Stress and Crisis in Relationships

1
Chapter 13

• Stress and Crisis in Relationships

2
Chapter Outline

• Personal Stress and Crisis Events
• Positive Stress Management Strategies
• Harmful Strategies
• Family Crises Examples
• Marriage and Family Therapy

3
True or False?

• College students who throw up, have hangovers,
  and have blackouts from drinking too much learn
  how much alcohol they can consume before negative
  consequences and adapt on subsequent drinking
  occasions.

4
Answer False

• College students do not learn from negative
  consequences to their drinking.
• A 2006 study (Mallett et al.) found that students
  who threw up, made unwise sexual decisions,
  experienced a hangover or blackout underestimated
  the amount of alcohol they could drink before
  they experienced negative consequences.

5
True or False?

• Marriage/family therapists report that an
  extramarital affair is the most stressful event a
  married couple experience.

6
Answer False

• An extramarital affair is ranked by marriage and
  family therapists as the second most stressful
  crisis event for a couple (physical abuse is
  number 1).

7
Stress and Crisis

• Stress is a reaction of the body to substantial
  or unusual demands.
• A crisis is a crucial situation that requires
  changes in normal patterns of behavior.

8
Stress and Crisis Events

• Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005,
  was an external cause of a crisis event that
  devastated homes and displaced families.
• This photo was taken inside the living room or a
  house hit by Katrina.

• Pg. 369

9
Characteristics of Resilient Families

• A having a joint cause or purpose
• Emotional/social support for each other
• Good problem-solving skills
• The ability to delay gratification
• Flexibility
• Accessing residual resources
• Communication
• Commitment

10
A Family Stress Model

• A stressor event
• B familys management strategies, coping skills
• C familys perception, definition of the
  situation
• X familys adaptation to the event
• A is the stressor which interacts with B, the
  familys coping ability.
• A and B interact with C, which is the familys
  perception of the stressor event.
• X is the familys adaptation to the crisis.

11
Question

• A reaction of the body to substantial or unusual
  demands is called
• resiliency.
• crisis.
• burnout.
• stress.

12
Answer D

• A reaction of the body to substantial or unusual
  demands is called stress.

13
Question

• Stress is a
• process.
• crisis.
• state.
• reaction.

14
Answer A

• Stress is a process.

15
Stress Management Strategies

• Changing Basic Values and Perspective
• Exercise
• Biofeedback treatment
• Sleep
• Love

• Religion and Spirituality
• Reaching out to friends and relatives
• Being involved in multiple roles
• A sense of humor

16
Managing Stress

• Spending time fishing with ones beloved is one
  way to relieve stress.

• Pg. 372

17
Biofeedback

• Teaches a person to influence biological
  responses such as heart rate, nervous system
  arousal, muscle contractions, and brain wave
  functioning.
• Types of biofeedback
• Electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback,
• Thermal or temperature biofeedback
• Galvanic skin response (GSR) biofeedback
• Neurofeedback

18
Relaxing Environments

• City planners recognize the need to provide
  environments conducive to relaxation.

• Pg. 373

19
Family Crisis Physical Illness and Disability

• Major illness/injury to self was ranked the
  number 3 most stressful life event by over 3,000
  adult respondents.
• Although short-term illness and disability
  produce stress, long-term illness and disability
  have profound and enduring effects on family
  members and family life.

20
Family Crisis Mental Illness

• The initial attraction of partners to each other
  includes intellectual and emotional qualities.
• A depressed partner changes the interaction
  patterns.
• Spouses living with a depressed partner had more
  symptoms of depression themselves.
• Wives reported tension from being drawn into a
  fusion with their husbands and their struggle to
  maintain their independence from the illness.

21
Family Crisis Mid Life Crisis

• A 10 year study of close to 8,000 U.S. adults
  aged 25 to 74 revealed that, for most
  respondents, the middle years were a time of good
  health, productive activity, and community
  involvement.
• 2/3 were accepting of getting older 1/3 felt
  some personal turmoil related to aging.

22
Family Crisis Affairs

• An extramarital affair is the emotional and
  sexual involvement of a spouse with someone other
  than the mate.
• Extradyadic relationships refer to all
  pair-bonded individuals who are emotionally and
  sexually involved with someone other than the
  partner.

23
Reasons for Extradyadic Involvements

• Variety, novelty, and excitement
• Workplace friendships
• Relationship dissatisfaction
• Revenge
• Homosexual relationship
• Aging
• Absence from partner

24
What If Your Partner Has an Affair?

• One alternative is to end the relationship
  because the trust has been broken and can never
  be mended.
• Some respond to a partners emotional and sexual
  involvement with acceptance and try to repair the
  relationship.
• When spouses stay together after an affair, the
  price is high.

25
Family Crisis Unemployment

• The effects of unemployment may be more severe
  for men than for women.
• Our society expects men to be the primary
  breadwinners and equates masculine self-worth and
  identity with job and income.
• Women tend to adjust more easily to unemployment
  than men.

26
Family Crisis Drug Abuse

• Spouses, parents, and children who abuse drugs
  contribute to the stress and conflict experienced
  in respective marriages and families.

27
Drug Use (Ever), by Drug and Age Group
Drug Age 12 to 17 Age 18 to 25 Age 26 to 34
Marijuana and hashish 20 54 51
Cocaine 3 15 18
Alcohol 43 87 no data
Cigarettes 31 70 no data
28
Your Opinion?

• To what degree do you believe drinking on campus
  should be a concern of the administration?

29
Your Opinion?

• What university policies do you recommend to
  reduce binge drinking?

30
Family Crisis Death of a Child

• Mothers experience a higher mortality risk after
  their childs death.
• Mothers and fathers sometimes respond to the
  death of their child in different ways.
• The respective partners may interpret these
  differences in negative ways, leading to
  relationship conflict and unhappiness.

31
Family Crisis Death of a Parent

• Reactions include depression, loss of
  concentration, and anger.
• A 2005 study of college students who experienced
  the death of a loved one (most often a parent)
  found that constant ruminations about the
  deceased correlated with a lower sense of
  psychological well being.

32
Family Crisis Surviving the Suicide of a Loved
One

• Worldwide, about 800,000 individuals elect to
  commit suicide annually.
• In the United States, there are over 30,000
  suicides annually.
• Families of suicide victims are often left with
  questions about why their loved ones killed
  themselves and what could have been done to
  prevent the suicide.

33
Question

• Who is most adversely affected by a spouse's
  illness?
• the ill spouse
• the ill spouse's children
• the healthy spouse
• their parents

34
Answer C

• The healthy spouse is most adversely affected by
  a spouse's illness.

35
Question

• Which of the following is an example of a crisis?
• an illness
• an extramarital affair
• a hurricane
• all of these choices

36
Answer D

• An illness, an extramarital affair and a
  hurricane are examples of a crisis.

37
Marriage and Family Therapy

• There are around 50,000 marriage and family
  therapists in the United States.
• There are over twenty different treatment
  approaches used by members of AAMFT.
• The largest percentage (27) report that they use
  a cognitive-behavioral approach.
• This approach focuses on cognitions that underlie
  a marriage or family with the goal of ensuring
  that these are accurate and functional.