Stress

• Stress: A state of psychological tension or strain. The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events.

• Stressors: Events that we perceive as either a threat or as a challenge.

• Rubber band Activity

StressStress is any circumstance (real or

perceived) that threatens a person’s well-being.

When we feel severe stress, our ability to cope with it is impaired.

Sources of stress

• Stressor: Any environmental demand that creates a state of tension or threat and requires change or adaptation.

The Stress Response to

Public Speaking

•Stress can be adaptive. –In a fearful or stress- causing situation, we can run away and save our lives.

•Stress can be maladaptive. –If it is prolonged (chronic stress), it increases our risk of illness and health problems.

Stress and Stressors

Stress and Stressors

•Stress is a slippery concept. –At times it is the stimulus (missing an appointment) and at other times it is a response (sweating while taking a test).

Different types of Stress

►Distress- stress that stems from acute anxiety or pressure

►Eustress- positive stress which results from striving toward a challenge

Hassles & Uplifts

• Hassles- minor, day-to-day stressors • Uplifts- an activity or situation that makes a

person feel good, this protects from stress

Everyday hassles- Lazarus

• Pressure: A feeling that one must speed up, intensify, or change the direction of one’s behavior or live up to a higher standard of performance.

• Frustration: The feeling that occurs when a person is prevented from reaching a goal.

Everyday hassles

• Conflict: Simultaneous existence of incompatible demands, opportunities, needs, or goals.

Uplifts List

• We tend to let the little things bother us… so why don’t we let the little things uplift us?

• http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/absolute-best-things-in-the-world

• http://www.buzzfeed.com/violas94/nostalgic-moments-that-make-life-awesome

Stress and Stressors

Stress is not merely a stimulus or a response. It is a process by which we

appraise and cope with environmental threats and challenges.

When short-lived or taken as a challenge, stressors may have positive effects. However, if

stress is threatening or prolonged, it can be harmful.

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3 Types of Stressors

►Catastrophes– Unpredictable large scale events– Nearly everyone appraises catastrophes as

threatening►Significant Life Changes

– Can be good or bad– Young Adulthood is most stressful time for most

►Daily Hassles– Day to day issues, that we all face

Significant Life Changes

The death of a loved one, a divorce, a loss of job, or a promotion may leave individuals vulnerable to disease.

SSRS- Holmes & Rahe

• If a person has less the 150 life change units they have a 30% chance of suffering from stress.

• 150 - 299 life change units equates to a 50% chance of suffering from stress.

• Over 300 life units means a person has an 80% chance of developing a stress related illness.

Cultural Stressors

Acculturative stress- Stress that an immigrant might feel when they move to a different place

• Assimilated– Individual adopts the cultural norms of host culture over their original culture

• Separation– Individual rejects the dominant culture in favor of holding onto their original

culture• Integrated

– Individual adopt the dominant norms while still maintaining their host culture

• Marginalized– Individual rejects both the dominant and the original cultural norms

Types of Conflicts

• When you need to make a decision between two options….

• LIKE/WANT- Approach

• DON’T LIKE/WANT- Avoidance

Approach-approach conflicts

►You must choose between two attractive options – Do I want to go to the movie or to the mall?– Do I want an unlimited supply of Sour Patch Kids

or Swedish Fish?

Avoidance-Avoidance conflicts

• You must choose between two disagreeable options – Do I want to do my physics or math homework?– Do I want to go to a boring family party or study?

Approach-avoidance

• You find yourself in a situation that has both enjoyable and disagreeable consequences – Asking your boss for a raise– Going to a Bulls game when it’s snowing– Going to the dentist to get rid of a cavity

Physical Response to Stress

• What happens to our body when we are stressed out?

The Stress Response SystemCannon

fight-or-flight response marked by the outpouring

of epinephrine and norepinephrine from the

inner adrenal glands, increasing heart and

respiration rates, mobilizing sugar and fat,

and dulling pain.

