Week 10 - Health, Stress, and Coping PDF

WEEK 10 – HEALTH, STRESS AND COPING Learning objectives general understanding of the General Adaptation Model of Stress be familiar with the behavioural, cognitive and emotional responses to stress understand the relationship between stress and performance have a clear understanding of the relations...

WEEK 10 – HEALTH, STRESS AND COPING Learning objectives general understanding of the General Adaptation Model of Stress be familiar with the behavioural, cognitive and emotional responses to stress understand the relationship between stress and performance have a clear understanding of the relationship between mental health and wellbeing Identify the wellbeing challenges of prison officers Health psychology – a field in which psychologists conduct and apply research aimed at promoting human health and preventing illness. Goal is to help people understand the role they can play in controlling their own health Stress – the internal processes that occur as people try to adjust to events and situations, especially those that they perceive to be beyond their coping capacity Process of stress: Stressors -> stress mediators -> stress responses General Adaptation Model of Stress General Adaptation Syndrome – a three stage pattern of responses triggered by the effort to adapt to any stressor. Three stages: alarm, resistance, exhaustion Alarm – some version of the fight or flight syndrome. Controlled by the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system Resistance – signs of the initial alarm reation fade as the body settles in to resist the stressor on a long term basis Exhaustion – slowly uses up the bodys reserves of adaptive energy. Psychological responses Emotional – physical stress responses are commonly accompanied by emotional ones Cognitive – reductions to be able to think clearly or remember. Ruminative thoughts and catastrophising. Overarousal can lead to a narrowing of attention and impair judgement and decision making Behavioural – strained facial expressions, a shaky voice or jumpiness are common behavioural responses Response Description Physical General Adaptation Syndrome – a pattern of responses triggered by he effort to adapt to any stressor. Consists of three stages: Alarm reaction – some version of the fight-flight reaction, which can nvolve increased heart rate, respiration and muscle tension Resistance – initial alarm reaction fades as the body works hard to resist the stressor on a long term basis Exhaustion – organ systems involved in prolonged resistence to stressors eventually break down Psychological Emotional changes – anger, anxiety, depression; emotional stress responses tend to subside quickly after the stressor is reduced but will persist if the stressor remains Cognitive changes – inability to concentrate or think logically, ruminative thinking, catastrophising; overarousal can also lead to narrowing of attention Behavioural changes – onset of aggression and escape/avoidance actics and health risk behaviours Promoting healthy behaviour Method for coping with Examples stress Cognitive Thinking of stressors as challenges rather than as threats Emotional Seeking social support Behavioural mplementing a time management plan and making life changes to eliminate stressors Physical Progressive relaxation training QUESTIONS The field of research on the interaction of psychological, social, behavioral, neural, hormonal, and immune system processes that affect the body's defenses against disease is psychoneuroimmunology