Psychology of Stress and Emotions

Stress is a change that challenges adaptability, measured by the Holmes & Rahe scale
Short-term effects of stress: sympathetic over-activity
Long-term effects of stress: increased cortisol
Life events that can cause stress: loss, humiliation, entrapment
Factors that determine the effect of stress: individual (physical, emotional, and mental state and expectations)

Problem-solving, but impaired by cognitive errors (e.g. perfectionism, black and white thinking, catastrophization)
Emotional coping (defensive mechanisms), but impaired by pathological defenses (e.g. denial, projection, repression)

Childish:
- Denial: don't see problems
- Distortion: problems seen as distorted
- Projection: see own problem in others
Adolescent:
- Identification: imitate significant others
- Projective identification: provoke others to assume a role
- Act out: impulsive expression of unconscious wishes
- Passive aggression: expression of aggression by being passive
- Somatization: somatic symptoms symbolic to psychic state
Pathological:
- Repression: exclude conflicts from awareness
- Dissociation: transient amnesia to an event or identity
- Isolate/split affect: avoid emotionality and focus on intellectual details
- Inhibition-undo: consciously limit impulse
- Displacement: direct unaccepted emotion to a weaker or lower rank person
- Reaction formation: express the opposite of an unaccepted emotion
- Rationalization: justify criminal behaviors
- Sexualization: give sexual meaning to non-sexual objects
Mature:
- Anticipation: realistic plan for future inner discomfort
- Suppression: consciously delay impulse
- Sublimation: change unaccepted impulses to accepted ones
- Humor: comedy to express unaccepted impulses
- Altruism: gratified through others' happiness
- Asceticism: moral limit to base pleasure

Subjective experiences managing our responses
The limbic system (limbic cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, diencephalon) is involved in emotions
Theories of emotions:
- James-Lange: stimuli evoke physiologic response perceived as an emotional state
- Cannon-Bard: events evoke emotional state causing physiologic response
- Schachter-Singer: emotions are labeling of simultaneously physiologic and cognitive response
- Lazarus cognitive appraisal theory
- Plutchik: emotions aim for equilibrium
Disorders of emotions:
- Expression as a physical symptom (conversion and somatization)
- Experience: reactivity of emotions is exaggerated (affective disorders)
- Quality of emotion is incongruent to situation (psychotic disorders)
- Quantity of emotions is blunt or even flat (psychotic disorders)

Initiating, guiding, and maintaining goal-oriented behavior
Maslow's hierarchy of needs: basic needs at the bottom and higher level needs above
Motivators:
- Instincts: universal inborn programmed behavioral patterns
- Drives reduction: internal tension relieved by desired behavior
- Incentives: external rewards
- Needs: humanist Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Disorders of motivation:
- Addiction: craving to seek pleasurable experience despite destructive consequences
- Amotivation syndrome: burn out of the brain reward system

Assessment, understanding, preventing, and managing psychological distress in clinical settings
Psychometrics and neuropsychology: standardized tests (e.g. intelligence quotient, personality assessment, structured interview)
Psychotherapies and counseling: approaches (psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic) and counseling (couple therapy, family therapy)
Psychosomatics: study of mind-body relation

Stress model: psychological stress affects the body (sympathetic nervous system, endocrinal and immune systems)
Somatoform and pain model: perception of bodily symptoms is affected by psychological state
Placebo effect: treatment effects, side effects, and placebo elicit the effect expected by the patient through autosuggestion
Body affects the mind:
- The body's health influences the brain where mentation processes occur
- Coping with disabilities, chronic and terminal illnesses: stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance
- Hospitalization and invasive maneuvers: disrupt daily life routine, privacy, and familiarity with the surrounding environment

Personality is the characteristic behavioral trend of an individual with underlying thinking, affect, cognition, and perception.

Ancient assumption: People were created from 4 components of the environment (Air, Water, Fire, and Dust)
Later, these 4 components were substituted by body fluids (Yellow bile, Phlegm, Blood, and Black bile)
Cloninger's temperament-character aspect:
- 4 temperaments: Reward dependent, Persistent, Novelty seeker, Harm avoidant
- Character: Acquired environmental impact on the mind and how we mature

Based on freedom of choice and subjective experiences
Carl Rogers' postulates:
- What determines a person's behavior is self-concept, ideal self, and social image
- Cognitive consonance: Overlap of self-concept, ideal self, and social image
- Self-actualization: Development of full individuality with all aspects of personality in harmony
- Peak experience: Temporary, striving, non-self-centered state of perfection and goal attainment
Therapist's role: Non-directive or client-centered

Similar to humanistic approach, but more scientific and precise
Explains individual pattern of behavior as individual way of seeing ourselves and the world
Concept: Mental representation (meaning) of object, set of percepts
Schema: Set of concepts to form prototype (1st model of an object)
Construct: Set of schemata that dominate our thinking
Kelly's postulate: Each individual has their own constructs
A repertory grid interview: Writes down or draws representation of own constructs of the world
Rotter's postulate: Internal locality of control vs. external locus of control
Seligman's claim: Depressed people have a learned helplessness
Beck's claim: Depressed people have a triad of negative view of past, present, and future

Learning is the change in individual's behavior due to current present experience in the surrounding environment
Individual pattern of behavior is influenced by stimuli from the surrounding environment
Pavlov's theory: Our behavior is evoked by stimuli
Skinner's theory: Behavior is modulated by environmental responses to our behaviors (trial and error)
Bandura's observational learning

Individuality of behavior can be explained by past experiences during development
Assessment methods:
- Word association test (WAT)
- Completions
- Choice/order
- Construct story (Thematic Appreciation Test, TAT)
- Rorschach inkblots
- Draw a man