PSYCH 4.4 Social and Cognitive Factors in Learning

Coping

• Stressors are perceived problems with our environment that our body warns us to resolve
• This can lead to increased hormones and nervous system activity
• We cope in different ways depending on the nature of the issue

Emotion-Focused Coping

• Indirect solution
• An attempt to avoid the stressor
• Does not solve the issue, but rather remove it from our perception so that it does not bother us
• Attending to our emotional needs that the stressor may have affected
• Maladaptive or harmful examples may be watching a movie instead of doing a stressful school project
• A more healthy, or adaptive, way to cope may be to receive social support from friends

Problem-Focused Coping

• The direct solution
• Associated with greater stress reduction
• Often leads to feeling more in control
• Completing the school project as a way to remove the stress around it

Control

• Self control is the ability to delay gratification and control impulses
  • This can be tiring to try and do repeatedly
• An external locus of control is a perception that outside factors affect our lives, and there’s nothing we can do to change it
  • Ideas of fate or luck
  • People may adopt this ideology when they feel out of control and like things are going wrong
• An internal locus of control is the idea that we control our own paths in life
  • People may feel this way when they see the tangible proof of their work or their life is going well
• Remember that we are more likely to blame others for unfortunate events and praise ourselves for fortunate ones
  • If someone fails a test, they may blame the teacher, saying they didn’t teach well enough and it’s not the student’s fault
  • Another student did very well on that test and congratulates themself on how much they studied for it

Biofeedback

• Uses cognitive factors to influence physiological factors of stress
• Our body gives us very many subtle indicators when something is wrong
  • Listening to these indicators can warn of health concerns, unhealthy amounts of stress, etc.
• Using these indicators, we can try to address environmental factors that are affecting health
• This has shown to be especially effective when reducing the intensity of tension headaches

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