Stress & Health Psychology Chapter 3 PDF

STRESS & HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER 3 DEFINING STRESS Stress: A nonspecific response of the Stressors: Trigger or stimulus that body to any demand made upon it prompts a stressful reaction The arousal, both physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses, Eustress: Pleasan...

STRESS & HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER 3 DEFINING STRESS Stress: A nonspecific response of the Stressors: Trigger or stimulus that body to any demand made upon it prompts a stressful reaction The arousal, both physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses, Eustress: Pleasant, desirable stress to situations or events that we the effect of positive events, or the perceive as threatening or challenging optimal amount of stress that people need to promote health and well- being Distress: The effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors © 2015 JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DEFINING STRESS Acute Stress: A short-term state of arousal to a perceived threat or challenge that has a definite endpoint Chronic Stress: A continuous state of arousal in which demands are perceived as greater than the inner and outer resources available for dealing with them © 2015 JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. SOURCES OF STRESS LIFE CHANGES Holmes and Rahe (1967) believed that adjusting to life changes causes some degree of stress. The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) measures the amount of stress resulting from major life events in a person’s life over a one-year period and those scores have been correlated with illness. College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS): measures the amount of stress resulting from major life events in a college student’s life over a one-year period ACUTE/CHRONIC STRESSORS Acute Stress: A short term state of arousal in response to a perceived threat or a challenge that has a definite end point. Chronic Stress: A continuous state of ongoing arousal in which the parasympathetic system cannot activate the relaxation response. Being in a constant state of perceived threat, without the required relaxation time, can wear down our bodies—both physically and psychologically. JOB STRESSORS Job Stressors: Work-related stress, including Unemployment unemployment, role conflict, and burnout Changing jobs Role Conflict: Forced choice between two or Job performance more different and incompatible demands Lack of control Role Ambiguity: Being uncertain about the expectations and demands of your role. Burnout occurs in idealistic people Burnout: State of psychological and physical involved in stressful and emotionally exhaustion resulting from chronic exposure to draining professions high levels of stress and little personal control CONFLICT Conflict: Psychological experience of being pulled toward or drawn to two or more desires or goals, only one of which may be attained Types of Conflicts:  Approach–Approach Conflict: A person must choose between two desirable goals  Generally easiest to resolve and produce less stress  Avoidance–Avoidance Conflict: A person must choose between two undesirable goals  Generally the most difficult to resolve and take longest to resolve  Approach–Avoidance conflict: A person must choose or not choose a goal that has both positive and negative aspects. HASSLES Hassles: The daily annoyances of everyday life  Small problems of daily living that accumulate and sometimes become a major source of stress Some believe that hassles are often more significant in creating stress than major life events. Persistent hassles can lead to the physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion known as “burnout” FRUSTRATION Frustration: The psychological experience produced by the blocking of a desired goal or unfulfillment of a perceived need The more motivated we are, the more frustration we experience when our goals are blocked. How might you feel if you did not get the job you wanted? © 2015 JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. POSSIBLE REACTIONS TO FRUSTRATION Aggression: Actions meant to harm or destroy Displaced aggression: taking out one’s frustrations on some less threatening or more available target Escape or withdrawal: Leaving the presence of a stressor Either literally or by a psychological withdrawal into fantasy, drug abuse, or apathy. CATACLYSMIC EVENTS Cataclysmic Events: An unpredictable, large-scale event that creates a tremendous need to adapt and adjust as well as overwhelming feelings of threat Stressful occurrences that occur suddenly and generally affect many people simultaneously. © 2015 JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. EVERYDAY SOURCES OF STRESS Pressure: the psychological experience produced by urgent demands or expectations for a person’s behavior that come from an outside source Uncontrollability: the degree of control that the person has over a particular event or situation the less control a person has, the greater the degree of stress STRESS AND SOCIAL FACTORS Social factors increasing the effects of stress include: Poverty Stresses on the job or in the workplace Entering a majority culture that is different from one’s culture of origin EFFECTS OF STRESS Hans Selye: The “Father” of research on stress General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): The three stages of the body’s physiological adaptation to stress 1. Alarm: Stress leads to the activity of the sympathetic nervous system 2. Resistance/Adaptation: Prolonged stress leads to resistance or adaptation. Continued Stress Hormones leads to partial suppression of immune function 3. Exhaustion: Long term stress has negative impact on health and lowers your resistance to disease and healing. GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME Different stressors evoke different responses People vary widely in their reactions to stress. Men more often “fight or flight,” whereas women “tend and befriend.” The female’s higher level of estrogen tends to enhance oxytocin, which results in more calming and nurturing feelings. The hormone testosterone, which men produce in high levels during stress, reduces the effects of oxytocin. HOMEOSTASIS Our bodies seek a consistent and balanced internal environment Feedback mechanisms within the body attempt to maintain this consistent environment. BODILY REACTIONS TO STRESS Autonomic nervous system: Sympathetic system: Responds to stressful events Parasympathetic system: Restores the body to normal functioning after stress has ended. © 2015 JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. STRESS & OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM Psychoneuroimmunology: The study of the effects of psychological factors on the immune system Immune system: Cells, organs, and chemicals of the body that respond to attacks from diseases, infections, and injuries Negatively affected by stress Reactions to stress: Immune Deficiency Infection Hypertension  STRESS AND OUR COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING Cortisol Effects on the Brain: Short Term: Cortisol can prevent the retrieval of existing memories, as well as the laying down of new memories Long Term: Prolonged stress can permanently damage the hippocampus, a key part of the brain involved in memory. Once damaged, it cannot provide proper feedback to the hypothalamus, so cortisol