Study Area 11

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Study Area 11
Stress and Health
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Learning Objective Menu

• 11.1 How do psychologists define stress?
• 11.2 What kinds of external events can cause
  stress?
• 11.3 What are some psychological factors in
  stress?
• 11.4 How does stress affect the physical
  functioning of the body and its immune system?
• 11.5 How do cognitive factors and personality
  differences affect the experience of stress?
• 11.6 What social factors influence stress
  reactions?
• 11.7 What are some ways in which people cope with
  stress reactions?
• 11.8 How is coping with stress affected by
  culture and religion?
• 11.9 What are some ways to become a more
  optimistic thinker?

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Stress

• Stress physical, emotional, cognitive, and
  behavioral responses to events that are appraised
  as threatening or challenging.
• Stressors events that cause a stress reaction.
• Stress is simply a reaction to a stimulus that
  disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium. In
  other words, it's an omnipresent part of life. A
  stressful event can trigger the fight-or-flight
  response, causing hormones such as adrenaline and
  cortisol to surge through the body.

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Stress

• Distress the effect of unpleasant and
  undesirable stressors

Eustress the effect of positive events, or the
optimal amount of stress that people need to
promote health and well-being
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Causes of Stress

• Catastrophe an unpredictable, large-scale event
  that creates a tremendous need to adapt and
  adjust as well as overwhelming feelings of threat

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Causes of Stress

• Major life changes cause stress by requiring
  adjustment
• Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) measures
  the amount of stress resulting from major life
  events in a persons life over a one-year period
• College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS)
  measures the amount of stress resulting from
  major life events in a college students life
  over a one-year period

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Table 11.1 (continued) Sample Items From the
Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
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Causes of Stress

• Hassles the daily annoyances of everyday life

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Everyday Sources of Stress

• Pressure the psychological experience produced
  by urgent demands or expectations for a persons
  behavior that come from an outside source
• Uncontrollability the degree of control that the
  person has over a particular event or situation
• the less control a person has, the greater the
  degree of stress

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Everyday Sources of Stress

• Frustration the psychological experience
  produced by the blocking of a desired goal or
  fulfillment of a perceived need
• Possible reactions to frustration
• aggression actions meant to harm or destroy
• displaced aggression taking out ones
  frustrations on some less threatening or more
  available target
• a form of displacement

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Everyday Sources of Stress

• Possible reactions to frustrations (contd)
• escape or withdrawal leaving the presence of a
  stressor
• either literally or by a psychological withdrawal
  into fantasy, drug abuse, or apathy

- Flight -
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Conflict

• Conflict psychological experience of being
  pulled toward or drawn to two or more desires or
  goals, only one of which may be attained
• Approachapproach conflict a person must choose
  between two desirable goals

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Conflict

• Avoidanceavoidance conflict a person must
  choose between two undesirable goals
• Approachavoidance conflict a person must choose
  or not choose a goal that has both positive and
  negative aspects
• double approachavoidance conflict a person must
  decide between two goals, each possessing both
  positive and negative aspects

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Bodily Reactions to Stress

• Autonomic nervous system
• parasympathetic system restores the body to
  normal functioning after stress has ceased
• sympathetic system responds to stressful events

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Bodily Reactions to Stress

• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) the three
  stages of the bodys physiological adaptation to
  stress
• alarm
• resistance
• exhaustion

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General Adaptation SyndromeThe diagram at the
top shows some of the physical reactions to
stress in each of the three stages of the general
adaptation syndrome. The graph at the bottom
shows the relationship of each of the three
stages to the individuals ability to resist a
stressor. In the alarm stage, resistance drops at
first as the sympathetic system quickly
activates. But resistance then rapidly increases
as the body mobilizes its defense systems. In the
resistance stage, the body is working at a much
increased level of resistance, using resources
until the stress ends or the resources run out.
In the exhaustion stage, the body is no longer
able to resist as resources have been depleted,
and at this point disease and even death are
possible.
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General Adaptation SyndromeThe graph shows the
relationship of each of the three stages to the
individuals ability to resist a stressor. In the
alarm stage, resistance drops at first as the
sympathetic system quickly activates. But
resistance then rapidly increases as the body
mobilizes its defense systems. In the resistance
stage, the body is working at a much increased
level of resistance, using resources until the
stress ends or the resources run out. In the
exhaustion stage, the body is no longer able to
resist as resources have been depleted, and at
this point disease and even death are possible.
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Stress and the Immune System

• Immune system cells, organs, and chemicals of
  the body that respond to attacks from diseases,
  infections, and injuries
• negatively affected by stress
• Psychoneuroimmunology the study of the effects
  of psychological factors on the immune system

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Stress and the Immune System

• Heart disease stress puts people at higher risk
  for coronary heart disease (CHD)
• Diabetes type 2 diabetes is associated with
  excessive weight gain
• occurs when pancreas insulin levels become less
  efficient as the body size increases
• Cancer stress increases malfunction of natural
  killer (NK) cell
• NK cell responsible for suppressing viruses and
  destroying tumor cells

