Stress, Lifestyle, and Health

Defining and Conceptualizing Stress

General Definition of Stress: A term used loosely to describe a variety of unpleasant feeling states, including being frustrated, angry, conflicted, overwhelmed, or fatigued.
Stimulus-based Definitions: Defines stress as a demanding or threatening event or situation (e.g., a high-stress job). * Characterizes stress as a stimulus that causes certain reactions. * Limitations: It fails to recognize that individuals differ in how they view and react to challenging situations.
Response-based Definitions: Emphasizes physiological responses that occur in response to demanding or threatening situations. * Characterizes stress as a response to environmental conditions.
Integrated Definition: Neither the stimulus-based nor response-based definitions provide a complete picture. A more comprehensive definition is as follows: Stress is a process whereby an individual perceives and responds to events he appraises as overwhelming or threatening to his well-being.
The Power of Cognitive Appraisals: This definition emphasizes the importance of how we judge (appraise) stressors, which then influences our reaction. * Primary Appraisal: A judgment about the degree of potential harm or threat to well-being that a stressor might entail. * Threat: A stressor that could lead to harm, loss, or negative consequences. * Challenge: A stressor that carries the potential for gain or personal growth. * Example: Graduating from college and entering the workforce can be viewed as a threat (loss of financial support) or a challenge (opportunity for independence and growth). * Secondary Appraisal: A judgment of the options available to cope with a stressor and perceptions of how effective such options will be. * A threat is perceived as less stressful if the individual believes something can be done about it.
Outcome of Appraisals: Stress is likely to result if a stressor is perceived as extremely threatening AND the individual perceives few or no effective coping options available.

Good Stress versus Bad Stress

Eustress: Known as "good stress." It can be positive and motivate individuals to do things in their best interests. * Associated with positive feelings, optimal health, and peak performance.
Distress: Known as "bad stress." * Causes people to feel burned out (fatigued and exhausted). * Leads to a decline in performance.
** Yerkes-Dodson Law Implications (Everly & Lating, 2002)*: As stress levels increase from low to moderate, performance also increases. * *Optimal Level: The peak of the curve where performance reaches its maximum efficiency. *Distress Region*: If stress exceeds the optimal level, it becomes excessive and debilitating, leading to a decline in performance.

The Prevalence and Manifestation of Stress

Responses to Stress: * Physiological: Accelerated heart rate, headaches, or gastrointestinal problems. * Cognitive: Difficulty concentrating or making decisions. * Behavioral: Drinking alcohol, smoking, or taking actions directed at eliminating the cause of stress.
Prevalence Data (Neelakantan, 2013): Nearly half (approximately $50 \%$ ) of U.S. adults indicated that their stress levels have increased over the last five years.
Demographic Findings (Cohen & Janicki-Deverts, 2012): * National surveys show higher stress in women than in men. * Higher stress levels are found in those who are unemployed, have less education, and lower income. * Retired persons reported the lowest levels of stress.
Trends from $2006$ to $2009$ : The greatest increase in stress levels occurred among men, Whites, people aged $45$ to $64$ , college graduates, and those with full-time employment. * This change is potentially attributed to the economic downturn of $2008$ to $2009$ .
Historical Trends: Stress scores across sex, age, race, education, income, and employment show a marked increase over the quarter-century spanning from $1983$ to $2009$ .

