Unit 7 - Emotional Intelligence, Stress and Coping, General Adaptation Syndrome and Conflict

Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman)

Ability to think about, tap into, and comprehend emotions to regulate and reflect on them

Emotional Intelligence Components

Self-awareness

Identifying and understanding internal cognitive states, preference, resources and intuitions

Emotional Intelligence Components

Self-regulation

Managing internal stress, impulses, and resources (trustworthiness, integrity, openness to change)

Emotional Intelligence Components

Motivation

Ability to be and stay motivated towards a goal

Emotional Intelligence Components

Empathy

Understanding and sensitivity of others emotions

Emotional Intelligence Components

Social Skills

Talent in managing relationships and creating social networks that lead to desirable responses from others

Healthy Stress (Eustress)

Short term stress, beneficial for motivating, growing and changing

Unhealthy Stress (Distress)

Long term stress, constant state of emotional tension from adverse context

Overloaded capacity for adaptation or coping with stressful circumstance

Stress reaction response

Stressors = IV

Stress reaction = DV

Not necessarily stressors that cause stress, but individual experience and changes to stressors

Physiological Reaction to Stress

Begins in limbic system, exciting sympathetic nervous system and releasing stress hormones, epinephrine and norepinephrine 

Hypothalamus and pituitary glands release cortisol, triggering “fight-or-flight” and raised arousal

Type A personality

Motivated to success, highly organized, ambitious and competitive

Internal drive can cause higher levels of stress

Greater risk of heart disease

Type B personality

Relaxed, easygoing, less motivated towards goals

Less vulnerable to stress

General Adaptation Syndrome (Hans Seyle)

Studied animals reactions to stressors

The body’s adaptive response to stress is generalized

General Adaptation Syndrome

Phase 1 — Alarm response

Recognizes a threat, arouses sympathetic nervous system, releases adrenaline to manage threat

General Adaptation Syndrome

Phase 2 — Resistance

Confronts and copes with threat

Can resist stress for a bit, but not indefinitely if stress doesn’t lessen

General Adaptation Syndrome

Phase 3 — Exhaustion

When stressor continues until body gets tired and runs out of resources for stress

Adrenaline and cortisol are short-term bursts, but when a lot released for a while, health problems will occur

Motivational Conflicts Theory (Kurt Lewin)

Approach- moving towards something

Avoidance- moving away from something

When what you want and don’t want are in the same context

Approach-Approach conflict

Two desirable outcomes that are difficult to choose between

least stressful conflict

Avoidance-Avoidance conflict

Two undesirable outcomes

Highly stressful, feels like there’s no solution

Approach-Avoidance conflict

When one event or goal has good and bad outcomes

Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts

Complex as you have to choose between various actions that have good and bad elements

Coping strategies

Meditation, regular exercise, social support network, challenging irrational/exaggerated thoughts

Ruminative thinking

repeating and dwelling on the same thoughts

Catastrophizing

Worst case scenario for most situations