Stress & Stress Management Lecture PDF

Health Psychology Stress & Stress Management Presented by: Dr. Mervat Mahmoud Ali  Research Questions? What is health What are defense psychology? How does mechanisms? behavior affect health? What do we know about Wha...

Health Psychology Stress & Stress Management Presented by: Dr. Mervat Mahmoud Ali  Research Questions? What is health What are defense psychology? How does mechanisms? behavior affect health? What do we know about What is stress? coping with feelings of helplessness and What causes frustration, depression? and what are typical reactions to it? How is stress related to health and disease? Are there different types of conflict? What are the best strategies for managing stress?  Topic Outline In the first part, we will look more closely at what stress is and how it affects us. After that, we will emphasize ways of coping with stress, so you can do a better job of staying healthy. Stress  What is Stress? A major behavioral risk Our reactions to stressful factor if it is prolonged or events are greatly severe. affected by how we appraise situations. That’s stress is the mental and why some people are physical condition that distressed by events that occurs when we adjust or others view as a thrill or a adapt to the environment. challenge (eustress). Ultimately, stress depends on how you perceive a stress is a matter of how situation. we perceive events and react to them. Because of this, stress can often be managed or controlled.  What produces stress? Unpleasant positive events activities work pressures, travel, sports, a marital problems, new job, rock or financial woes climbing, dating A healthy lifestyle may include a fair amount of good stress.  Uncomfortable, Short-term stress but rarely does any damage Stress General Long-term stress Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)  How does the body react to stress? Through the general adaptation syndrome (GAS). It is a series of bodily reactions to prolonged stress. GAS an alarm reaction THREE Stages a stage of resistance exhaustion Stage of Exhaustion  Unless a way of relieving stress is found, the result will be a psychosomatic disease, a serious loss of health, or complete collapse. Stress can disrupt the body’s immune system  Work Stress At work, people face many of these sources of stress every day. Chronic job stress sometimes results in burnout and a pattern of emotional exhaustion. Traumatic Stress !!!  Traumatic Stress People who personally witness or survive a disaster are most affected by traumatic stress. Traumatic experiences What kind of produce psychological injury disasters!!! or intense emotional pain. Victims of traumatic stresses Ex: war, torture, rape, may suffer from nightmares, assassination, plane flashbacks, insomnia, crashes, natural disasters, irritability, nervousness, grief, or street violence emotional numbing, and depression.  Traumatic stress produces feelings of helplessness and vulnerability. Victims realize that disaster could strike again without warning. In addition to feeling threatened, many victims sense that they are losing control of their lives  What can people do about such reactions? Psychologists recommend the Get support from others. following: This is a major element in recovery from all traumatic Identify what you are feeling events. and talk to others about your fears and concerns. Give yourself time to heal. Fortunately, most people are Think about the skills that more resilient than they have helped you overcome think. adversity in the past and apply them to the present situation. Continue to do the things that you enjoy and that make life meaningful. Frustration  What is “Frustration” Frustration is a negative emotional state that occurs when people are prevented from reaching desired goals. Obstacles of many kinds cause frustration. External sources Frustration Personal sources  Coping with Frustration Try to identify the source of your frustration. Is it external or personal? Is the source of frustration something that can be changed? How hard would you have to work to change it? Is it under your control at all? If the source of your frustration can be changed or removed, are the necessary efforts worth it? Conflicts  Conflict Conflict occurs whenever a person must choose between contradictory needs, desires, motives, or demands. Ex: Choosing between college and work, marriage and single life, or study and failure are common conflicts.  Conflict There are four basic forms of conflict. Conflicts Approach-Approach Conflicts Avoidance-Avoidance Conflicts Approach-Avoidance Conflicts Multiple Conflicts  Managing Conflicts 1. Don’t be hasty when making important decisions. Hasty decisions are often regretted. Even if you do make a faulty decision, it will trouble you less if you know that you did everything possible to avoid a mistake. 2. Try out important decisions partially when possible. If you are thinking about moving to a new town, try to spend a few days there first. If you are choosing between colleges, do the same. If classes are in progress, sit in on some. If you want to learn to scuba dive, rent equipment for a reasonable length of time before buying. 