Prepares your body for an emergency…activates the

sympathetic nervous system

ACUTE STRESS

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)Hans Selye

►In response to LONG- TERM (CHRONIC) STRESS

Phase 1: Alarm

►Sympathetic nervous system kicks in►Heart rate zooms►Blood flows to muscles►Feel the faintness of shock

Phase 2: Resistance

►Resources have been mobilizied in Phase 1, now ready for fight

►Your adrenal glands pump stress hormones (Adrenaline) into your bloodstream

►You are fully engaged at this point►Your body adjusts and learns to live with the

stress

Phase 3: Exhaustion

• Body soon begins to run out of resources• You become much more vulnerable to illness

– Fearful rats lived 100 days shorter

Stress and IllnessGeneral Adaptation Syndrome

Stress and IllnessGeneral Adaptation Syndrome

Stress and IllnessGeneral Adaptation Syndrome

Stress and IllnessGeneral Adaptation Syndrome

Stress & Susceptibility to Disease

A psychophysiological illness is any stress-related physical illness such as

hypertension and some headaches.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is a developing field in which the health effects

of psychological, neural, and endocrine processes on the immune system are

studied.

Stress and Colds

People with the highest life stress scores were also the most vulnerable when

exposed to an experimental cold virus.

Stress Effects and Health Stress and AIDS Stress and Cancer Stress and Hearth Disease

Stress and AIDS

Stress and negative emotions may accelerate the progression from human

immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

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Stress and Cancer►Is there a link? Results are mixed

+ Increased risk for cancer among individuals that experience helplessness, depression or grief

+ 5.5 time greater risk for those who reported high workplace stress

- Holocaust survivors and P.O.W do not have an increased risk

Stress and Cancer

• Stress does not create cancer cells, but it may affect their growth by weakening the body’s natural defense against multiplying cells

• Researchers disagree on whether stress influences the progression of cancer.

• However, they do agree that avoiding stress and having a hopeful attitude cannot reverse advanced cancer.

Stress and the Heart•Stress that leads to elevated blood pressure may result in coronary heart disease, a clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle. •Leading cause of death in North America

Plaque incoronary artery

Arteryclogged

•Researchers studied 40 accountants• Major spike in cholesterol and risk of heart disease around April 15

Psychoneuroimmunology

B lymphocytes fight bacterial infections, T lymphocytes attack cancer cells and

viruses, and microphages ingest foreign substances. During stress, energy is

mobilized away from the immune system making it vulnerable. L

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Health-Related Consequences

Stress can have a variety of health-related consequences.

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Tend & Befriend

• refers to the fact that people often manage threats by caring for offspring and seeking social support in time of stress

• social support reduces risk of illness and death

Personality Types

• Type A is a term used for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.

• Type B refers to easygoing, relaxed people (Friedman and Rosenman, 1974).

• Type A personalities are more likely to develop coronary heart disease.

Life-Style Modification

Modifying a Type-A lifestyle may reduce the recurrence of heart attacks.

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Feelings of Control

• How much control do you want?• Internal Vs. External

Internal Locus of Control

• The view that we are in control of our own destiny– Achieve more in school and work– Act more independently – Less likely to feel depressed

External Locus of Control

• The view that chance or outside forces control fate

• Learned Helplessness– Hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or

human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

– Seligman experiments

Fig. 15.6 In the normal course of escape and avoidance learning, a light dims shortly before the floor is electrified (a). Since the light does not yet have meaning for the dog, the dog receives a shock (non-injurious, by the way) and leaps the barrier (b). Dogs soon learn to watch for the dimming of the light (c) and to jump before receiving a shock (d). Dogs made to feel “helpless” rarely even learn to escape shock, much less to avoid it.

