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Stress and Health (Ch. 11) Stress The term used to describe the physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to events that are appraised as threatening or challenging. • Stressors – events that cause a stress reaction. 1. Distress – the effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors. 2. Eustress – the effect of positive events, or the optimal amount of stress that people need to promote health and well-being. Causes of Stress • Catastrophe An unpredictable, large-scale event that creates a tremendous need to adapt and adjust as well as overwhelming feelings threat. • Major Life Events Cause stress by requiring adjustment. o Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) – assessment that measures the amount of stress in a person’s life over a one-year period resulting from major life events. o College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS) – assessment that measures the amount of stress in a college student’s life over a one-year period resulting from major life events. • Hassles The daily annoyances of everyday life. Everyday Sources of Stress • Pressure The psychological experience produced by urgent demands or expectations for a person’s behavior that come from an outside source. • Uncontrollability The degree of control that the person has over a particular event or situation. The less control a person has, the greater the degree of stress. • Frustration The psychological experience produced by the blocking of a desired goal or fulfillment of a perceived need. Possible reactions: o Aggression – actions meant to harm to destroy. o Displaced Aggression ¬– taking out one’s frustrations on some less threatening or more available target, a form of displacement. o Escape or Withdrawal ¬– leaving the presence of a stressor, either literally or by a psychological withdrawal into fantasy, drug abuse, or apathy. • Conflict Psychological experience of being pulled toward or drawn to two or more desires or goals, only one of which may be attained. • Suicide Types of Conflict • Approach-Approach Conflict Conflict occurring when a person must choose between two desirable goals. • Approach-Avoidance conflict Conflict occurring when a person must choose or not choose a goal that has both positive and negative aspects. o Double Approach-Avoidance Conflict – conflict in which the person must decide between two goals, with each goal possessing both positive and negative aspects. Bodily Reactions to Stress • Autonomous nervous system consists of: o Sympathetic System – responds to stressful events. o Parasympathetic System ¬– restores the body to normal functioning after the stress has ceased. • General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) The three stages of the body’s physiological reaction to stress, including alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Stress and the Immune System • Immune System The system of cells, organs, and chemicals of the body that responds to attacks from diseases, infections, and injuries. o Negatively affected by stress. • Psychoneuroimmunology The study of the effects of psychological factors such as stress, emotions, thoughts, and behavior on the immune system. • Heart disease, Diabetes, Cancer Cognitive Factors of Stress • Cognitive Appraisal Approach States that how people think about a stressor determines, at least in part, how stressful that stressor will become. o Primary Appraisal ¬– the first step in assessing a stress, which involves estimating the severity of a stressor and classifying it as either a threat or a challenge. o Secondary Appraisal – the second step in assessing a threat, which involves estimating the resources available to the person for coping with the stressor. Stress and Personality • Type A Personality Person who is ambitious, time-conscious, extremely hardworking, and tends to have high levels of hostility and anger as well as being easily annoyed. • Type B Personality Person who is relaxed and laid-back, less driven and competitive than Type A, and slow to anger. • Type C Personality Pleasant but repressed person, who tends to internalize his or her anger and anxiety and who finds expressing emotions difficult. • Hardy Personality A person who seems to thrive on stress but lacks the anger and hostility of the Type A personality. • Optimists People who expect positive outcomes. • Pessimists People who expect negative outcomes. Stress and Social Factors - Social factors increasing the effects of stress include poverty, stresses on the job or in the workplace, and entering a majority culture that is different from one’s culture of origin. • Burnout Negative changes in thoughts, emotions, and behavior as a result of prolonged stress or frustration. • Acculturative Stress Stress resulting from the need to change and adapt a person’s ways to the majority culture. o e.g. Integration, Assimilation, Separation, Marginalization • Social Support System The network of family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and others who can offer support, comfort, or aid to a person in need. Ways to Deal with Stress • Coping Strategies Actions that people can take to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize the effects of stressors. o Problem-Focused Coping ¬– coping strategies that try to eliminate the source of a stress or reduce its impact through direct actions. o Emotion-Focused Coping – coping strategies that change the impact of a stressor by changing the emotional reaction to the stressor. Meditation Mental series of exercises meant to refocus attention and achieve a trancelike state of consciousness. • Concentrative Meditation Form of meditation in which a person focuses the mind on some repetitive or unchanging stimulus so that the mind can be cleared of disturbing thoughts and the body can experience relaxation. Cultural Influences on Stress - ¬Different cultures perceive stressors differently. - Coping strategies will also vary from culture to culture. Religiosity and Stress - ¬People with religious beliefs also have been found to cope better with stressful events. Exercise - Raises good cholesterol and lowers bad cholesterol. - Strengthens bones. - Improves quality of sleep. - Reduces tiredness. - Increases natural Killer cell activity. - Wards off virus and cancer. - Reduces stress. End of Reviewer
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4. Cognitive Factors
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