Health Psychology: Stress PDF

Health Psychology: Stress How stressed are you? A white and black box with black text Description automatically generated **Stress vs Stressors** **Stress**: Pattern of physiological, cognitive, emotional and behavioural response to real or imagined stimuli that are perceived as preventing a goa...

Health Psychology: Stress How stressed are you? A white and black box with black text Description automatically generated **Stress vs Stressors** **Stress**: Pattern of physiological, cognitive, emotional and behavioural response to real or imagined stimuli that are perceived as preventing a goal or endangering or otherwise threatening well-being The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, or stressors, that we view as challenging or threatening **Stressors**: Events or circumstances (or unrealistic thoughts) that cause stress Not all stressors are undesirable (e.g. sports competition) Depending on circumstances, next to anything could be a stressor **Basis of stress** Walter Cannon: 'Fight or flight' - Physiological reactions to dangerous situation - Preparation to fight or run away When stressful situations are longer lasting: physiological reactions have adverse effects **Source of stress: Routine Choices** Choices: How to do something -- and when? **Approach -- Approach**: choice between two desirable outcomes (e.g. short-term reward vs long-term reward) - E.g. spending money now vs saving for retirement **Approach -- Avoidance**: one outcome is desirable, the other is not - e.g. wanting to visit a friend but being afraid of her dog **Avoidance -- Avoidance**: both outcomes are undesirable - e.g. at dentist: root canal or tooth extraction **Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)** 1. **Alarm**: - Shock phase - The body's first reaction (fight or flight) 2. **Resistance**: - Occurs with continued exposure - Adaptation begins when the body starts to benefit from the increased access to the energy reserves provided by the alarm reaction 3. **Exhaustion**: - Physiological resources are depleted - Acquired adaptation is lost and exhaustion sets in  **Criticism of Selye's GAS** 1. Little consideration of psychological factors e.g. cognitive appraisal 2. Assumed that all responses to stress are uniform - Failed to consider that individual responses are influenced by personality, perception and biological constitution - Failed to consider the specificity of challenges 3. Stress is assessed as an outcome - What about anticipation of a stressful occurrence? **Cognitive Appraisal** Our own reactions/ the way we interpret what is happening also affects stress (Robert Lazarus) Stage 1: evaluations of the threat... if perceived as real then stage 2 Stage 2: determination if sufficient resources available to cope with stress (individual differences) Hardiness: some people view stressors as challenges and meet then head on, felt they had control over stressors - Result: less illness due to long-term stress Perceived control: situations that allow some form of control produce less signs of stress (also: magic charms etc -- illusion of control) **Social Support** (The help we receive from others) Social support seen as helpful for stress: - Benefit from learning from others how they coped with stress - Others can provide encouragement and incentives Empirical results of the effect of social support: mixed **Brown et al (2003)** compared social contact, receiving social support by giving social support  **Coping with stress** **Lazarus & Folkman (1984)**: different types of coping responses - Problem focused coping: directed towards the source of the stress e.g. stress is jog related -- acquire skills and get a new job Good to use when stress-evoking problem has a solution - Emotion-focused coping: directed towards one's own personal reaction to the stressor e.g. seek comfort in the presence of friends only option if stress evoking problem has no solution **Coping: Cognitive Reappraisal** Reappraisal means that when a stressor is re-evaluated as less threatening, then stress should be reduced Example- exam - Initial response: 'that test is going to be far too hard' - Reappraisal: 'yes the test will be difficult, but I am ready for it' **Coping: Progressive Relaxation** Same principle as cognitive reappraisal; substitute incompatible response for the stress reaction Steps: 1. Recognising body's signals for stress 2. Signals as cue to begin relaxing 3. Relaxing by focusing attention to muscle groups: start with head/ neck, then arms, legs Other forms of coping: In clinical settings: stress inoculation raining as problem-focused coping strategy - Disclosure interventions: write about stressful experiences - Hypnosis - Conditioning interventions: neutral stimulus paired with immune system facilitator **Coping strategies: do they work?** - Mixed results - One study looked at relaxation interventions, disclosure interventions, hypnosis and conditioning intervention: - Little evidence of success on immune response level for relaxation - Modest evidence for disclosure, hypnosis and conditioning - Different strategies might work for different types of situations (or individuals)