Health and Stress Management Quiz

Health Definition

• Health, according to the WHO, is a complete state of well-being encompassing physical, mental, and social/emotional well-being
• It is not simply the absence of disease or infirmity

Stress and Personality

• Stress is a subjective feeling produced by uncontrollable and threatening events.
• Stressors are measurable objective changes in the environment, such as daily hassles or major life events.
• Personality affects health, with some people more prone to illness or better equipped to handle stress.

Cognitive Appraisal of Stress

• Lazarus and Folkman (1984) model describes an important aspect of stress:
  • Primary appraisal: Is the event relevant, threatening, or demanding?
  • Secondary appraisal: Do the resources to cope exist?

Modified Social Readjustment Rating Scale

• Holmes and Rahe (1967) measured stress levels using a scale of life events
• Common life events, and their associated stress levels were included in this rating scale

Coping Strategies

• Coping is a behavioral response to stress.
• Coping strategies can be categorized as either adaptive or maladaptive
  • Adaptive strategies involve problem-solving, positive reframing, or seeking support.
  • Maladaptive coping strategies involve denial, avoidance, or rumination
• Coping styles are dynamic and depend on context

Models of Personality-Illness Connection

• The interactional, transactional, and health behavior models are ways to understand the relationship between personality and illness.
  • Interactional model: objective events, personality, and physiological arousal are all contributing to an illness, as well as illness being a coping measure.
  • Transactional model: objective events, coping responses, physiological arousal, and personality all interact in different ways.
  • Health behavior models: objective events, appraisals, coping responses, personality, and behaviors all play a role in the process of developing illness.

Personality and Health

• Personality traits, such as neuroticism or conscientiousness, are associated with different health outcomes.
  • Neuroticism, for example, predicts greater stress reactivity, which in turn is linked to higher risk of illness.
  • Conscientiousness is associated with better health outcomes due to a greater tendency to engage in healthy behaviors.

Type A and Type D Personalities

• Type A personality is characterized by achievement motivation, competitiveness, and time urgency. Hostility is a key component of type A personality, and predicts poorer health outcomes .
• Type D personality is characterized by negativity and social inhibition; predicts poorer health outcomes and particularly higher mortality among cardiac patients.

Benefits of Positive Emotions

• Positive emotions can help people build resources and cope better with stressful events.
• Fredrickson's broaden-and-build model suggests that positive emotions broaden thought-action repertoires and build resources. These benefits involve increased interpersonal support and improved health.

Hardiness

• Hardiness is a personality trait characterized by courage, commitment, and control. People with high hardiness may be more resistant to the negative effects of stress.

Negative Influences

• Lack of social support is often associated with poorer health outcomes.