Psychology Ch.13 Stress and Health

Core Vocab

• Health psychology: studies how psychological factors influence physical illness and health

• Stressor: the actual event or pressure out in the world placing demands on you

• Stree: your body and mind’s response to those stressors

• Chronic stressors: ongoing, repeated sources of stress (financial problems, bad relationships, noise)

HPA Axis

• when you perceive a threat, this pathway activates:

  • Hypothalamus detects threat → releases a chemical signal

  • Signal reaches the pituitary gland → releases ACTH into the bloodstream

  • ACTH reaches the adrenal glands → releases 2 types of hormones

    • Cortisol: mobilices energy, suppresses non-urgent function

    • Catecholamines (adrenaline and noradrenaline) → increases heart rate; sharpen focus

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): Selye

• Phase 1: alarm

  • Stressor occurs, fight or flight kicks in

  • Resources mobilized, brief dip then surge in stress resistance

• Phase 2: Resistance

  • Body actively copes with the stressor

  • Stress resistance is elevated - seem to be managing

  • This is draining the body’s reserves the whole time

• Phase 3: Exhaustion

  • Reserves finally run out

  • Immune function drops, vulnerability to illness spikes

  • This is when chronic stress causes real physical damage

What chronic stress does to your body

• Immune system: cortisol suppresses immune function over-time → get sick more often

• Cardiovascular health: stress hormones narrow blood vessels → raises blood pressure → long term heart disease and stroke risk

• Biological again: chronic stress shortens telomeres (protective caps on chromosomes) → faster biological aging

• Daily hassles and frustrations predict more health problems

Stress interpretations

How you interpret a stressor changes how your body physically responds to it

• 2 types of appraisal

  • Primary appraisal: your first judgment: is this threatening, challenging, or relevant?

  • Secondary appraisal: follow up: can i handle this? or have the resources and control?

• The same situation can produce paralysis in one person and energized focus in another depending on the appraisal

• Learned helplessness (seligman)

  • Dog experiment:

    • Dog receives unavoidable shocks → no control

    • Later placed in a box where they could easily jump over a hurdle to escape

    • Most just lay down and accepted the shocks → they had learned their actions didn’t matter

  • Lesson: when people believe they have no control, they stop trying

Stress Disorder

PTSD:

• Post traumatic stress disorder

• 3 feature:

  • Chronic physical arousal (exaggerated startle response)

  • Recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma (flashbacks, nightmares)

  • Avoidance of anything that triggers memories of event

BURNOUT:

• Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion from prolonged emotionally demanding work

• Accompanies by lowered performance and motivation

• Common in caregiving and service professions

• Essentially what happens when GMS phase 3 hits

Coping Management

Mind managing

• Reframing: changing the way you think about a stressor to reduce its threat

• Repressing coping: avoiding reminders of the stressor + maintaining an artificial positive viewpoint

• Rational coping: facing the stressor directly in 3 steps:

  • Acceptance - acknowledging the stressor is real and matters

  • Exposure - allowing yourself to confront thoughts and feelings about it

  • Understanding - working to make sense of it

• Body management

  • Relaxation therapy (edmund jacobson)

    • Consciously tense and then release muscle groups throughout body

    • Produced the relaxation response - measurably reduced heart rate, blood pressure, cortical activity, and muscle tension

  • Biofeedback

    • Uses a monitoring device to give you real time data on a body function (heart rate, skin conductance) so you can learn to consciously regulate it

  • Neurofeedback

    • Type of biofeedback using EEG brainwave

    • Trains people to shift their brain activity into calmer states by watching their own brain waves in real time

• Situation management

  • Change your circumstance - remove or reduce the actual source of stress

    • ex: leaving a toxic job

  • Social support: aid gained through interacting with others

Personality and health

individual personality traits shape how people respond and recover from stress

• Optimism: linked to better immune function and faster recovery from illness and longer life

• Pessimism: linked to worse health outcomes and less effective coping

• Hardiness: protective personality quality made if 3 things:

  • Commitment: being engaged and invested in your own life rather than feeling alienated to it

  • Perceived control: believing your actions actually make a difference

  • Challenging orientation: viewing stressful situations as oppurtunites rather than threats