Psychology of Health: Stress and Coping

Understanding Stress and Coping

• Stress arises from perceived threats or demands, impacting the body's system.
• The fight-or-flight response and the General Adaptation Syndrome are foundational theories explaining stress response.

Types of Stress

• Distress: Negative stress occurring from feeling inadequate to handle situations, leading to adverse health impacts.
• Eustress: Positive stress associated with engaging challenges, beneficial for health and related to optimal arousal.

Stress Duration and Impact

• Acute stress can evolve into chronic stress, particularly with rumination.
• Chronic stressors are characterized by frequency and duration rather than intensity.

Stressful Situations

• Common stressors include job roles, caregiving responsibilities, life events, and factors tied to socioeconomic status, gender, and race.

Job and Role-related Stress

• Job stress factors: high demands and low autonomy, effort-reward imbalance, and mismatch between job demands and employee capabilities.

Life Events and Stress Measurement

• The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) assesses life stress without differentiating between positive and negative events.
• Frequent minor stressors may cause more stress than rare major life events.

Caregiving and Its Consequences

• Caregivers experience relentless responsibilities that can negatively affect physiological markers like telomere length.

Sociological Factors Influencing Stress

• Lower socioeconomic status correlates with poor health outcomes, hindered nutrition, and increased exposure to stressors linked to gender and race.

Personal Factors in Stress Experience

• Stress proneness linked to Type A personality traits (anger, hostility), and negative affectivity associated with higher susceptibility to stress.

Stress Appraisal

• Primary Appraisal: Identifying the threat's magnitude.
• Secondary Appraisal: Assessing available resources to cope with the threat.

Coping Mechanisms

• Problem-focused coping: Tackling the problem directly.
• Emotion-focused coping: Managing emotional responses in stressful situations.
• Avoidant coping: Ignoring the issue and emotions related to it.

Coping Strategies and Gender Differences

• Women’s stress response may diverge due to oxytocin's role, encouraging caregiving rather than fight-or-flight.
• Coping tools include emotional disclosure through journaling and exercise for stress reduction.

Stress and Mental Health

• High stress significantly contributes to anxiety, depression, and PTSD, with rumination exacerbating these conditions by prolonging stress responses.

Stress and Sleep

• There is a bidirectional relationship between stress and sleep, influenced by job-related stress, digital media use, and shift work.

Stress Management Techniques

• Various interventions like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), biofeedback, relaxation techniques, mindfulness practices, and pharmacological treatments are crucial for stress management.

Online Social Support vs. In-Person Support

• Online social networks offer mixed benefits for perceived support, falling short of the positive effects seen in face-to-face interactions.

Future Research Directions

• Continued examination of the relationship between stress and health, acute responses leading to chronic diseases, and the design of effective interventions.

Coping Strategies from the Ways of Coping Scale

• Confrontative coping: Attempting to persuade the other party.
• Distancing: Acting as though an incident didn’t occur.
• Self-controlling: Practicing restraint.
• Seeking social support: Discussing issues with others.

Additional Coping Mechanisms

• Accepting responsibility: Recognizing personal involvement in a problem.
• Escape-avoidance: Engaging in escapist behavior, like excessive sleeping.
• Planful problem-solving: Creating and following a strategic plan.
• Positive reappraisal: Making personal changes in response to stressors.

Social Support Types

• Four primary types of social support: emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal support.
• Main Effects Model: Social support generally has a positive influence on well-being.
• Buffering Model: Social support can mitigate the negative effects of stress on health.

Gender Differences in Seeking Support

• Women tend to seek social support more frequently than men, highlighting a significant gender divide in coping strategies.