Page 1: HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY: STRESS CHAPTER 17

• Introduction to the topic of stress in health psychology.

Page 2: HOW STRESSED ARE YOU?

• The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale with 43 items.

• Scoring the stress levels by selecting Yes or No for each event.

• Different events and their corresponding scores.

• Comment on the score range and the risk of becoming ill in the future.

Page 3: STRESS VS. STRESSORS

• Definition of stress as a pattern of physiological, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral response to perceived threats or challenges.

• Definition of stressors as events or circumstances that cause stress.

• Not all stressors are undesirable.

• Stressors can vary depending on the individual and the situation.

Page 4: BASIS OF STRESS

• Walter Cannon's concept of "fight or flight" as a physiological reaction to dangerous situations.

• Physiological reactions can have adverse effects when stress is longer lasting.

Page 5: SOURCE OF STRESS: ROUTINE CHOICES

• Different types of choices and their impact on stress.

• Approach-Approach choices between two desirable outcomes.

• Approach-Avoidance choices where one outcome is desirable and the other is not.

• Avoidance-Avoidance choices where both outcomes are undesirable.

Page 6: SELYE'S GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME (GAS)

• Three stages of the general adaptation syndrome.

• Alarm stage as the initial reaction to stress.

• Resistance stage as adaptation occurs.

• Exhaustion stage when physiological resources are depleted.

Page 7: CRITICISM OF SELYE'S GAS

• Criticisms of Selye's general adaptation syndrome.

• Lack of consideration for psychological factors and individual differences.

• Stress is assessed as an outcome without considering anticipation.

Page 8: COGNITIVE APPRAISAL

• The role of cognitive appraisal in stress.

• Evaluation of threat and determination of available resources.

• Hardiness and perceived control as factors influencing stress.

Page 9: SOCIAL SUPPORT

• The importance of social support in coping with stress.

• Learning from others' coping strategies.

• Empirical results on the effect of social support.

Page 10: BROWN ET AL. (2003)

• Study on the effect of social support on mortality.

• Participants: elderly couples.

• Assessment of instrumental and emotional support.

• Control variables and mortality outcomes.

Page 11: BROWN ET AL. (2003): RESULTS

• Findings on the effect of social support on mortality.

• Instrumental support increased the odds of mortality.

• Giving instrumental support decreased the odds of mortality.

• Giving emotional support decreased the odds of mortality when controlling for dependence.

Page 12: COPING WITH STRESS

• Lazarus & Folkman's different types of coping responses.

• Problem-focused coping directed towards the source of stress.

• Emotion-focused coping directed towards personal reaction to stressors.

Page 13: COPING: COGNITIVE REAPPRAISAL

• Reappraisal as a way to reduce stress.

• Example of cognitive reappraisal in the context of an exam.

Page 14: COPING: PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION

• Using progressive relaxation as a coping strategy.

• Steps involved in progressive relaxation.

Page 15: OTHER FORMS OF COPING

• Different forms of coping strategies.

• Stress inoculation training as a problem-focused coping strategy.

• Disclosure interventions, hypnosis, and conditioning interventions.

Page 16: COPING STRATEGIES: DO THEY WORK?

• Mixed results on the effectiveness of coping strategies.

• Different strategies may work for different