Modules 3.1-3.4

Stress

Interpretation of specific events (stressors) as threatening or challenging (involves multidimensional biological, cognitive, behavioral, and social response)

Stress Response

The physical/cognitive reactions to stress

Hans Selye

Defined stress as a nonspecific response to a stressor: distress or eustress

Life Changes (Sources of Stress)

Social readjustment Scale (SRRS) by Holmes and Rahe measure these on a scale of importance

Conflict: Approach-approach (Sources of Stress)

A forced choice between 2 equally positive options

Conflict: Approach-avoidance (Sources of Stress)

1 forced option that is equally positive and negative

Conflict: Avoidance-avoidance (Sources of Stress)

A forced choice between 2 equally negative options

Hassles (Sources of Stress)

Small daily problems

Frustration (Sources of Stress)

Negative emotion from a blocked goal

Cataclysmic Events (Sources of Stress)

Natural disasters, asteroid impacts, climate change, etc.

Job Stress (Sources of Stress)

Role conflict and role ambiguity

Acute Stress (Sources of Stress)

Severe and short term

Chronic Stress (Sources of Stress)

Severe and long term

Fight-Flight-Freeze Response

An automatic bodily response to perceived danger, involving a decision to stay and fight, run and flee, or freeze

“Fawn” Response

Respond to perceived danger by becoming overly agreeable and polite or dissociate

“Flop” Response

Respond to perceived danger by being completely submissive and/or full body collapse

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

1. Alarm - alert to the stressor

2. Resistance - resist and/or cope with it

3. Exhaustion - energy is depleted

SAM (sympatho-adreno-medullary) System

Initial rapid-acting stress response involving the sympathetic nervous system and adrenal medulla

HIPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical) Axis

Delayed stress response involving the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal cortex

Ulcers (peptic)

An open sore caused by acid and is psychosomatic

(gastric: stomach, and duodenal: beginning of small intestine)

Cancer

Many types; caused by a combo. of environmental factors and inherited predispositions (prolonged stress prompts adrenal glands to release hormones that negatively affect the immune system, now is less able to resist infection or fight cancer cells)

Heart Disease

General term for all disorders that affect the heart muscles and lead to heart failure

Coronary Heart (or Artery) Disease

The walls of the coronary arteries thicken, reducing or blocking blood supply to the heart

Symptoms: angina (chest pain) and heart attacks

Chronic Pain

A continuous or recurrent pain experience over a period of 6 months or longer

Treating it: behavior modification. biofeedback (noninvasive drug), relaxation and mindfulness-based meditation

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A long-lasting, trauma and stressor related disorder that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope

Risks: death and suicide, drug/alcohol abuse

Cognitive Appraisal

The personal, subjective, interpretation of a situation that determines an individual’s emotional and behavioral response

Problem-Focused Coping

The strategies we use to deal directly with a stressor

Emotion-Focused Coping

The strategies used to relieve/regulate emotional reactions

Internal Locus of Control

The belief that we control our own fate

External Locus of Control

The belief that chance/outside forces beyond our control determine our fate

Positive Affect

The experience or expression of positive feelings (affect)

Optimism

A tendency to expect that good things will happen and bad things won’t

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Based on developing a state of consciousness that attends to ongoing events in a receptive and nonjudgmental way

Health Psychology

A subfield of psych. that studies how biological, psychological, and social factors influence health, illness and health-related behaviors

Technostress

A feeling of anxiety or mental pressure from overinvolvement with tech.

Regression (Defense Mechanism)

Reverting back to a behavior that should have been outgrown (never a living thing involved)

Repression (Defense Mechanism)

A traumatic event is too painful to acknowledge so it gets automatically pushed out of conscious awareness

Reaction Formation (Defense Mechanism)

A person responds to something completely opposite of how he/she truly feels

Rationalization (Defense Mechanism)

Justifying doing something one knows if wrong

Denial (Defense Mechanism)

The inability to face/recognize some painful reality

Displacement (Defense Mechanism)

Taking one’s anger our one someone who is a safer target (living thing always involved)

Compensation (Defense Mechanism)

Making up for a real/perceived weakness by developing a strength in another area

Projection (Defense Mechanism)

Putting your own negative emotions/thoughts on someone else

Sublimation (Defense Mechanism)

Channeling your negative impulses in a positive way

Intellectualization (Defense Mechanism)

Only coping with the cognitive aspect of a situation and being unable to recognize the emotional component

Introjection (Defense Mechanism)

Taking the values of some other person or group at the expense of developing your own values