EXAM 4 POS PSYC

Stress

• A psychological, physiological and behavioral reaction that occurs when individuals perceive that they cannot handle demands 

the stress response: physical

• Stress hormones

• Heart rate

• Blood pressure

• Immune system 

The stress response: Emotional

• anger

• fear

• fusturation

The stress response: Cognitive

rumination: repeated thoughts ab the thing thats causing our stress

catastrophizing:  dwell on negative consequences/ overemphazizing/end of the world, fail etc 

narrowed thinking:

The stress response: behavioral

• Avoidance

• Substance use

• Agression 

Eustress

• stress that leads to a positive response (excitement or anticipation)

• acute stress is not usually harmful and can be motivating

• chronic stress can affect health

• how we view stress matters

• coping matters

Coping

the processes used to manage stress

characteristics of coping

• involves energy to reduce stress

• goal is to solve a problem

• strategies can be positive or negative

• dependent on personality and experiences

• highly individualized

Types of coping

• Problem focused vs Emotion focused

• Overview of Resilience

• “Bouncing back”

• Patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity 

• Maintenance, recovery, or improvement following challenge

• Emerging from difficulty stronger, wiser, and more able

• Two components: 

  • risk/adversity that posed serious threat

    • Potential for negative outcomes

Types of Resilience

• Resistance - no disturbance facing challenge

• Recovery - returning to regular functioning after some disruption

• Reconfiguration - making changes and redefining life

• How common is resilience?

• Resilience is fairly common

  • “Ordinary magic”

• Don’t misinterpret resilience for insensitivity or lack of caring

  • Resilience is a common and healthy response

• Don’t blame those who are not resilient

  • People respond differently for many reasons

• Resilience in Childhood

• Early Resilience Research

  • Werner and Smith’s study of at-risk children in Hawaii

    • 33% not affected by the risk

    • 50% handsome problems, but bounced back by early childhood

    • 20% had lasting difficulties

  • Highlights the importance of internal and external resources

• Protective Factors for Resilience

• Internal

• Intellectual skills

• Positive self-perceptions

• Sense of meaning

• Optimism

• Sense of humor

• Self-regulation

• Relationships

• Attachment

• Parenting (authoritative)

