Stress and Its Effects

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• Chapter 3
• Stress and Its Effects

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The Nature of Stress

• Stress is any circumstances that threaten, or
  are perceived to threaten, ones well-being and
  thereby tax ones ability to cope.
• Stress has several characteristics
• Stress is a common, everyday event.
• Both major and minor problems can be stressful.
• Even daily hassles can have negative effects on
  our well-being.
• Stressful events have a cumulative impact.

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The Nature of Stress, continued

• Stress is subjective. Not everyone feels the same
  degree of stress from the same event.
• The difference may depend on how we appraise
  events (see Figure 3.1).
• We first make a primary appraisal, or initial
  evaluation of the relevance, level of threat, and
  degree of stress the event brings.
• If viewed as stressful, we make a secondary
  appraisal, or an evaluation of our ability to
  cope.

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• Figure 3.1 Primary and secondary appraisal of
  stress. Primary appraisal is an initial
  evaluation of whether an event is (1) irrelevant
  to you, (2) relevant, but not threatening, or (3)
  stressful. When you view an event as stressful,
  you are likely to make a secondary appraisal,
  which is an evaluation of your coping resources
  and options for dealing with the stress. (Based
  on Lazarus Folkman, 1994)

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The Nature of Stress, continued

• Stress may be embedded in the environment.
• Ambient stress refers to chronic negative
  environmental conditions, such as noise in the
  workplace.
• Stress is influenced by culture.
• Culture affects which types of stress we
  experience.
• Cultural change is a major source of stress in
  most cultures.

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Major Types of Stress

• There are two basic categories of stress
• Acute stressors threatening events with short
  durations and clear endpoints.
• (e.g. evacuating for a hurricane)
• (e.g. studying for finals)
• 2. Chronic stressors threatening events with
  long durations and no apparent endpoint.
• (e.g. living with a serious medical condition)
• (e.g. living in poverty)

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Major Types of Stress, continued

• There four major types of stress
• Frustration situations in which pursuit of a
  goal is thwarted.
• Conflict deciding between two or more
  incompatible goals or behavior.

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Major Types of Stress, continued

• Conflicts come in three types (see Fig. 3.3)
• Approach approach must make a choice between
  two attractive goals.
• Avoidance avoidance must make a choice
  between two unattractive goals.
• Approach avoidance must choose whether or not
  to pursue ONE goal, which has both pros and cons.
• This conflict causes the greatest stress.

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• Figure 3.3 Types of conflict. Psychologists
  have identified three basic types of conflict. In
  approach-approach and avoidance-avoidance
  conflicts, the person is torn between two goals.
  In an approach-avoidance conflict only one goal
  is under consideration, but it has both positive
  and negative aspects.

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Major Types of Stress, continued

• Change
• Holmes and Rahe believe both positive and
  negative life changes are associated with
  physical illness.
• Pressure (see Fig. 3.5)
• Two types of pressure are important
• Pressure to perform
• Pressure to conform

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• Figure 3.5 Pressure and psychological symptoms.
  A comparison of pressure and life change as
  sources of stress suggests that pressure may be
  more strongly related to mental health than
  change is. In one study, Weiten (1988) found a
  correlation of .59 between scores on the Pressure
  Inventory (PI) and symptoms of psychological
  distress. In the same sample, the correlation
  between SRRS scores and psychological symptoms
  was only .28.

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Responding to Stress

• Stress responses occur at three levels
• Emotional responses
• Physiological responses
• Behavioral responses
• Emotional responses are usually negative and fall
  into three categories
• 1. Annoyance, anger, and rage
• 2. Apprehension, anxiety, and fear
• 3. Dejection, sadness, and grief

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Responding to Stress, continued

• However, stress can prompt positive emotional
  responses which in turn
• Increase creativity, flexibility in problem
  solving, and
• Enhance immune system functioning, increase
  valuable social support and promote proactive
  coping.

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Responding to Stress, continued

• Strong emotions may hamper or enhance our ability
  to cope with stress, depending on our level of
  arousal and the task complexity.
• The Inverted U hypothesis predicts that
• for low complexity tasks, a high level of arousal
  is best
• for medium complexity tasks, a medium level of
  arousal is best and
• for high complexity tasks, a low level of arousal
  is best.

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Responding to Stress, continued

• Physiological responses.
• The fight-or-flight response is a physiological
  response to the threat that mobilizes the
  organism for attacking (fight) or fleeing
  (flight) an enemy.
• It occurs in the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
  which is made up of the nerves that connect to
  the heart, blood vessels, smooth muscles, and
  glands.