Early Physiological Research and General Adaptation Syndrome

Walter Cannon (Early $20^{th}$ Century): The first to identify the body’s physiological reactions to stress. * Fight-or-Flight Response: A built-in mechanism that stabilizes physiological variables at levels optimal for survival. * This response is produced by the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system. * Arousal prepares the person to either fight or flee from a perceived threat, acting as an adaptive response for species survival.
The Role of Glands: In response to a threat, the adrenal glands release epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline), causing widespread physiological changes.
Hans Selye’s Research: Specialized in stress research using rats. * Observation: Prolonged exposure to stressors caused adrenal enlargement, thymus and lymph node shrinkage, and stomach ulceration. * Finding: The same pattern of physiological reactions occurred regardless of the specific stressor.
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): Selye's name for the body’s nonspecific physiological response to stress, consisting of three stages: 1. Stage 1: Alarm Reaction: The body’s immediate reaction to a threatening situation or emergency. Physiological reactions provide energy to manage the situation. 2. Stage 2: Stage of Resistance: The body adapts (readjusts) to the stressor while remaining alert and prepared to respond, though with less intensity than the alarm stage. Physiological reactions diminish but do not return to baseline. 3. Stage 3: Stage of Exhaustion: The person can no longer adapt to the stressor due to the depletion of physical resources. Physical wear takes a toll on tissues and organs, which may result in illness, disease, or death.

The Physiological Basis of Stress

Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): Triggers arousal via the release of adrenaline from the adrenal glands.
Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis: A slower-acting pathway compared to the SNS. 1. Stress triggers the Hypothalamus to release corticotrophin-releasing factor (hormone). 2. This causes the Pituitary Gland to release ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone). 3. ACTH activates the Adrenal Glands to release hormones, including Cortisol.
Cortisol: A stress hormone that provides an energy boost when first encountering a stressor. * Short-term effects: Provides energy, improves immune system functioning temporarily, and decreases pain sensitivity. * Long-term effects (Chronic Stress): Continuous elevated levels of cortisol weaken the immune system.

Categories and Types of Stressors

Chronic Stressors: Events that persist over an extended period of time (e.g., long-term unemployment).
Acute Stressors: Brief events that can sometimes continue to be experienced as overwhelming well after the event has ended (e.g., falling and breaking a leg).
Traumatic Events: Situations involving exposure to actual or threatened death or serious injury. * Examples: Military combat, physical assault (attacks, sexual assault, childhood abuse), robbery, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, car accidents. * Can lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): characterized by intrusive memories, jumpiness, and persistent negative emotional states.
Life Changes (Holmes and Rahe, $1960$ s): Hypothesized that life events requiring significant change are stressful regardless of whether they are desirable or undesirable. * Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS): Consists of $43$ life events. * Life Change Units (LCU): Scores range from $11$ to $100$ . * Highest Rankings: Death of a spouse ( $100$ LCUs); Divorce ( $73$ LCUs). * Accumulating a high number of LCUs in a brief period correlates with physical systems and mental health problems.
Daily Hassles: Minor irritations and annoyances (e.g., daily commutes, public transportation, lost keys). * Building up of hassles frequency is a better predictor of physical and psychological health than Life Change Units.
Occupational Stressors: * Job Strain: Combining excessive job demands/workload with little discretion in decision making or job control. * Job Burnout: Emotional exhaustion and cynicism in relation to one’s job, frequent in human service jobs (social workers, teachers, police officers).
Close Relationships: Source of stress via adverse exchanges, conflicts, lack of emotional support/confiding, or lack of reciprocity.

Stress and Psychophysiological Disorders

Psychophysiological Disorders: Physical disorders or diseases whose symptoms are brought about or worsened by stress and emotional factors. * Examples: Tension headaches, asthma, acne, eczema, hypertension, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), coronary heart disease.
The Immune System: * Autoimmune Disease: The immune system mistakes healthy cells for invaders and attacks them. * Immunosuppression: Decreased effectiveness of the immune system, increasing susceptibility to infections. * Psychoneuroimmunology: The study of how psychological factors influence the immune system. * Immune response can be classically conditioned. Stress hormones inhibit the production of lymphocytes (white blood cells).
Cohen ( $1998$ ) Study: Healthy volunteers ( $n = 276$ ) were interviewed about stress and then exposed to the cold virus. Those who experienced chronic stressors for more than one month were significantly more likely to develop colds.
Stress and Aging: Stress can shorten telomeres (DNA segments at the ends of chromosomes). * Shortened telomeres inhibit cell division and growth, leading to rapid aging. * Trauma in childhood is linked to shorter telomeres in adulthood (Blackburn & Epel, $2012$ ).

