Definition of Terms

• Stress: distress

  • Physical, psychological, emotional distress

• Stressor: causes stress

• Person-Environment Fit: assessment of personal resources vs. environmental demand

  • What you have vs what the environment demands from you

Theories of Stress

• Walter Cannon: Fight or Flight

  • Fight: aggressive response to perceived stress

  • Flight: withdrawal/distracting activity

• Freeze and Fawn

  • Freeze: similar to withdrawal “deer in the headlights”

  • Fawning: giving extra special attention to the point that it seems too much attention

    • Over the top response that involves attention to the person who is undergoing stress

    • Overreaction from third party point of view

    • Exaggerated attention and affection

    • Reaction from somebody removed from the stressful situation

• Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome

  • All stressors produce the same patterns of physiological changes

  • 3 Phases

    • Alarm: an organism is mobilized to meet the threat

    • Resistance: an organism makes an effort to cope with the threat

      • Physical confrontation

    • Exhaustion: an organism fails to overcome the threat and the resources become depleted

  • Criticisms

    • Everyone respond to stress the same way

    • Not considering that stress is not only an outcome or endpoint

• S.E. Taylor’s Tend-and-Befriend

  • Especially true of women

  • “We’re in the same boat” or “i feel better despite the situation because I’m not the only person in the situation”

The Stress Appraisal Process

• Conscious process but not everybody appraises the situation, they just tend to react

• Primary Appraisal: Harm, Threat, Challenge

  • Harmful: something damaging has already occurred; negative

  • Threat: something that may happen in the future; negative

  • Challenge: positive connotation; potential to overcome said challenge

  • Trying to distinguish between, harm, threat, challenge

  • If positive, some people may feel motivated to tackle the challenge

  • If negative, withdraw or retreat from the situation

• Secondary Appraisal: Personal resources and Coping Mechanisms vs. Primary Appraisal of the stressful event

  • Evaluate whether you have enough resources and coping mechanisms to cope with something you consider as harm, threat, or challenge

  • 3 types of responses

    • Cognitive: you talk about your beliefs, value systems; take those into consideration and ask yourself “will this help me cope?”

    • Emotional: fear, frustration, anger, irritation, worry, disappointment, anxiety, embarrassment, annoyed, overwhelmed

    • Behavioral: panic, vent, rent, cry, confrontation, withdraw

The Physiology of Stress

• Sympathetic Activation

  • Fight or flight

  • Preparing your body to confront stressful situations

  • Breathing gets more rapid, muscles are primed for action, increased blood flow to the muscles, heart rate goes up, from some people pupils contract

• HPA Activation (hypothalamic pituitary adrenal)

  • Neurotransmitters come into play

  • Epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin

  • sympathetic nervous system and neurotransmitters associated with sympathetic activity: cortisol

  • Too much cortisol leads to inflammation in the body

    • Cushing syndrome

    • Obesity: stress eating, affects insulin production, decreased insulin sensitivity

  • Physiological framework is available for it

• Stress Reactivity

  • Effects of long term stress = high levels of cortisol

• Physiological recovery

  • Return to baseline

  • Parasympathetic system is responsible for this

• Allostatic Load

  • Body’s response to prolonged exposure to stress

  • No definite structures associated with this

  • More general than HPA activity

Dimensions of Stressful Events

• Negative events

  • The more negative, the more it will affect us

• Uncontrollable events

  • Acts of God

• Ambiguous events

  • Vague events

• Overload

  • Overload of physical, emotional, psychological stress

  • They would perceive that as more stressful than any other event

• Factors that would influence how you perceive stressful events

Chronic Stress and Health

• Effects of chronic stress

• Stress and the workplace

• Work + Sedentary lifestyle

• Overload

• Ambiguity and Role conflict

• Work + Multiple Roles

Coping with Stress

• No two people handle stress in the same way.

• Personality and Coping

  • Negative affectivity (Neuroticism): pervasive; anxiety, depression, hostility

  • Type D personality: experiences negative emotions yet inhibits the expression of these emotions

    • Martyrs: they don’t express their negative emotions

  • Disease-prone personality: the psychological distress that often involves depression, anger, hostility and anxiety is at the core of this “personality type”; individual is more prone to “all causes” mortality

Caution!!!

• Negativity may lead to the false impression of ill health when there is no evidence of such.

• Negativity = worry, “awareness” of symptoms = new or existing health condition

• In summary, people who are chronically negative MAY be more likely to get sick on occasion BUT their symptoms MAY or MAY NOT actually be indicative of ill health.

Coping Resources

• Optimism

  • healthier immune system;

  • optimists often seek out social support

  • reframe stressful situations in a positive light;

  • more active and persistent coping efforts;

  • sense of self-control;

  • problem-focused coping

• Self-control vs. Self-efficacy

  • Self-control: belief that one can control one’s behavior; can influence one’s environment; can bring about desired outcomes

  • Self-efficacy: narrower perception that one can take necessary action/s to obtain specific outcome in a specific situation

• High self-esteem

• Ego strength: dependability, trust, and lack of impulsivity

• Conscientiousness: deal with stress proactively

• Self-confidence and easy-going disposition

• Intelligence: street smarts

• Emotional stability

Resilience

• Ability to bounce back from negative experiences (emotional and otherwise) and adapt to whatever changes result from stressful experiences.

COPING STYLE

• Tendency to deal with stressful events in a particular way

• Similar to personality traits because it is a characterization of how a person behaves in general, yet different from personality traits in that coping style only becomes evident in times of STRESS.

Specific Coping Styles

• Proactive coping: requires the ability to anticipate and detect stressors, coping skills, and self-regulatory skills (control, direct, correct actions based on whether you end up moving toward or away from your goals).

• Avoidant coping style vs.  Approach coping style

  • Avoidant coping = withdrawal; closest to denial

    • Not deal with the stressful situation

    • “If I don’t see it, it’s not real”

  • Approach coping = meeting/facing problems HEAD ON

    • Closest to problem-based coping

• Problem-focused vs. Emotion-focused coping style: problem-focused coping is attempting to do something constructive about stressful situations; emotion-focused coping may or may not result in beneficial ways of dealing with stress (e.g. ruminating vs. emotional-approach coping)

  • Emotion-focused coping = efforts to regulate emotions experienced because of stressful event

    • Going by your feelings/emotions

  • Emotional approach coping = clarifying, focusing on, and working through emotions brought on by a stressor; results in beneficial effects on stress regulatory systems and helps people AFFIRM important aspects of “the self”/identity

When is coping successful?

• Reduces harmful environmental conditions

• Tolerate or adjust to negative events

• Maintain a positive self-image

• Maintain emotional equilibrium

  • Emotional equilibrium = emotionally stable state

• Continue satisfying relationships with others

• Successful coping = Enhances prospects of recovery

  • Successful coping = enhanced recovery

Social support

• Types of social support

  • Tangible assistance – material support

  • Informational support – education, information

  • Emotional support

  • Invisible support – “giver” is anonymous

• Forms of social support

  • Confidant

  • Marriage

  • Support from family

  • Support from community

• Social support is most beneficial when the support that is given MATCHES or is responsive to the needs of the receiver; also beneficial if the “giver” is known to the receiver.

Coping interventions

• Mindfulness training

• Expressive writing: eliminates rumination or obsession about negative or traumatic events

• Relaxation training

• Time management and planning

• Assertiveness training

• Regular exercise: Endorphins! Remember LEGALLY BLONDE!!!