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Responding to Stress, continued

• The ANS is broken into two divisions (see Fig.
  3.9)
• Sympathetic division mobilizes energy during
  emergencies, engages the fight-or-flight
  response.
• Parasympathetic division conserves energy, has
  calming effect on body.
• Unfortunately, the fight-flight response is not
  well suited for coping with modern threats.

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• Figure 3.9 The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).
  The ANS is composed of the nerves that connect to
  the heart, blood vessels, smooth muscles, and
  glands. The ANS is subdivided into the
  sympathetic division, which mobilizes bodily
  resources in times of need, and the
  parasympathetic division, which conserves bodily
  resources. Some of the key functions controlled
  by each division of the ANS are summarized in the
  center of the diagram.

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Responding to Stress, continued

• Hans Seyles General Adaptation Syndrome is a
  three-phase model of the bodys reaction to
  chronic stress (see Fig. 3.10).
• Alarm phase initial response to threat,
  fight-or-flight response engages.
• Resistance phase if threat continues,
  physiological changes stabilize, coping begins.
• Exhaustion phase if the threat continues too
  long, the bodys resources are depleted, leading
  to physical exhaustion and illness.

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• Figure 3.10 The general adaptation syndrome.
  According to Selye, the physiological response to
  stress can be broken into three phases. During
  the first phase, the body mobilizes its resources
  for resistance after a brief initial shock. In
  the second phase, resistance levels off and
  eventually begins to decline. If the third phase
  of the general adaptation syndrome is reached,
  resistance is depleted, leading to health
  problems and exhaustion.

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Responding to Stress, continued

• Behavioral Responses to stress usually refer to
  coping, or active efforts to master, reduce, or
  tolerate the demands created by stress.
• Coping response may be either
• Healthy (e.g., actively trying to solve a problem
  by asking for help or generating solutions) or
• Unhealthy (e.g., ignoring problem, indulging in
  alcohol or excessive eating).

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The Potential Effects of Stress

• Impaired task performance.
• Stress can cause people to freeze up or crack
  under pressure.
• Elevated self-consciousness can disrupt attention
  to task.
• Disruption of cognitive function.
• Increased tendency to jump to conclusions.
• Decreased ability to carefully review options.
• Decreased memory function.

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The Potential Effects of Stress, continued

• Burnout physical and emotional exhaustion,
  cynicism and lowered sense of self-efficacy that
  is attributable to work-related stress.
• Factors in workplace that promote burnout include
  lack of control over responsibilities, work
  overload, and lack of recognition.
• Burnout can result in increased absenteeism,
  reduced productivity and risk of illness.
• See Figure 3.13 for complete model.

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The Potential Effects of Stress, continued

• Psychological problems and disorders.
• Stress may contribute to
• Poor academic performance
• Insomnia and other sleep disturbances
• Sexual difficulties and
• Substance abuse.

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The Potential Effects of Stress, continued

• Physical illness.
• Psychosomatic diseases are genuine physical
  ailments thought to be caused by stress.
• Common psychosomatic diseases include
• High blood pressure
• Peptic ulcers
• Asthma
• Eczema and hives
• Migraine and tension headaches

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The Potential Effects of Stress, continued

• Positive Effects There are at least three ways
  that stress can have positive effects.
• It can promote positive psychological change, or
  posttraumatic growth.
• It can help satisfy a need for stimulation and
  challenge.
• It can inoculate us against future stress.

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Factors Influencing Stress Tolerance

• Some people withstand stress better than others.
• There are many moderator variables that may
  reduce the impact of stress on physical and
  mental health. They include
• Social support aid by members of our social
  network.
• Hardiness hardy people are highly committed,
  have a sense of control, and embrace challenge.

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Factors Influencing Stress Tolerance, continued

• Optimism general tendency to expect good
  outcomes.
• Individuals with a pessimistic explanatory
  style blame themselves for failures.
• Those with an optimistic explanatory style
  attribute setbacks to temporary situational
  factors.
• Optimists are more likely to use effective coping
  methods and are more likely to seek social
  support.
• Optimism also linked with better health and
  longevity.

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Factors Influencing Stress Tolerance, continued

• Conscientiousness tendency to be diligent,
  punctual and dependable.
• Conscientiousness is also linked with longevity,
  but it is unclear why.
• In summary, many mediating variables interact to
  determine how well an individual will respond to
  stress (see Figure 3.16).