exam 1

Stress

Response to stimulus

Changing life events

State of alienation

Anxiety and coping

positive and negative

Subsystems

“Systems Theory”, system is more than the sum of its parts, collective response.

Suprasystems

Family is part of a larger social system, dependent on ecosystem.

Ecosystem

External environment in which families exist.

ABC-X Model

Developed by Reuben Hill, contributed to family strengths/resilience.

A

Stressor event

Normative Stress

Everyday events.

Non-normative Stress

Sudden, unpredictable events.

Accumulation

Level of stress determined by several events, “stress pileup”.

Ambiguous Loss

Person is physically absent and psychologically present or psychologically absent and physically present.

B

Resources, moderates stress. Research suggests that this is the most important component of a family’s reaction to a stressor event.

Family System Resources

Internal strength of the family to cope.

Cohesion

Familial bond.

Adaptation

Ability to change.

C

Definition given to event.

Mastery Orientation

Belief that one’s own abilities can control adverse situations.

Fatalistic Orientation

Belief that everything happens according to a plan and cannot be controlled by one’s own will.

Individualistic

Take action to confront an issue.

Collectivist

Thoughtfulness, harmony, and interdependence.

Crisis

Overwhelming disturbance of equilibrium, dichotomous.

Epistomology

Justified belief (positivist, interpretive, and critical).

Assumption

Idea scholars believe to be true.

Concept

Terms that explain a theory’s framework (based on assumptions).

Proposition

Operationalized as a hypothesis and can be tested through research (relevant, practical, logical, explicit, systematic, contextual).

Hassle

Anticipated or unanticipated daily life occurrence that creates common annoyances.

Daily Inventory of Stressful Events (DISE)

Semi-structured phone interview with open-ended questions for about a week.

Vulnerability Stress Adaptation Model

Acknowledges adaptive processes and enduring vulnerabilities families utilize to cope.

Buffering

Adaptive strategy to face hassles that is influenced by vulnerabilities, strengths, nature, and communication of the family.

Vulnerability to Endurance

Dependent upon personality traits, stable/resilient traits are desirable.

Cognitive Coping Strategies

Ways in which families associate or disassociate with a stressor, the overall perception towards an event (direct action, intrapsychic, controlling emotions).

Coping

A process, and not an outcome. Can also lead to further stress if it becomes too complex.

Family Adaptation

Long-term, the degree to which the family system alters its internal functions or external reality to achieve a system-environment fit.

Adjustment

Short-term adaptation.

Double A Factor

Stress pileup:

Unresolved stressor

Additional stressor

Results of change

Double B Factor

Inherent or acquired resources.

Double C Factor

Perception of initial and current stressor.

Double x Factor

Original response and consequent adjustments to crisis.

Resiliency

The ability to stretch (like elastic) or flex (like a suspension bridge) in response to the pressures and strains of life.

Family Resilience Model (FRM)

Interaction of family risk with family protection and vulnerability in such ways that result in short-term and long-term family system adaptation.

Bioecological Theory

How proximal processes, personal characteristics, context, and time influence stress.

Mindfulness

Attentiveness to the present that has a rich cultural history connected to Eastern and Western religion/philosophies despite being somewhat commercialized.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

8-week program that acknowledges physical and emotional pain in order to tackle health challenges (most empirically supported).

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

6-12 month intensive skill-based program that utilizes mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance. Tackles bipolar disorder, trauma, or emotional dysregulation.

Perspective Taking

Impacts the experience of time and shifts emotional appraisal of pain by creating new perspectives.

Pronatalism

Promoting parenthood

Family Stress

A change or disturbance in the steady state of the family system which can have consequences that range along a continuum from very positive to very negative.

Parental Distress

Aversive emotional reaction by an individual parent to the demands of childcare and child socialization. Reciprocal and multidirectional. Tends to spill over systemically into parent–child relationships

Positive Resources

Provides some buffer to defer or bear the negative effects of stress.

Negative Resources

The vulnerabilities or weaknesses of parents or children as well as their relationship. Exposes the family to stress.

Developmental Disabilities

Severe, persistent mental or physical developmental impairments.

Intellectual Disabilities

Significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviors.

Boundary Ambiguity

The experience of not knowing who is in or out of the family or relationship.

Contextual Model of Family Stress

Boss; elements of the internal and external context surrounding the event.

Father Involvement (FI)

A “matter of choice”, and more varied. Dimensions include availability, engagement, and responsibility.

Experiential Attitudes

Emotional responses to the idea of performing a behavior.

Instrumental Attitudes

Beliefs about the potential outcomes of the behavior.

Injunctive Norms

Influenced by others’ expectations

Descriptive Norms

Influenced by others’ actions

Personal Agency

Degree of confidence in one’s ability to perform a behavior and whether performance can occur in the face of constraints.

Intersectionality

The joining of multiple entities; social constructs, identities, relationships, and all other circumstances intersect and influence one another. These constructs are not mutually exclusive, but coexist.