Module 21

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Module 21

• Health, Stress Coping

Psychology Department Stillwater High
School Spring Term 2007
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APPRAISAL

• Primary appraisals
• refers to our initial, subjective evaluation of a
  situation, in which we balance the demands of a
  potentially stressful situation against our
  ability to meet these demands
• Three different primary appraisals
• irrelevant mostly nonstressful
• positive mostly nonstressful because it makes
  you feel good
• stressful overtaxes your emotional and
  psychological recourses

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APPRAISAL (CONT.)

• Primary appraisals
• Harm/loss
• means that you have already sustained some damage
  or injury
• elicits negative emotions, such as fear,
  depression, fright, and anxiety
• feel stressed
• more stressful, the more overwhelming the
  situation will seem

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APPRAISAL (CONT.)

• Primary appraisals
• Threat
• means that the harm/loss has not yet taken place
  but you know it will happen in the near future
• elicits negative emotions, such as fear, anxiety,
  and anger
• event or situation seems especially stressful

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APPRAISAL (CONT.)

• Primary appraisals
• Challenge
• means that you have the potential for gain or
  personal growth
• need to mobilize your physical energy and
  psychological resources to meet the challenging
  situation
• elicits positive emotions, such as eagerness or
  excitement
• usually less stressful than harm/loss or a threat
  appraisal

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APPRAISAL (CONT.)

• Appraisal and stress level
• Galvanic skin response
• measure of how much a persons hand sweats due to
  physiological arousal and not to normal
  temperature changes

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APPRAISAL (CONT.)

• Same situation, different appraisals
• people do not agree on which situations are
  stressful
• level of stress depends not only on the kind of
  situation but also on the kind of primary
  appraisal one makes

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p483 STRESS SITUATION CHART
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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES

• Fight-flight response
• directs great resources of energy to the muscles
  and the brain
• can be triggered by either physical stimuli that
  threaten our survival or psychological situations
  that are novel, threatening, or challenging
• involves numerous physiological responses that
  arouse and prepare the body for action
• fight or flight

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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• Sequence for activation of the fight-flight
  response
• appraisal
• physically or psychologically threatening stimuli
  can trigger the fight-flight response and
  negative emotional feelings
• fear, rage
• hypothalamus
• simultaneously activates two stress-related
  responses it triggers the pituitary gland to
  release a stress fighting hormone called ACTH
  (adrenocorticotropic hormone)
• activates the sympathetic division of the
  autonomic nervous system

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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• Sequence for activation of the fight-flight
  response
• sympathetic division
• activated by hypothalamus
• triggers a number of physiological responses
• Parasympathetic division
• activated by the hypothalamus
• returns the body to a more relaxed, calm state

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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• Sequence for activation of the fight-flight
  response
• fight-flight response
• increases heart rate, blood pressure,
  respiration, secretion of excitatory hormones,
  and many other responses
• prepares body to deal with impending threat

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p485 FIGHT-FLIGHT CHART
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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• Psychosomatic symptoms
• real, sometimes painful, physical symptoms
• headaches, muscle pains, stomach problems, and
  increased susceptibility to colds and flu
• cause, by worry, stress, and anxiety
• psychosomatic is derived from
• psyche meaning mind
• soma meaning body

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p486 COMMON PSCYHOSOMATIC SYMPTOMS
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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• Development of symptoms
• Genetic predisposition
• most of us inherit a tendency that targets a
  particular organ or bodily system for weakening
  or breaking down
• heart, blood vessels, stomach lining, or immune
  system
• different individuals who are in similar
  stressful situations experience different kinds
  of psychosomatic symptoms
• Lifestyles
• smoking, being overweight, not exercising, or
  taking little time for relaxing

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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• Development of symptoms
• Threat appraisals
• some of us are more likely to appraise situations
  as threatening.
• elicit negative emotions
• trigger fight-flight response
• psychosomatic symptoms
• poor lifestyles and too many threat appraisals
• can damage or break down body organs that may
  have already been weakened