continues to be secreted and a vicious cycle can develop © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. THE BENEFITS OF STRESS Eustress: Pleasant, desirable Distress: Unpleasant, undesirable stress that helps arouse and stress caused by aversive motivate us to persevere and conditions accomplish challenging goals Examples: Starting College, New Job, Having a Baby, Exercising STRESS AND ILLNESS The biological response to stress changes the activity of the immune system, increasing the risk of: Ulcers Cancer Cardiovascular Disorders Periodontal Disease Common Cold Colitis GASTRIC ULCERS Studies have found that people who live in stressful situations have a higher incidence of ulcers than people who don’t. Most ulcers are caused by a bacterium (Helicobacter pylori) Long term stress reduces immune functioning which makes you less resistant to the bacteria. STRESS AND CANCER Stress suppresses immune system. Stress increases malfunction of natural killer (NK) cell  NK cell: responsible for suppressing viruses and destroying tumor cells Cancer is caused by interaction of environment and genetic predispositions Myths:  Stress causes cancer  Positive attitudes fight off cancer STRESS AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDERS Stress DOES contribute to heart disease. Stress puts people at higher risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) Fat is released as fuel in response to stress. If not used for fight-or- flight, it adheres to the walls of arteries, forming blockages. Fatty deposits in arteries One major cause of heart disease is the blockage of arteries that supply blood to the heart. Reducing stress, exercising, and eating a low-fat diet can help prevent the buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries. © 2015 JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER PTSD: A trauma- and stressor- 40% of all children and teens will related disorder that develops experience a traumatic stressor from directly or indirectly experiencing actual or Lifetime prevalence for trauma is threatened death, serious injury, between 50-90% or violence Caused by exposure to However, the vast majority do extraordinary stress. not go on to develop PTSD. STRESSING ABOUT STRESS? Stressor Characteristics: Intensity/Severity Duration Predictability Controllability Chronicity Changing your mindset about stress (seeing it as a challenge versus a threat) may make a positive difference in the way stress affects your health STRESS MANAGEMENT COPING WITH STRESS Stress is a normal and necessary part of life. Our goal should be stress management not stress elimination Coping strategies: Actions that people can take to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize the effects of stressors Problem-Focused Coping: one tries to eliminate the source of a stress or reduce its impact through direct actions We tend to choose this approach when we have some control over stressful situations. EMOTION FOCUSED COPING Emotion-Focused Coping: Changing the impact of a stressor by changing the emotional reaction to the stressor It does not change/solve the problem but it makes us feel better about the stressful situation. Defense Mechanisms: Freud’s description of the strategies the ego supposedly uses to protect itself from anxiety, which distorts reality and may increase self-deception. LAZARUS’S COGNITIVE APPRAISAL APPROACH Cognitive appraisal approach: How people think about a stressor determines, at least in part, how stressful that stressor will become. Step 1: Primary Appraisal: Involves estimating the severity of a stressor and classifying it as either a threat or a challenge Step 2: Secondary appraisal: involves estimating the resources available to the person for coping with the stressor Step 3: Choose a Coping Method INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL Internal Locus of Control – The belief that we control our own fate External Locus of Control – The belief that chance or outside forces beyond our control determine our fate. If a student does poorly on an exam, what do they attribute it to? Their own study efforts, a bad test, or bad teacher?  PERSONALITY AND COPING Type A Personality Type B Personality Type C Personality  Ambitious  Relaxed and laid-back  Pleasant but repressed  Time conscious  Less driven and person  Extremely hardworking competitive than Type A  Tends to internalize anger  Tends to have high levels  Patient and Calm and anxiety of hostility and anger  Slow to anger  Finds expressing emotions  Easily annoyed difficult  Higher cancer rates HARDY PERSONALITY Seems to thrive on stress but lacks the anger and hostility of the Type A personality Deep sense of commitment to values Sense of control over their lives View problems as challenges to be met and answered POSITIVE AFFECT (EMOTION) Positive Affect – Demonstrating a sense of pleasure in the environment, including feelings of happiness, joy, enthusiasm, and contentment. Optimism – A tendency to expect the best and to see the best in all things (expect positive outcomes)  They tend to be better at coping with stress  Martin Seligman has found that optimism can be learned.  Optimists are less likely to develop learned helplessness, ignore their health, or become depressed. Pessimists: A tendency to see the worst in all things (expect negative outcomes). BECOME MORE OPTIMISTIC 1. When a bad mood strikes, stop and think about what just went through your head. 2. When you’ve recognized the negative statements, treat them as if they came from someone else—someone who is trying to make your life miserable. Think about the damage the statement is doing to you. 3. Argue with those thoughts. RESOURCES FOR HEALTHY LIVING Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) – A stress-reduction strategy based on developing a state of consciousness that attends to ongoing events in a receptive and non-judgmental way Social-support System: The network of family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and others who can offer support, comfort, or aid to a person in need.  Having the support of others helps offset the stressful effects of chronic illness EXTERNAL STRESS RESOURCES Exercise Social Skills Behavior Change Stressor Control Material Resources Relaxation HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY  HEALTH PSYCHOLOGIST Studies how biological, psychological, and social factors interact in health and fitness. Help prepare people for surgery or other treatment Educate the public about effects of stress, smoking, alcohol, and lack of exercise Help people cope with chronic illness Help people change unhealthy behaviors such as anger expression © 2015 JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CULTURE AND JOB STRESS “Karoshi” - Can Job Stress be Fatal? The effects of 10 – 12-hour days, six or seven days per week in Japan. 10,000 workers die from work-related cardiovascular disease per year. Warning! - The average number of work hours per week in the United States is among the highest in the developed world. © 2015 JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COPING WITH TECHNOSTRESS Technostress – A feeling of anxiety or mental pressure from overexposure or involvement with technology; stress caused by an inability to cope with modern technology. How many times have you checked your e-mail, your phone today? How many times during this class? © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.