• Health Psychology- field of study devoted to understanding the relationship between physical activities, psychological traits, and social relationships, and overall health and rates of illness

• Stress- physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to events that are appraised as threatening or challenging

• Stressors- events that cause a stress reaction

• Distress- the effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors

• Eustress- the effect of positive events, or the optimal amount of stress that people need to promote health and wellbeing

Cognitive Factors of Stress

• Cognitive appraisal approach- how people think about a stressor determines the degree of stress response

• Primary appraisal- 1st step involves 1. Estimating stressor severity and 2. Classifying it as either a threat or challenge

• Secondary appraisal- 2nd step involves estimating a person’s coping resources available

Causes of Stress

• Catastrophe- unpredictable, large-scale event evokes overwhelming threat and great need to adapt

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)- exposure to catastrophe, provoking anxiety, nightmares, poor sleep, reliving the event, concentration problems, symptoms (n) is greater than 1 month

• Major life events- requires significant adjustment

• Social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)- assessment that measures the amount of stress in a person’s life resulting from major life stressors over one year (Figure 11.1)

• College undergraduate stress scale- same but for college students

• Hassles- daily annoyances in everyday life

-Lazarus & Folkman 1984

-hassles scale (0-3)

-”misplacing or losing things” and “troublesome neighbors”

-hassles are sometimes developed on a person’s developmental stage (pg. 419)

Daily Hassles

• Research results- the perceived severity of daily hassles is a better predictor of headaches versus scores on a life events scale

-Daily hassles more damaging to our health versus major life  stressors

• Pressure- psychological experience produced by external urgent demands or expectations for a particular behavior

• Uncontrollability- control person has over a particular event or situation; the less control one has, the greater the stress

• Frustration- psychological experience produced by the blocking of a desired goal or need

• Frustration-aggression hypothesis (Berkowitz)-

1. Frustration creates an internal readiness to aggress

2. Aggression will not follow frustration unless certain cues are present

3. Frustration does not always lead to aggression

• Possible reaction to Frustration:

• Aggression- actions meant to harm or destroy

• Displaced aggression- expressing frustration towards less threatening or more available target; aka displacement

• Escape or withdrawal- leaving the presence of a stressor, literally by psychological withdrawal into fantasy, drug abuse, or apathy

Daily Hassles: Conflicts

• Approach-approach- person must choose between two desirable goals

• Avoidance-avoidance- person must choose between two undesirable goals

• Approach-avoidance- person must choose or not choose a goal that has both positive and negative aspects

• Double approach-avoidance- person must decide between two goals, each possessing both positive and negative aspects

• Multiple approach-avoidance- person must decide between more than

Bodily Reactions to Stress

• Autonomic nervous system:

• Sympathetic- energy expenditure; responds to stressful events

• Parasympathetic system- energy storage; restores body to normal functioning

• General adaptation syndrome (GAS) (Selye)

-three stages of body’s physiological reaction to stress:

1. Alarm- initial response

2. Resistance- energy reserves being depleted

3. Exhaustion- weakened immune system; development of illnesses

Stress and the Immune System

• General adaptation syndrome (GAS)- the three stages of the body’s physiological reaction to stress, including alarm, resistance, and exhaustion

• Immune system- body’s defense against diseases, infection, injuries

• Psychoneuroimmunology- the study of effects of psychological factors such as stress, emotions, thoughts, and behavior on the immune system

• Research results: stress compromises the immune system leaving person vulnerable to illnesses

• Coronary heart disease (CHD)- the build up of a waxy substance called plaque in the arteries of the heart

• Type 2 diabetes- disease typically occurring in middle adulthood when the body either becomes resistant to the effects of insulin or can no longer secrete enough insulin to maintain normal glucose levels

• Natural killer (NK)- immune-system cell responsible for suppressing viruses and destroying tumor cells

• Health psychology- area of psychology focusing on how physical activities, psychological traits, stress reactions, and social relationships affect overall health and rate of illnesses

• Primary appraisal- the first step in assessing stress, which involves estimating the severity of a stressor and classifying it as either a threat or challenge

• Secondary appraisal- the second step in assessing a stressor, which involves estimating the resources available to the person for coping with the threat

• Type A personality- ambitious, time conscious, extremely hardworking, and tends to have high levels of hostility and anger as well as being easily annoyed

• Type B personality- relaxed and laid-back, less driven and competitive, slow to anger

• Type C personality- pleasant but repressed, tends to internalize anger and anxiety, finds expressing emotions difficult

• Type D personality- “distressed” experiences negative emotions and tends not to share these emotions in social situations out of fear of rejection or disapproval

• Hardy personality- a person who seems to strive on stress but lacks the anger and hostility of the Type A personality

• Optimists- people who expect positive outcomes

• Burnout- negative changes in thoughts, emotions, and behavior as a result of prolonged stress or frustration, leading to feelings of exhaustion

• Acculturative stress- stress resulting from the need to change and adapt a person’s ways to the majority culture

• Homeopathy- the treatment of disease by inducting minute amounts of substances that would cause disease in larger doses

• Ways to Deal with Stress

  • Coping strategies- actions taken to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize stress

  • Problem-focused coping- elimination or reducing impact of the stress source through direct actions

  • Emotion-focused coping- reducing impact of a stressor by changing emotional reactions

  Defense Mechanisms

  • Psychological defense mechanisms- unconscious distortions of reality that reduce stress and anxiety

  • Denial- person refuses to acknowledge or recognize a threatening situation

  • Repression- threatening or unacceptable event completely eliminated from conscious awareness

  • Rationalization- person invents acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior

  • Displacement- redirecting feelings from threatening to less threatening target

  • Regression- person falls back on childlike patterns of responding in reaction to stress

  Meditation and Coping

  • Meditation: mental exercises to refocus attention; trancelike consciousness

  • Concentrative meditation: focusing mind on repetitive or unchanging stimulus to clear mind/relax

  • Mindfulness meditation: the person purposefully pays attention to the present, without judgment or evaluation

  • Social-support system- the network of family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and others who can offer support, comfort, and aid to a person in need

  Factors Promoting Wellness

  • Exercise

  • Social activities

  • Getting enough sleep

  • Eating healthy

  • Having fun

  • Managing time

  • Practicing good coping skills

  • Religion