Stress and Stress Management PDF

Stress and stress management What stresses you out? Some of the consequences of stress ➔ Strong increase in mental illness in the last 10 years (+79%, WHO Global Burden of Disease Report, 2017) 46% increase in health care cost for people reporting high stress levels „Sick days“ in response to ment...

Stress and stress management What stresses you out? Some of the consequences of stress ➔ Strong increase in mental illness in the last 10 years (+79%, WHO Global Burden of Disease Report, 2017) 46% increase in health care cost for people reporting high stress levels „Sick days“ in response to mental illness are twice as high as average „sick days“ (25.7 days, WHO, 2017) 2016: 102,000 IV-Retirees in CH, 60% up from 2000, taking almost half of all funds Stress is relevant in the economic dimension Basics - - Short term stress o Individual performance resources are claimed in order to perform work activities. Resource mobilization is accompanied by psychophysiological stress consequences that are reversible (e.g., through recovery).-> not over a long time! You get the chance to recover from this o Excitation(Erregung) includes: Warming & Activation o Exploitation (Nutzung der Performance Ressourcen) includes: Fatigue, Fatigue-like states (monotony, lowered vigilance, satiety) Long term stress o Positive: Exercise, Development of mental and physical abilities, Increased self-confidence, Wellbeing, Health maintenance o Negative: General psychosomatic disorders and illnesses (e.g. back pain, headaches, heart problems), Exhaustion (burnout), Absenteeism, fluctuation, early retirement Stressors -> Prüfungsrelevant ➔ We need to keep in mind that each human is different in our society, and that one stressor can stress each one person more than another - Stressors: o Stressors are characteristics that are more likely to lead to stressful states in a given population - Classical stressors in the workplace o Time pressure, quantitative workload, quantitative overload, role overload (after to Bowling 1998) o Uncertainty, role conflict, role ambiguity, qualitative overload (according to Semmer 1999) o Regulatory barriers: ▪ Work organization problems (ex. The inability to coordinate the level of burocracy) ▪ Work interruptions ▪ Two groups of stressors: challenge vs. Hindrance (Hindernis) Social stressors - - Dealing with colleagues and superiors o Lack of fairness/justice o Behavior that depreciates self-esteem o Social conflicts o Rumors o Abusive behavior, bullying, destructive leadership o Social isolation, exclusion Dealing with clients -> can be very frustrating, these thing loom large in modern societies o Conflicts with customers/clients o Difficult customers/clients, arrogant customers o Emotional dissonance/emotional work -> leaving some of our humanity behind us (in some situation were the others shouldn’t see our emotional state Stress is relative - Probability that an environmental condition is assessed as a threat in different groups of people The impact of a stressor is rooted in its socially shared meaning. Specific social groups have similar resilience. (Stress depends on how your life usually looks like) Foundations of stressors - - The „self“ in focus: recent models of stress research (aktuelle Forschungen zum Thema Stress:) o Inequity o Social recognition crises o The reasonableness of work tasks o Illegitimate tasks & stressors (not legitimized by the role) o “Bullshit jobs” (David Graeber, originating from poor organization) o Threat to the self by failure, non-compliance with own standards Reactions to stress: o Physical arousal o Cognition and emotion o Behavior Model of stress The reality between the person and the situation is also important Transactional stress model Some of the stimuli we get are maybe stressors Important there are filters many of the stressors get filterd out! Not stressed out when positive or irrelevant Not stressed out if you have the sufficient ressources Emotion focused: change the emotions/ the reactions in that specific situation Problem focused: For example when the son won’t put the shoes on, move to hawaii so he only needs to put on flip flops Hans Selye (1907 -1982) was the founding father of stress research. Hans Selye was very bad at catching mice, so they were very stressed out. The stress comes form the external world and so on. Homeostasis is the property of a system in which variables are regulated so that internal conditions remain stable and relatively constant You can think of stress as a stage of leaving homeostasis and trying to get back to it Humans are motivated to be in inner peace (Homeostasis) There is a constant battle to be in homeostasis Biomarkers of stress - increases in salivary and blood serum cortisol, corticotropin, and andrenaline as well as increased heart rate -> motivation is very hard to measure, but stress can be measured very easy What happens if humans turn on the stress response for too long for purely psychological reasons? Living on a roller coast: Chronic stress We think it’s life threatening but it’s obviously not Examples of stressors: - Exams can be a modern stressor Public speaking is a major stressor and a greater source of fear than snakes Traffic/ being late can be a stressor Buying and paying off a house typically stresses people out over up to 30 years Going on holidays (especially with kids) Physiologically, the stress response to seeing a lion is