Optimist Vs. Pessimists

– Optimists explain bad events as result of external, unstable, and specific causes

– Pessimists explain bad events as due to internal, stable, and global causes

Explanatory Style

• People with an optimistic (instead of pessimistic) explanatory style tend to have:

• More control over stressors

• Better moods• Stronger immune

system• Cope better with

stressful events

Developing an Optimistic Outlook

• Martin Seligman - having optimistic outlook is a wise coping strategy and in many cases optimists have better physical and mental health than pessimists

• Optimism - how a person explains causes of bad events

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Adjustment Strategies for Becoming More Optimistic

1. Identify thoughts and feelings you have after something unpleasant happens2. Become aware of your pattern of thinking when you experience unpleasant events3. Distract yourself from your pessimistic thoughts4. Dispute your pessimistic thoughts

Biofeedback, Relaxation, and Meditation

• Biofeedback systems use electronic devices to inform people about their physiological responses and gives them the chance to bring their response to a healthier range.

• Relaxation and meditation have similar effects in reducing tension and anxiety.

Coping With Stress

Coping: the ways we try to change or interpret circumstances to make them less threatening.

Maladaptive Coping Adaptive Coping• Delay stress and it

intensifies

• Produce self-defeating outcomes– Ex.: I will fail no matter what

• Withdraw from others

• Realistically evaluates the situation

• Deal with the emotional aspects of the situation.

• Focuses on preserving important relationships

Coping with Stress

Reducing stress by changing events that cause stress or by changing how we react

to stress is called problem-focused coping.

Emotion-focused coping is when we cannot change a stressful situation, and

we respond by attending to our own emotional needs.

Types of Coping

• Problem-focused coping• Tries to directly change or manage a threatening or

harmful stressor. • Most effective when you have the personal control

• Emotion-focused coping • Tries to relieve or regulate the emotional impact

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Coping Classifications

►Over the long term, problem-focused coping is usually more effective than emotion-focused coping

►Emotion-focused coping involves drawing on beliefs, values, and goals to modify the meaning of a stressful situation

Problem Focused Coping Strategies

• The GOAL is to change or eliminate the stressor

– Confrontive coping: • using aggressive or risky efforts to change the situation

– Planful problem solving: • efforts to rationally analyze the situation, • identify potential solutions, • and then implement them.

Emotion Focused Coping Strategies • Escape–avoidance strategy

– Shift attention away from stressor and toward other activities• Seeking social support

– Turn to friends, relatives, or other people for support• Distancing

– Putting space between you and your stressor to minimize or eliminate its impact

• Denial– Refusal to acknowledge that the problem even exists.

(Complicates Issue)• Positive reappraisal

– Minimize the negative impacts by focusing on the positive meaning

Aerobic Exercise

Can aerobic exercise boost spirits? Many studies suggest that aerobic exercise can

elevate mood and well-being because

aerobic exercise raises energy, increases self-

confidence, and lowers tension, depression, and

anxiety.

Biofeedback, Relaxation, and Meditation

• Biofeedback systems use electronic devices to inform people about their physiological responses and gives them the chance to bring their response to a healthier range.

• Relaxation and meditation have similar effects in reducing tension and anxiety.

Spirituality & Faith Communities

Regular religious attendance has been a reliable predictor of a longer life span

with a reduced risk of dying.

Intervening Factors

Investigators suggest there are three factors that connect religious involvement

and better health.

END OF SLIDES

Human Flourishing Coping With Stress Managing Stress Effects

Human Flourishing

Psychologists and physicians have developed an interdisciplinary field of behavioral medicine that integrates behavioral knowledge with medical

knowledge.

Mind and body interact; everything psychological is simultaneously

physiological.

Promoting Health

Promoting health is generally defined as the absence of disease. We only think of health when we are diseased. However, health psychologists say that promoting health begins by preventing illness and

enhancing well-being, which is a constant endeavor.

Social Support

Supportive family members, marriage partners, and close friends help people

cope with stress. Their immune functioning calms the cardiovascular system and

lowers blood pressure.

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Managing Stress Effects

Having a sense of control, an optimistic explanatory style, and social support can

reduce stress and improve health.