Stress and Health Psychology Notes

Understanding Stress

  • Stress: Interpretation of specific events as threatening or challenging.
  • Stressor: Trigger or stimulus that induces stress.

Sources of Stress

  • Job Stressors:
    • Unemployment.
    • Job change.
    • Job performance concerns.
    • Inherently stressful job/career (e.g., first responder, law enforcement).
    • Role conflict.
    • Role ambiguity.
  • Conflict:
    • Approach-approach: Choosing between two desirable options.
    • Avoidance-avoidance: Choosing between two undesirable options.
    • Approach-avoidance: One option has both positive and negative characteristics.
  • Hassles: Small problems of daily living that can lead to burnout.
  • Frustration: Tension/anxiety resulting from a blocked goal.
  • Cataclysmic events: Events that happen suddenly and often affect many people simultaneously.

Acute vs. Chronic Stress

  • Acute Stress: Generally severe but short-term.
    • Examples: narrowly avoiding an accident, missing an important deadline.
  • Chronic Stress: Continuous; demands exceed perceived resources.
    • Examples: prejudice and discrimination, abuse, financial problems, alcoholism, war.

Reactions to Stress

  • General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): Our bodies are well designed for temporary stress, but poorly prepared for chronic stress.
  • SAM System & HPA Axis
  • Stress and the Immune System:
    • The body releases cortisol to combat stressors, but chronically high cortisol levels suppress the immune system.
    • Psychoneuroimmunology studies the effects of psychological and other factors on the immune system.
  • Stress and Cognitive Functioning:
    • Even short-term stress affects our ability to think clearly.
    • Long-term stress can permanently damage the hippocampus.

Benefits of Stress: Eustress vs. Distress

  • Distress: Unpleasant, undesirable stress caused by adverse conditions.
  • Eustress: Pleasant, desirable stress that arouses us to persevere and accomplish challenging goals.

Stress and Illness

  • Gastric Ulcers:
    • Condition: Lesions to the lining of the stomach and the upper section of the small intestine.
    • How worsened: Bacterium (H. pylori) damages the stomach wall, especially in people compromised by stress.
    • How aided: Antibiotics and behavior modification.
  • Cancer:
    • Condition: Cells divide rapidly, forming a tumor and invading healthy tissue.
    • How worsened: Immune systems compromised by stress are less able to fight cancerous growth; stress increases the spread of cancer cells.
    • How aided: Varies widely (surgery to no cure).
  • Cardiovascular Disorders:
    • Condition: Includes coronary heart disease, angina, and heart attack.
    • How worsened: Stress hormones increase heart rate; fat and glucose are sent into the blood for energy, but if no physical activity occurs, fat sticks to blood vessel walls.
    • How aided: Diet, exercise, reduction in stress.
  • Chronic Pain:
    • Condition: Continuous or recurrent pain experienced over a period of six months or longer.
    • How worsened: Related anxiety, fatigue, disability; no or inadequate treatment; linkage to traumatic childhood experiences.
    • How aided: Strong pain medications (e.g., opioids); psychological treatments (e.g., behavior modification, biofeedback, and relaxation).
  • Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):
    • Condition: Long-lasting and trauma- and stressor-related disorder that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope; stems from exposure to serious or recurring trauma.
    • Key Characteristics of PTSD:
      • Direct exposure to trauma.
      • Recurrent, intrusive symptoms (thoughts, feelings, memories, bad dreams, re-experiencing via flashbacks).
      • Avoidance symptoms (feeling emotionally numb, losing interest, avoiding memories/stimuli).
      • Chronic heightened arousal and reactivity (irritability, being easily startled, sleep disturbances, angry outbursts, reckless/self-destructive behaviors).

Stress Management

  • Cognitive Appraisal: Management, not elimination.
    • Primary appraisal: Is the situation (potentially) harmful? If yes:
    • Secondary appraisal: What (potential) resources are available?
    • Coping method:
      • Emotion-focused: Regulate our reactions to the stressor.
      • Problem-focused: Reduce or eliminate the stressor.
  • Personality and Individual Differences:
    • Locus of Control:
      • Internal (‘I control my own fate’).
      • External (‘Outside forces [or Chance] determine[s] my fate’).
    • Positive Affect: The experience / expression of positive feelings (happiness, joy, enthusiasm, contentment).
    • Optimism: Expect the best and see the best in all things.
  • Resources for Healthy Living:
    • Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR): Aimed at consciously attending to ongoing events in a receptive and non-judgmental way.
    • Social support: Those with greater social support have better health outcomes, greater psychological and physical well-being, faster recoveries, and longer life expectancies.
  • Additional Stress Resources:
    • Exercise
    • Behavior Change
    • Material Resources
    • Social skills
    • Stressor Control
    • Relaxation

Health Psychology

  • Functions of a Health Psychologist:
    • Study the effects of stress on the immune system.
    • Reduce psychological distress.
    • Eliminate unhealthy behaviors.
    • Educate public about health maintenance.
  • Venues:
    • Medical center staff.
    • Independent clinicians.
  • The Biopsychosocial Model of Addiction
  • Technostress:
    • Anxiety or mental pressure from overexposure or involvement with technology.
    • Stress caused by an inability to cope with modern technology.
  • Resources to aid job-related stress:
    • Supportive colleagues.
    • Supporting working conditions.
    • Mentally challenging work.
    • Equitable rewards.