• Close supportive adults

• SES

• Community

  • Effective schools

  • Public safety

  • Health care

• General Conclusions from Early Resilience Research

• There is no timeline for resilience

• Faith in something is an essential ingredient

• Most resilient people don’t do it alone

• Setting goals and planning for the future are important

• Recognizing one’s strength is important

• Resilience in Adulthood

• Challenges of Adulthood

  • Early Adulthood

    • Establishing identity

    • Establishing intimacy

    • Career consolidation

    • Family

  • Mid- to Late- Adulthood

    • Establishing generativity

    • Declining physical health

    • Declining cognitive abilities

    • Loss of loved ones

    • Establishing integrity

• Sources of Resilience in Adulthood

  • Self-acceptance

  • Personal growth

  • Purpose in life

  • Environmental mastery/competence

  • Autonomy

  • Positive relationships

• Sources of resilience in Adulthood

• Macarthur Study of Successful Aging

• 3 major components 

  • Avoiding disease 

  • Maintaining cognitive and physical functioning

  • Engagement with life

• Socioemotional selectivity 

• Perception of time influences a person’s social goals 

• Older adults are more selective and focused on meaningful relationships 

• Coping skills 

• Ability to accept negative emotions 

• Skills for resilience 

• Problem-solving 

• Goal setting 

• Effective communication

• Emotional regulation 

• Building social support 

• Practicing self-care 

• Developing meaning in life 

• Adopting a positive outlook

• Improving self-awareness 

• Adopting effective coping 

• Posttraumatic growth 

• Potential for enhanced functioning after adversity 

  • Follows psychological struggle 

  • Takes a lot of time and energy

• Estimated that ½ to ⅔ of people experience PTG after trauma

• Challenged beliefs and assumptions provide opportunities for growth

• Making sense of the experience and finding benefits are key components 

• Areas of posttraumatic growth

•  Relationships with others

• New possibilities in life 

• Appreciation of life 

• Personal strength

• Spiritual change 

• Factors that facilitate posttraumatic growth

• Deliberate rumination 

  • Purposeful reflection with intent to learn 

• Social support 

  • Feeling heard, feeling understood 

• Personality 

  • Openness to experience and extraversion

  • Optimism, creativity, positive emotions 

• Coping 

  • Meaning making 

  • Expressive writing 

  • Therapy

• Age 

  • Adolescence and early adulthood 

• Genetics 

  • Can influence emotions, stress sensitivity, social behavior, personality 

Final thoughts/Cautions

• A lot of resilience and PTG research relies on self-report 

• Resilience and PTG are not universal, and that’s ok

• Overemphasizing positives can minimize trauma or emotions 

• Culture can affect the nature of healing and growth

Positive Psych Interventions

• Scientific tools and strategies that focus on increasing happiness, well-being, and positive thoughts and emotions 

• Using it to enhance well-being

• Criteria: 

• Research support

• Address positive psychology constructs

• Evidence based/ has research support and showing that it is effective/have evidence saying that it is a useable tool/benefits for us that may have lasting effects

Increased Attention:

• Positive psychology movement

• Increased interest in and acceptance of therapy 

Types of increased attention

• Composite programs

• Formal protocol

• Administered by counselor or therapist

• Discrete Activities

• Completed independently 

• Bried and easy to apply

• Combined Approaches

• Formal therapy or coaching and independent assignments 

Fordyce Fundamental principles of happiness

• Program involves teaching and practicing these principles 

• Usually in group or individual therapy 

Penn Resilience Program

• Structured program that can be used with diverse populations

• Focuses on skills for navigating adverity, managing stress, and modifying explanatory style 

• Effective in increasing resilience, well-being, optimism, and physical health 

Qualiity of life therapy

• Clients given tools for boosting satisfaction and fulfillment in 16 specific life areas 

• Goals, spiritual life, self-esteem, health, relarionships, work, play, helping, learning, money, home, neighborhood, community, and relapse prevention

• Aimed at non-clinical populations

• Comprehensive and research based 

• Improves life satisfaction, positive emotions, self-esteem, relationship quality 

Discrete Activities: ACTIONS MODEL

• A: active interventions (physical activities)

• C: calming activities (self soothing)

• T: thinking exercises (active reflection)

• I: identity interventions (mental exercises for self-awareness)

• O: optimizing exercises

• N: nourishing interventions (self-care)

• S: social activities 

Savoring

• Intended to increasing the frequency of positive emotions

• Awareness of pleasure and deliberate attempt to make it last 

• Counterpart to coping

Strategies to savoring

• Sharing with others

• Memory building 

• Self congratulation

• Sharpening perceptions 

• absorption

gratitude interventions

• Gratitude is strongly associated with well-being 

two parts for gratitude

self reflection & expression to others

Gratitude letter

• Thinking about someone who positively impacted your life

• Write a letter describing it specifically

• Share the letter with that person

Gratitude Journal

• Writing what your’e grateful for (things, people, the best part of your day)

Gratitude Meditation

Meditation focused on expressing gratitude

Replacing Non- Grateful thoughts (cognitive behavioral therapy)

• CBT

• Identifying ungrateful thoughts and replacing with grateful alternative

kindness interventions

helpful action directed toward another person

strongly associated with happiness

• Acts of kindness: can be directed toward friends, family, coworkers, strangers, can be simple or extensive

• Pro social spending: willingly buying something for someone else 

benefits of kindness

feelings of love and awe

increased oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins

decreased cortisol and feelings of stress

increased energy

more self-worth

less anxiety and depression

Character strengths interventions

• Extracting strengths from problems

• Identify a current problem in detail 

• Identify life domain that is impacted

• What actions are contributing to the problem?

• Reframe these actions as strengths as you are overusing or underusing 

Strength Regulation

• Select a strength to target

• Then identify an example of when you used the strength too much, too little, and an optimal amount. Describe each

• Determine what triggers overuse or underuse and reflect on how you could use it more optimally 

Mindfulness

ability to focus awareness on the present moment without judgement

5 senses exercise

• 5 things you can see

• 4 things you can feel

• 3 things you can hear

• 2 things you can smell

• 1 thing you can taste

The raisin exercise

• Pay attention to how it looks, feels, smells, etc

Mindful seeing

• Find a window

• Look at everything you see

• Notice colors, patterns, textures, be observant, not critical

Mindful photography

• Take photos of everyday life, focusing on things that bring happiness

Benefits of mindfulness