Ways of defining stress, stressors 1

1
Ways of defining stress, stressors 1

• Stimulus model Stress is a pressure or demand
  placed on an organism to adapt.
• A stressor is an adaptive demand.
• Examples from this model Holmes and Rahes
  (1967) Life Events DeLongis et. al., (1982)
  daily hassles

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Ways of defining stress, stressors 2

• Response model Stress is a non-specific
  response of the body to any demand (Selye, 1980).
  
• A stressor is any event (stimulus) that brings
  about a stress response.
• Cannons concept of fight/flight and Selyes GAS
  are examples of descriptions of stress responses.
  

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Ways of defining stress, stressors

• Transactional model Psychological stress occurs
  when an individual appraises an internal or
  external demand as taxing or exceeding coping
  resources (Lazarus Folkman, 1984). In this
  view, stress is a process involving
• Primary appraisal of demands as benign/positive,
  harm/loss, threat, or challenge in conjunction
  with
• Secondary appraisal of ones own coping capacity.

4
Links between stress and health outcomes

• Direct links stress hormones, tissue damage
• Indirect links impact on immune system (domain
  of psychoneuroimmunonlogy
• Mediated links personality variables,
  occupational vulnerabilities, etc

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Psychological factors and illness

• Hardiness (Kobasa, 1979) the 3 Cs
• (commitment, control, and challenge)
• Coping resources
• Social support
• Type A vs. Type B behavior patterns
• Emotionality

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Sources of stress

• Life changes
• Daily hassles
• Acculturation stress
• Occupational stress
• Relational stress

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Stress psychological disorders

• Adjustment disorder
• Acute stress disorder
• Post-traumatic stress disorder

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Stress, psychological factors and physical
disorders

• Headaches
• Hypertension
• Asthma
• Coronary Heart Disease
• Cancer
• HIV/AIDs

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Addressing stress and psycholgoical factors in
health

• Health psychology/behavioral medicine
• Prevention
• Behavior modification
• Biofeedback
• Stress reduction
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Meditation
• Exercise
• Guided imagery

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Type A vs. Type B behavior

• Time urgency
• Hostile
• Competitive
• Driven
• Impatient
• Have 2 times the number of heart attacks as Type B

• Not in a hurry
• Anger not easily roused
• Can relax
• Not overly competitive
• Have 50 of the heart attacks of Type A