Stress and Coping Quiz

Stress and Coping

• Stress is defined as any circumstance that threatens or is perceived to threaten one's well-being, taxing coping abilities.
• Essential first step is jotting down a stressful event, circumstance, or situation.
• The second step is to analyze why an event is perceived as stressful.
• Lazarus & Folkman (1984) defined stress as exposure to stimuli appraised as highly challenging, uncontrollable, and overwhelming, exceeding an individual's coping capacity.
• Daily hassles can have significant negative effects, as strongly related to mental health; compared to major life events that might have a cumulative impact.
• A poem by Charles Bukowski (1980) highlights how the small tragedies, or daily hassles, can contribute to an individual's state of distress.
• Distinguishing between acute and chronic stress is useful. Acute stress involves short-duration events, while chronic stress lasts longer with no apparent time limit.
• Major life stressors are noticeable alterations in one's living circumstances requiring readjustment.
• A student stress scale (Holmes & Rahe, 1967) defines the impact of various events on an individual experiencing distress, e.g., death of a close family member causes 100 life change units.
• Factors influencing stress include biological, psychological, and social components.

Biological Factors

• Genetics, neurophysiology, and physical health conditions affect stress reactivity.

Psychological Factors

• Personality traits, cognitive patterns, and emotional responses are crucial to an individual's response to stress.
• Psychological factors such as extreme sadness, risky behaviours, rage, heightened anxiety, self-harm, impulsivity, shame, lack of awareness, decision-making issues, and perfectionism all contribute to an individual's response to stress or distress.

Social Factors

• Environmental influences like social support, cultural norms, and relationships interact with personality traits and biological factors that influence the perception and management of stress.

Hans Selye & The General Adaptation Syndrome

• Hans Selye, "Father of Stress," proposed that adopting the right attitude can convert negative stress into positive stress.
• The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) describes a three-stage response to stress:
  • Alarm stage: Prepares the body to fight or flee.
  • Resistance stage: Defenses prepare for a sustained attack against the stressor.
  • Exhaustion stage: Physiological and immune systems fail.

Stress Appraisal

• Appraisal of stress is subjective.
• Primary appraisal is the initial evaluation of whether an event is irrelevant, relevant but not threatening, or relevant and threatening/stressful.
• Secondary appraisal assesses coping resources and options for dealing with the stress.

Coping Strategies

• Coping responses can be categorized as healthy or unhealthy.
• Common coping patterns of limited value include isolating, giving up, snapping at others, blaming, indulging, and prolonged defensive coping.
• Two major coping strategies are:
  • Emotion-focused coping: managing emotional reactions to the problem
  • Problem-focused coping: taking direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor.
• Students struggle with stress related to studying and use emotion or problem focused coping methods to cope with academic challenges.

Individual Differences in Coping

• Some people are more resilient than others, adapting better to adversity.
• Hardiness (Commitment + Challenge + Control) is a significant predictor of the reactions to stressful events.
• Dispositional Resilience Scale is a method to categorize an individual's coping capacity.

Personality Traits

• Personality types like Type A, Type B, type C, and type D personality types present individual differences in coping with stress and distress.

Protective Social Factors

• Social support and positive relationships are protective factors that mitigate the effects of stress.
• Positive relationships, marriage/ partnerships, and a strong social network are mitigating factors when dealing with stress.

The Grant Study

• The Grant Study (a longitudinal study since 1938) has tracked well-being in adult men from Harvard, focusing on the importance of good relationships in physical and mental health.
• Quality relationships mediate emotional and physical pain. Stressful situations or challenges can affect our social connections, including our marriage/ relationships and positive relationships.

This quiz explores the concept of stress and coping mechanisms as defined by Lazarus & Folkman. It delves into the impact of daily hassles versus major life events on mental health, and differentiates between acute and chronic stress. Test your understanding of these essential psychological concepts and theories.