Cardiovascular Disorders and Personality

Cardiovascular System: Central to the stress response. Heart disease is a major psychophysiological disorder.
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure): The "silent killer" with no symptoms. * Risks: Heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney failure, blindness. * Triggers: Job strain, marital conflict, natural disasters.
Negative Affectivity: Tendency to experience distressed emotional states involving anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness.
Type A vs. Type B (Friedman and Rosenman, $1974$ ): * Type A: Extremely competitive, intensely driven, impatient, rushed, and hostile toward others. Heart disease is over seven times more frequent in Type As. * Type B: Relaxed and laid back. * Hostility Dimension: Anger and hostility are the most important factors for heart disease. High-anger individuals are over $6$ times more likely to have a heart attack by age $55$ .
Transactional Model of Hostility: Thoughts and feelings of a hostile person promote antagonistic behavior, reinforcing complimentary negative reactions from others and creating a cynical cycle.
Depression and the Heart: Barefoot & Schroll ( $1996$ ) found high correlation between depression scores and heart attacks. Depression may also increase unhealthy behaviors (tobacco use, obesity, inactivity).
Asthma: Chronic disease of inflamed/narrowed airways. Attacks are linked to periods of high emotionality and stressful experiences. Expectation of symptoms can trigger actual symptoms.

Coping, Control, and Social Support

Coping Styles (Lazarus and Folkman, $1984$ ): 1. Problem-focused coping: Managing the problem causing the stress. Identifying the problem, considering solutions, and choosing an alternative. Used when the stressor is perceived as controllable. 2. Emotion-focused coping: Efforts to change or reduce negative emotions. Includes avoiding, minimizing, or distancing from the problem. Used for stressors we feel powerless to change.
Control: Perceived control is the belief in our personal capacity to exert influence over outcomes. Higher control leads to better physical/mental health and lower reactivity to stress.
Learned Helplessness (Martin Seligman, $1967$ ): An acquired belief that one is powerless to do anything about a situation. Demonstrated in experiments where dogs stopped trying to escape electric shocks after being unable to escape them previously. This is a possible cause of depression.
Social Support: The soothing impact of relationships (advice, guidance, encouragement, tangible assistance). * Strong social relationships increase the likelihood of survival by $50 \%$ . * Social support reduces blood pressure and boosts the immune system.
Stress Reduction Techniques: * Exercise: Increases resistance to stress. * Meditation: Relaxation response techniques to reduce sympathetic arousal. * Biofeedback: Using electronic equipment to measure involuntary activity (neuromuscular and autonomic) to gain voluntary control.

Positive Psychology and Happiness

Elements of Happiness: An enduring state of subjective well-being consisting of joy, contentment, meaning, and value.
Global Happiness: Denmark is identified as having the happiest citizens; Americans ranked the U.S. as $17^{th}$ .
Factors Connected to Happiness: * Age: Life satisfaction usually increases with age. * Relationships: Married people and those with high-quality social networks are happier. * Money: Wealthy individuals are generally happier, but happiness only increases with income up to roughly $75,000$ . * Religion: Religiosity helps in nations with difficult living conditions but makes less difference in favorable conditions. * Culture: Aligning with culturally valued characteristics promotes happiness.
Life Events and Adaptation: People are poor at predicting the duration of future emotions. Dramatic life events have less long-lasting impact than expected because people adapt to circumstances over time.
Positive Psychology (Seligman, $1998$ ): Focuses on building human strength and well-being. Focus areas include: Hope, optimism, capacity for love, courage, forgiveness, compassion, and originality.
Positive Affect vs. Optimism: * Positive Affect: Engagement with environment (joy, enthusiasm). Linked to longevity and better physiological functioning. * Optimism: Tendency to expect good things and view stressors as temporary/external.
Flow: An experience so engaging that it becomes worth doing for its own sake. Characterized by effortless concentration, losing track of time, and typically occurs during challenging activities requiring skill.