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Stress Duration and IllnessIn this graph, the
risk of getting a cold virus increases greatly as
the months of exposure to a stressor increase.
Although a stress reaction can be useful in its
early phase, prolonged stress has a negative
impact on the immune system, leaving the body
vulnerable to illnesses such as a cold. Source
Cohen et al. (1998).
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Stress and Coronary Heart DiseaseThe blue box on
the left represents various sources of stress
(Type A personality refers to someone who is
ambitious, always working, and usually hostile).
In addition to the physical reactions that
accompany the stress reaction, an individual
under stress may be more likely to engage in
unhealthy behavior such as overeating, drinking
alcohol or taking other kinds of drugs, avoiding
exercise, and acting out in anger or frustration.
This kind of behavior also contributes to an
increased risk of coronary heart disease.
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Cognitive Factors of Stress

• Cognitive appraisal approach (Lazarus) how
  people think about a stressor determines, at
  least in part, how stressful that stressor will
  become

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Cognitive Factors of Stress

• Cognitive appraisal approach
• primary appraisal involves estimating the
  severity of a stressor and classifying it as
  either a threat or a challenge
• secondary appraisal involves estimating the
  resources available to the person for coping with
  the stressor

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Responses to a StressorLazaruss Cognitive
Appraisal Approach. According to this approach,
there are two steps in cognitively determining
the degree of stress created by a potential
stressor. Primary appraisal involves determining
if the potential stressor is a threat. If it is
perceived as a threat, secondary appraisal occurs
in addition to the bodily and emotional
reactions. Secondary appraisal involves
determining the resources one has to deal with
the stress, such as time, money, physical
ability, and so on. Inadequate resources lead to
increased feelings of stress and the possibility
of developing new resources to deal with the
stress.
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Stress and Personality

• Type A personality
• ambitious
• time conscious
• extremely hardworking
• tends to have high levels of hostility and anger
• easily annoyed
• Type B personality
• relaxed and laid-back
• less driven and competitive than Type A
• slow to anger

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Stress and Personality

• Type C personality
• pleasant but repressed person
• tends to internalize anger and anxiety
• finds expressing emotions difficult
• higher cancer rates

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Stress and Personality

• Hardy personality
• seems to thrive on stress but lacks the anger and
  hostility of the Type A personality
• deep sense of commitment to values
• sense of control over their lives
• view problems as challenges to be met and answered

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Personality and Coronary Heart DiseaseThe two
bars on the left represent men with Type A
personalities. Notice that within the Type A men,
there are more than twice as many who suffer from
coronary heart disease as those who are healthy.
The two bars on the right represent men with Type
B personalities. Far more Type B personalities
are healthy than are Type A personalities, and
there are far fewer Type B personalities with
coronary heart disease when compared to Type A
personalities.Source Miller et al. (1991, 1996).
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Stress and Personality

• Explanatory styles
• optimists expect positive outcomes
• pessimists expect negative outcomes
• optimists less likely to
• develop learned helplessness
• ignore their health
• become depressed
• Its better to be an optimist most of us are!

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Stress and Social Factors

• Social factors increasing the effects of stress
  include
• poverty
• stresses on the job or in the workplace
• entering a majority culture that is different
  from ones culture of origin
• Burnout negative changes in thoughts, emotions,
  and behavior as a result of prolonged stress or
  frustration

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Stress and Social Factors

• Acculturative stress results from the need to
  change and adapt to the majority culture
• four methods of acculturation
• integration maintaining a sense of original
  culture while forming positive relationship with
  majority culture
• assimilation giving up original cultural
  identity and adopting majority culture
• separation rejecting the majority cultures ways
• marginalization maintaining no ties with
  original or majority cultures

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Stress and Social Factors

• Social-support system the network of family,
  friends, neighbors, coworkers, and others who can
  offer support, comfort, or aid to a person in need

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Ways to Deal with Stress

• Coping strategies actions that people can take
  to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize the
  effects of stressors
• problem-focused coping one tries to eliminate
  the source of a stress or reduce its impact
  through direct actions
• emotion-focused coping one changes the impact of
  a stressor by changing the emotional reaction to
  the stressor

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Meditation

• Meditation mental exercises meant to refocus
  attention and achieve a trancelike state of
  consciousness and relaxation
• Concentrative meditation a person focuses the
  mind on some repetitive or unchanging stimulus so
  that the mind can be cleared of disturbing
  thoughts and the body can experience relaxation

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Cultural Influences on Stress

• Different cultures perceive stressors differently
• Coping strategies will also vary from culture to
  culture

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Religiosity and Stress

• People with religious beliefs also have been
  found to cope better with stressful events

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Become More Optimistic

1. When a bad mood strikes, stop and think about
   what just went through your head.
2. When youve recognized the negative statements,
   treat them as if they came from someone
   elsesomeone who is trying to make your life
   miserable. Think about the damage the statement
   is doing to you.
3. Argue with those thoughts.

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The End Study Area 11
Stress and Health