3. Look for workable compromises. Again, it is important to get all available information. If you think that you have only one or two alternatives and they are undesirable or unbearable, seek the aid of a teacher, counselor, minister, or social service agency. You may be overlooking possible alternatives these people will know about. 4. When all else fails, make a decision and live with it. Indecision and conflict exact a high cost. Sometimes it is best to select a course of action and stick with it unless it is very obviously wrong after you have taken it. Conflicts are a normal part of life. With practice you can learn to manage many  Threatening situations tend to produce anxiety anxiety. Threatening situations A Defense Mechanism is any mental process used to avoid, deny, or distort sources of threat or anxiety, especially threats to one’s self-image. Many of the defenses were first identified by Sigmund Freud, who assumed they operate unconsciously What are psychological defense mechanisms and how do they reduce anxiety?  Psychological defense mechanisms Denial Projection Repression Rationalization Reaction formation Compensation Regression Sublimation Denial One of the most basic/ primitive defenses is denial bec it is characteristic of early childhood. It is protecting oneself from an unpleasant reality by refusing to accept it or believe it. We are prone to deny death, illness, and similar painful and threatening events.  Repression Holding painful memories Freud noticed that his from awareness. patients had tremendous difficulty recalling We use it to protect shocking or traumatic ourselves by blocking out events from childhood. threatening thoughts and impulses. Research suggests that you are most likely to repress Feelings of hostility information that threatens toward a family member, your self-image. the names of people we dislike, and past failures are common targets of repression.  Reaction formation In a reaction formation, impulses are not just repressed; they are also held in check by exaggerating opposite behavior. Examples The individual acts out an opposite behavior A boy may really like a to block threatening girl , but act like he is impulses or feelings. not interested when around her  Regression Examples: An adult curling up in a fetal position or sucking his thumb when feeling threatened or afraid. Most parents who have a second child have to put up with at least some Any return to earlier, regression by the older less demanding stage of child. development (situations or habits) when faced with stress.  Projection An unconscious process that Examples: protects us from the Someone blames his anxiety we would feel if we instructor for getting were to discern our faults. a bad grade bec, he didn’t study. A person who is projecting tends to see his or her own When someone feelings, shortcomings, or cheats on his spouse unacceptable impulses in and blames the others. spouse for cheating. Projection lowers anxiety by exaggerating negative traits in others. This justifies one’s own actions and directs attention away from personal failings.  Rationalization Justifying personal “I could have won the actions by giving “rational” race, but the road was but false reasons for wet.” them. After being dumbed by a When the explanation you person she was interested give for your behavior is in, “I don’t care, I reasonable and convincing suspected he was a loser” — but not the real reason — you are rationalizing. For example, Rationalizing not meeting the deadline. People who overuse defense mechanisms become less adaptable, because they consume great amounts of emotional energy to control anxiety and maintain an unrealistic self-image. Two defense mechanisms that have a decidedly more positive quality are compensation and sublimation.  Compensation An attempt to make up for deficiency by directing his As a child, Helen Keller was energy to another aspect of unable to see or hear, but one’s personality in which no she became an outstanding deficiency exists. thinker and writer. Compensatory reactions are Andrea Bocelli, and other defenses against feelings of blind entertainers were inferiority. drawn to music because of their handicap. A person who has a defect or weakness (real or imagined) may go to unusual lengths to overcome the weakness or to compensate for it by excelling in other areas. A childhood stutterer may excel in debate at college.  Sublimation Example: A very aggressive person may find social acceptance as a professional soldier, boxer, or football player. It is working off frustrated Greed may be refined into desires through socially a successful business acceptable activities. career. Freud believed that art, music, Lying may be sublimated dance, poetry, scientific into storytelling, creative investigation, and other creative writing, or politics. activities could serve to re- channel strong desire into productive behavior. A video on stress