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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• General adaptation syndrome (GAS)
• refers to the bodys reaction to stressful
  situations during which it goes through a series
  of three stages
• alarm
• resistance
• exhaustion
• gradually increases the chances of developing
  psychosomatic symptoms

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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• General adaptation syndrome
• Alarm stage
• initial reaction to stress and is marked by
  activation of the fight-flight response
• causes physiological arousal
• Resistance stage
• the bodys reaction to continued stress during
  which most of the physiological responses return
  to normal levels but the body uses up great
  stores of energy

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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• General adaptation syndrome
• Exhaustion stage
• the bodys reaction to long-term, continuous
  stress, marked by actual breakdown in internal
  organs or weakening of the infection-fighting
  immune system

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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• Mind-body connection
• refers to how your thoughts, beliefs, and
  emotions can produce physiological changes that
  may be either beneficial or detrimental to your
  health and well-being
• Mind-body therapy
• based on the finding that thoughts and emotions
  can change physiological and immune responses
• uses mental strategies, such as relaxation,
  meditation, and biofeedback

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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES (CONT.)

• Immune system
• bodys defense and surveillance network of cells
  and chemicals that fight off bacteria, viruses,
  and other foreign or toxic substances
• psychoneuroimmunology
• study of the relationship among three factors
• central nervous system
• endocrine system
• psychosocial factors

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STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES

• Kinds of stress
• Hassles
• small, irritating, frustrating events that we
  face daily and that we usually appraise or
  interpret as stressful experiences
• Uplifts
• small pleasurable, happy, and satisfying
  experiences that we have in our daily lives
• Major life events
• potentially disturbing, troubling, or disruptive
  situations, both positive and negative, that we
  appraise as having a significant impact on our
  lives

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p490 SOCIAL READJUSTMENT RATING SCALE
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STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES (CONT.)

• Situational stress
• Frustration
• the awful feeling that results when your attempts
  to reach some goal are blocked
• Burnout
• refers to being physically overwhelmed and
  exhausted, finding the job unrewarding and
  becoming cynical or detached, and developing a
  strong sense of ineffectiveness and lack of
  accomplishment in this particular job

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STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES (CONT.)

• Situational stress
• Violence
• posttraumatic stress disorder
• a disabling condition that results from
  personally experiencing an event that involves
  actual or threatened death or serious injury, or
  from witnessing such and event, or hearing of
  such an event happening to a family member or
  close friend
• number of psychological symptoms
• recurring and disturbing memories
• terrible nightmares
• intense fear and anxiety

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STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES (CONT.)

• Conflict
• the feeling you experience when you must choose
  between two or more incompatible possibilities or
  options
• Approach-approach conflict
• involves choosing between two situations that
  both have pleasurable consequences

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STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES (CONT.)

• Conflict
• Avoidance-avoidance conflict
• involves choosing between two situations that
  both have disagreeable consequences
• Approach-avoidance conflict
• involves a single situation that has both
  pleasurable and disagreeable aspects

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STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES (CONT.)

• Conflict
• Five styles of dealing with conflict
• Avoidance
• by avoiding or ignoring conflict, it will
  disappear or magically go away
• Accommodation
• hate conflicts and tend to please people and
  worry about approval
• Domination
• go to any lengths to win, even if it means being
  aggressive and manipulative

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STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES (CONT.)

• Conflict
• Five styles of dealing with conflict
• Compromise
• recognize that others have different needs and
  try to solve conflicts through compromise
• Integration
• try to resolve conflicts by finding solutions to
  please both partners

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STRESSFUL EXPERIENCES (CONT.)

• Anxiety
• unpleasant state characterized by feelings of
  uneasiness and apprehension as well as increased
  physiological arousal, such as increased heart
  rate and blood pressure

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PERSONALITY SOCIAL FACTORS

• Hardiness
• combination of three personality traits
• control
• commitment
• challenge