PSYC1030 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Cortisol, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Hans Selye
PSYC1030 Lecture Eleven: Stress and Coping
Stress
• Stress is defined as any circumstances that either threaten the individual's wellbeing or
that the individual perceives as threatening to their wellbeing. As a response, they
require some sort of coping response to cope with the stress of the circumstance
• What individuals perceive to be stressful depends on their appraisals, which there are
two of:
-Primary appraisal: refers to the evaluation of whether a stressor is perceived as a
threat (which is negative and highly stressful) or a challenge (which is positive and is
seen as an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities)
-Secondary appraisal: refers to the evaluation of whether the individual has the
necessary skills and resources for dealing with the stressor, it whether they possess
the skills and whether they have the social support to cope with the stress. If the
individual doesn't feel like their prepared they will appraise a stressful situation as
extremely stressful
• An appraisal can be influenced by different things, such as familiarity with an event,
controllability and predictability also produce more positive appraisals
• Stress can be a reoccurring or prolonged feeling or it can be a one-off event
• What makes something stressful depends on who the perceiver is, and how they
perceive the stressful situation
• There are four ways that things might cause stress
Frustration
• Frustration refers to the idea about a person having some sort of goal and their pursuit
to that goal is disturbed or interrupted, so they can't achieve their goal that they set
out to achieve
• There are two slightly different ways to experience stress
-Loss: when a person is deprived of something they're used to having as a part of their
lives
-Failure: when someone sets out to fulfil a goal and they don't make it. Some people
will set unrealistic goals and become perpetually stressed by not achieving them
Conflict
• Conflict is when two or more incompatible motivations compete for expression (e.g.
work-life balance). And there are three types of conflict:
-Approach-approach: is when someone has to choose between two positive
alternatives. It causes stress to choose between the options because both will procure
positive outcomes, and by choosing one option, that person is losing the perks of the
other option, and they're not sure which option will be better
-Avoidance-avoidance: is when someone has to choose between two negative
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
alternatives, both with unattractive goals and outcomes. It is stressful because no
matter which option is chosen it's likely that the experience won't be liked at all
-Aprroach-aviodance: is a choice about whether or not to pursue a goal or a behaviour
that has positive or negative aspects to it. The person has to accept something positive
and also something negative, or they choose to avoid something negative and lose
something positive. The opposing aspects make it difficult to choose, and it can
produce vacillation where people decide to pursue the goal and then decide not to
pursue the goal at the same time
Change
• Stress related to change is the idea that any change in a person's life, regardless of
whether the change is positive or negative, would produce some sort of readjustment
in their lives that could produce stress
• The Social Readjustment Rating Scale is the measure used to assess change in people's
lives. It was developed in 1967 by Holmes and Rahe. The scale has 42 items that cause
stress, some of which include: marriage, troubles with the boss, detention in jail, death
of a spouse, major change in sleeping habits, death of a close family member, major
change in eating habits, foreclosure on a mortgage or loan, revision of personal
habits, and death of a close friend
Pressure
• Pressure comes from people's expectations for behaviour. It can come from a person's
boss or work colleagues, school friends or peers, parents, and even self-imposed
pressure
• Pressure tends to correlate to stress more often than change
Emotional Response to Stress
• People tend to have emotional meltdowns when something bad happens to them
• Common emotions to stress are: annoyance, anger, rage, apprehension, anxiety, fear,
dejection, sadness and grief
• These emotional responses can, in fact, be useful. They act as an alarm signal of such
in the presence of stress, because it signals that there is potentially a threat and it
entitles some kind of response in return
• So, the strong negative emotions are warning people that they need to do something
about whatever it is in the environment that is causing stress
• A somewhat paradoxical problem is that those strong emotions can actually interfere
with a person's attention, memory, judgement, and decision-making. So, strong
emotions to stress can alert people to action, but then they can also make it difficult
for people to act in the appropriate way
Physiological Responses to Stress
• The initial physiological response to stress that is typically experienced is often called
the fight or flight response, a feeling of being energised.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Stress: stress is defined as any circumstances that either threaten the individual"s wellbeing or that the individual perceives as threatening to their wellbeing. As a response, they require some sort of coping response to cope with the stress of the circumstance: what individuals perceive to be stressful depends on their appraisals, which there are two of: Primary appraisal: refers to the evaluation of whether a stressor is perceived as a threat (which is negative and highly stressful) or a challenge (which is positive and is seen as an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities) Secondary appraisal: refers to the evaluation of whether the individual has the necessary skills and resources for dealing with the stressor, it whether they possess the skills and whether they have the social support to cope with the stress. Loss: when a person is deprived of something they"re used to having as a part of their lives.
