Chapter 10 - Stress, Health, & Flourishing

Introduction

Behavioral Medicine - broad interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge to fight disease and promote health

Health Psychology - study of the interaction between the mind and the physical health of the body

Psychoneuroimmunology - explores the interaction of psychological processes, neural physiology, and the immune (i.e., endocrine) system

Stress

Defining Stress

Stress - “the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events…that we appraise as threatening or challenging” (pg. 277)

Stress - our reaction to events that disturb our equilibrium and tax our ability to respond

“Reaction” - stress is our response

Stress Reactions - fight or flight; tend or befriend (for women)

“Events” - what is causing the stress; stressor

*Some stress is good (Eustress)

Bad stress = Distress

Symptoms of Stress

People experience a predictable, physiological response to stress

General Adaptation Syndrome

  1. Alarm Reaction

  2. Resistance

  3. Exhaustion

Personality and Stress

Type A - strongly motivated to overcome obstacles; driven to achieve and meet goals

Type B - relaxed and unhurried

After initial research with strong findings, later research was mixed.

Two possible reasons for this

  1. Change in how Type A was measured

Self-report may not provide a valid assessment

  1. Separate Components of Type A

    1. Competitive achievement striving

    2. Time urgency

    3. Aggressiveness and hostility (the toxic component of Type A; causes health problems)

*Excessive and chronic anger/hostility are associated with increased death from heart disease.

Even suppressed anger is associated with increased health problems

Type D - Suppressing negative emotions to avoid social disapproval

Coping with Stress

Introduction

Coping - “reducing stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods” (pg. 283)

Coping - efforts to deal with anxiety in the face of a perceived threat

Coping - strategies people employ to reduce their anxiety

Coping - ways to adapt to internal and external demands or challenges

Defense Mechanisms - unconscious coping strategies

One of the most basic issues in therapy - Coping

  • Helping people cope better with their problems (Satir)

Types of Coping

Early research

  • Approach versus Avoidance

Recent Research

  1. Problem-Focused Coping - taking an active role to solve problems; fixing the source of the problem

  2. Emotion-Focused Coping - Managing one’s reaction to the problem; aka emotion-managing coping

  3. Avoidance - Moving away from the source of the stress

Coping Effectiveness

  1. Doing something is better than doing nothing

  2. Approach-oriented strategies are generally better than avoidance strategies

…except when they’re not - active shooter situations

  1. PF vs. EF Coping-depends on controllability

  • If stressor can be changed or improved, then PF strategies are better.

  • If stressor cannot be changed/improved, EF may be most effective.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” - Rienhold Niebuhr

  1. Flexibility is important

  • What may be most important is being able to readily adjust coping strategies to best fit different types of stressful situations.

Meditation

Meditation - “the act or process of spending time in quiet thought”

Meditation - “continued or extended thought; reflection; contemplation;

2 Basic Types:

  1. Concentrative - focus on specific object

  2. Mindfulness - “opening up”; “Stopping & seeing”; Example: 10-day course in a correctional facility

Mindfulness

Mindfulness - “An enhanced attention to and awareness of the present” (Emmons, 2005)

Mindfulness - “Being aware of the full range of experience’s that exist in the here and now; bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment to moment basis” (Marlatt & Kristeller, 1999)

Focuses on the capacity to adopt an “observing self”

  • higher mindfulness = higher self-regulatory capacity; higher well-being

  • Can be enhanced or allowed to diminish

Components (Baer et al., 2006)

Large sample of undergraduates completed 5 different mindfulness measures

Combined analysis found 5 distinct facets:

  1. Nonreactivity to inner experience (have feelings, but do not react to them)

  2. Observing to sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, external phenomena

  3. Acting with Awareness

  4. Describing/Labeling of observed phenomena w/ words

  5. Nonjudging of experiences