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.

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The Nature of Stress (contd)

• Characteristics of Stress
• 1. Stress is a common, everyday event.
• Both major and minor problems
• 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 (cont.)

• 2. Stress is subjective.
• The difference may depend on how we appraise
  events.
• 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
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The Nature of Stress (cont.)

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

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The Nature of Stress (cont.)

• Stress may be self-imposed.
• Often, we make choices that create stress.
• (e.g. taking extra classes to finish a degree
  early.)
• (e.g. taking on extra work to get a promotion.)

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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 (cont.)

• 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 (cont.)

• 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
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Major Types of Stress (cont.)

• Change
• Holmes and Rahe believe both positive and
  negative life changes are associated with
  physical illness.
• They developed the Social Readjustment Rating
  Scale (SRRS) to assess risk due to life changes.
• Pressure (see Fig. 3.6)
• Two types of pressure are important
• -Pressure to perform -Pressure to conform

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Figure 3.6
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Responding to Stress

• Stress responses occur at 3 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 (cont.)

• 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 (cont.)

• Strong emotions may hamper or enhance our ability
  to cope with stress depending on
• our level of arousal
• the task complexity.

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Responding to Stress (cont.)

• 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 (cont.)

• Physiological responses.
• The fight-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 (cont.)

• The ANS is broken into two divisions (see Fig.
  3.9)
• Sympathetic division mobilizes energy during
  emergencies, engages the fight-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 3.10
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Responding to Stress (cont.)

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

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Figure 3.11
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Responding to Stress (cont.)

• Two Brain-Body Pathways control our physiological
  responses to stress (see Fig. 3.12)
• 1.The Catecholamine Pathway hypothalamus
  activates sympathetic system adrenal glands
  release catecholamines that mobilize the body for
  action.
• 2.The Corticosteroid Pathway hypothalamus
  signals pituitary gland to secrete ACTH adrenal
  cortex to release corticosteroids that increase
  energy.

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Figure 3.13
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Responding to Stress (cont.)

• 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 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 (cont.)

• 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
• -lack of control over responsibilities
• -work overload -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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Figure 3.14
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The Potential Effects of Stress (cont.)

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an
  enduring psychological disturbance attributed to
  the experience of a major traumatic event.
• Symptoms include
• Re-experiencing trauma via nightmares,
  flashbacks.
• Emotional numbing, alienation, problems in social
  relations.
• Elevated arousal, anxiety, and guilt.

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The Potential Effects of Stress (cont.)

• Also associated with increase substance abuse,
  depression, suicide attempts physical illness.

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The Potential Effects of Stress (cont.)

• 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 (cont.)

• 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 (cont.)

• Positive Effects There are at least three ways
  that stress can have positive effects.
• It satisfies need for stimulation and challenge
• It can promote personal growth or
  self-improvement and
• 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 (cont.)

• 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 (cont.)

• 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 3.15).

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Figure 3.16
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Application Monitoring Your Stress

• Although commonly used, the SRRS has been
  criticized on the following grounds
• It may measure desirability of events more than
  life changes per se.
• It ignores subjective perception of how stressful
  various events are.
• Many items are ambiguous.

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Application Monitoring Your Stress (cont.)

• It does not sample from the domain of stressful
  events very thoroughly.
• Correlations between SRRS scores and health
  outcomes may be inflated because they are both
  attributable to neuroticism.
• The Life Experiences Survey (LES) is an
  alternative tool that aims to address these
  problems (see Figure 3.18).

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Figure 3.16
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Application Monitoring Your Stress (cont.)

• Individuals should exercise caution in using the
  LES, however, and keep in mind that
• The strength of association between stress and
  illness is modest.
• Stress is only one of many variables that affects
  vulnerability to illness.
• Finally, you can always use what you have learned
  to manage stress better!