similar to the stress response to an unwanted email Effects of chronic stress on health outcomes are reported in many fields of research. For instance, chronic stress can alter the immune response to influenza virus vaccine. Workplace stressors - Sapolsky 1982, Hormones and Behavior: Baboon study: Position in the hierarchy affect stress levels as lower ranked individuals have less control over what happens during the day. Similar results were found in the “Whitehall Study” that looked at health and mortality rates of British civil servants. o If you are working relatively autonomus, you are good (from the point of view of stress) o „Gleichzeitmodell“ as an example for more autonomy o If you control less (increased autonomy) you can gain way more than you can do with control Trier Social test The Trier Social Stress Test is a laboratory procedure to reliably induce stress in human research participants. It was created in 1993 at the University of Trier by Clemens Kirschbaum and his research group. ➔ „If we accept stress as a thing that’s just here and you can’t do anything against it… you need some things to relax“ The Trier Social Stress test is the main workhorse of stress research and frequently applied in research studies First the person is put into a very unconfortable situation, where the supervisors are in front of you and the camera is straight in your face. Also the supervisors puts pressure on you about how you should do things and do it constantly faster and you are not allowed to make an error. Afterwards they take blood from the person. The social nature of stress and stress responses - Experimental participants who experiences acute social stress engaged substantially more in prosocial behavior (trust, trustworthiness, sharing). Stress therefore triggers social approach behavior, which operates as a potent stressbuffering strategy in humans. (Van Dawans, 2012, Psychological Science) - Numerous clinical studies highlight health benefits of social support as well as reductions of stress levels (e.g., cortisol concentration in saliva). Social support is an excellent buffer against stress. Oxytocin seems to enhance the buffering effect of social support. (e.g., Heinrichs et al., 2003, Biological Psychiatry and references therein) - Differential effects of stress exposure between high and low anxious people: Anxious people become underconfident, people low in anxiety become overconfident as a response to acute social stress. Poverty as a stressor and cognitive consequences Overstressing a crowd will reduce the outcome! The stress of being poor can be very bad for some people We need to avoid that our Society is poor! When we are stressed because we are poor, we won’t act smart, don’t have a good grade and you don’t come out of this cycle Elements of mindfulness-based stress reduction: - Mindful body perception (Body Scan) Soft and mindful execution of Asana Yoga postures Sitting meditation (Zazen) Mindful execution of slow movement (Kinhin) Three minute Mindfulness Training (Breathing Space) Maintenance of mindfulness in everyday activities Mindfulnes-based stress reduction is great. But it’s absolutely not the solution to the social problem in general Stress interventions -> Environment Stress interventions -> Self We should acknowledge everytime both ways to reduce stress!! Change yourself but also think about change the environment! - Douglas was laid off by their Wall Street Company. He was sad, listless, indecisive, and anxious about the future. After two weeks, he said to himself: “It not me, it’s the economic going through a bad patch. I’m good at what I do, and there will be a market for my skills. - Walter was laid off by his Wall Street Company. He was sad, listless, indecisive, and anxious about the future. After two weeks, he said to himself: “I simply can’t perform under pressure, I’m not cut out for finance. The economy will take years to recover.” - Martin Seligman is most known for his work on “positive psychology”. He has helped the army design a resilience program. - Can we make people more like “Douglas” when they are really more the “Walter” type of person? Can we teach resilience? Goals of the Army’s “Teaching Resilience Program” - Goal: Reduce the number of people suffering from PTSD and increase the number of people experiencing post-traumatic growth Creating an Army of “Douglases” who can turn their most difficult experiences into catalysts for improved performance o Test for psychological fitness o Self-improvement courses following the test o master-resilience training (MRT) for drill sergeants. o Based on PERMA (i.e., positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) Summary - Stress can be seen is the physical reaction to threats to homeostasis of an organism, which trigger particular physiological responses. - A lot of workplace stressors are social in their nature and may lead to “chronic stress” associated with a plethora of adverse effects - Research on stress (using the TSST) shows that social support helps to mitigate stress and that individual responses to stressful events may depend on the individual (e.g., individual differences in anxiety) - Stress “management” includes mindfulness-based stress reduction, resilience trainings, and cognitive reappraisals of stressful situations. -> although you also should heavily think about changing the situation (no evaluating questions in the exam, only facutal statements)