Psychology Chapter on Stress and Coping

Stress & Health Psychology

• The course covers stress, its relationship with illness, health psychology, and stress management.
• Learning outcomes include defining stress and stressors, discussing the stress-illness relationship, defining health psychology, and discussing health and stress management.
• Stress is a nonspecific response of the body to any demand made on it, involving arousal to situations perceived as threatening or challenging.

Understanding Stress

• A stressor is a trigger for stressful reactions.
• Eustress is desirable stress, such as exercise.
• Distress is unpleasant, non-beneficial stress.

Signs and Symptoms of Ongoing Stress

• Emotional signs include anxiety, apathy, irritability, and fatigue.
• Behavioral signs include avoidance of responsibilities, self-destructive behaviour, self-neglect, and poor judgment.
• Physical signs involve excessive worry about illness, frequent illness, and overuse of medications.

Sources of Stress

• Life Changes: Major life events requiring lifestyle adjustments; the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) quantifies stress related to these events.
• Chronic Stressors: Ongoing, unpleasant events, like bad marriages or poor working conditions.
• Hassles: Small, everyday problems accumulating into significant stress factors, such as traffic jams and scheduling conflicts. Burnout stems from persistent hassles (doctors, police officers).
• Frustration: Unpleasant tension from blocked goals, intensified by motivation levels. Modern technology has increased daily frustrations.
• Conflict: Choosing between incompatible goals or impulses; stress levels depend on conflict complexity and resolution difficulty.

3 Types of Conflict

• Approach-approach conflict: Choosing between two desirable options.
• Avoidance-avoidance conflict: Choosing between two undesirable options.
• Approach-avoidance conflict: Choosing between an option with both desirable and undesirable aspects.

Effects of Stress: A Dual System

• The sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight response) increases heart rate, blood pressure, and hormones, which can have negative health consequences.
• The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis reacts more slowly, producing cortisol. Elevated cortisol levels contribute to depression, memory problems, and impaired immune system functioning, potentially leading to illnesses ranging from colds to cardiovascular disorders.

The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

• Hans Selye described the GAS as a generalized physiological response to severe stress.
• It has three phases: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
• Prolonged stress can deplete resources, leading to exhaustion, increased susceptibility to illness, and potentially death.

Stress & Illness

• Cancer: Hereditary and environmental factors contribute; stress can impair the immune system's ability to detect cancerous changes.
• Cardiovascular Disorders: Heart disease results from heart muscle issues and coronary artery blockages; risk factors include stress hormones, smoking, Type A personality, obesity, high-fat diets, and lack of exercise. Personality types (like Type A and Type B) can influence the effects of stress on cardiovascular health. Approaches to modify Type A behaviors includes: shotgun approach (changing all related behaviors), and target behavior approach (focusing on specific behaviors linked to disease)
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Life-threatening events cause feelings of terror and helplessness, resulting in flashbacks, nightmares, and impaired functioning.
• Gastric Ulcers: Recent research suggests that stress conditions may increase vulnerability to bacteria like H. pylori, a factor contributing to gastric ulcers.

Health Psychology

• Health psychology examines biological, psychological, and social influences on health and illness.
• Major health risks include smoking tobacco, alcohol and binge drinking, chronic pain.
• Health psychology addresses smoking prevention through education, alcohol prevention by targeting social reinforcement, pain management through behavior modification, biofeedback, and relaxation techniques.

Health and Stress Management

• Emotion-focused coping involves changing perceptions of stressful situations. Cognitive and emotional strategies, like reappraisal, defense mechanisms, and altering perceptions, help deal with stressful situations.
• Problem-focused coping addresses the stressor directly, such as using problem-solving strategies to identify and change the stress-producing factors.

Resources for Healthy Living

• Stress management resources include health and exercise, positive beliefs, social skills, social support, material resources, personal control (internal locus of control), and relaxation techniques.