Stress, Coping and Health – Chapter 15 Psych Notes:
MS – muscular sclerosis:
- neurological disorder
- immune system attacks and breaks down myelin sheath of neurons
- cannot transmit action potentials efficiently
Psychological and physical well-being = complex interaction of environmental
demands, personal and enviro. Resources
THE NATURE OF STRESS:
- stress seen as:
o stimulus (stressor), response (cognitive, physiological and behavioural)
and an organism-environment reaction
o OR:
o Inclusive model: transaction between the organism and the environment
Stress is a pattern of cognitive appraisals, physiological responses
and behavioural tendencies
STRESSORS:
- place demands that endanger our well-being and require adaptation
- microstressors (daily hassles) catastrophic events(unexpected and affect a lot of
people), major negative events (death, crime, failures…)
MEASURING STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS:
- life event scales – link between life events and well being (quantify amount of
stress a person experiences over given period)
- may be asked to record appraisal ( +/-), major vs. day to day event,
predictability, controllability, duration.
THE STRESS RESPONSE:
- 4 aspects to the appraisal process:
- Appraisal of the:
o Demands
o Resource availability
o Consequences
o Personal meaning
- Lazarus: primary appraisal – initial thoughts to a situation (neutral, threatening,
etc.) and the significance
- Secondary appraisal – perceived ability to cope with demands
- Potential consequences of failing to cope successfully
- Psychological meaning of consequence – basic beliefs of yourself and the world
- Autonomic and somatic feedback affect appraisals
CHRONIC STRESS AND THE GAS
- General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
- 3 phases:
o alarm reaction – occurs due to sudden sympathetic NS (smooth muscles,
organs, and glands)activation and release of stress hormones (cortisol – increase blood sugar, suppress immune system – allows function despite
stressor presence) AKA FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE
o Resistance Stage: Body continues in alarm reaction phase, however
resources become depleted – high energy cost to suppress digestion,
immune response, alter blood glucose levels, and elevate heart and
respiration rate
o Exhaustion: stressor too intense for too long may reach stage. Dangerous
depletion of body’s resources. Increase vulnerability to disease, collapse
and death
STRESS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL BEING:
- more negative life events people report, more likely they are also to report
symptoms of psychological distress.
- Psych distress may cause more negative life events to occur because of their
own behaviour
- Neuroticism – heightened tendency to experience negative emotions and get
themselves into stressful situations through their maladaptive behaviours
POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD)
- 4 major groups:
o severe anxiety, physiological arousal, and distress
o painful, uncontrollable reliving of events in flashback, dreams and
fantasies
o emotional numbing and avoidance on stimuli
o survivor guilt – you survived where others died.
- Some may also show self destructive and impulsive behaviour
STRESS AND ILLNESS:
- stress can combine with other physical and psychological factors to influence
physical illness, from the common cold, cancer, heart disease and diabetes
- psychological responses to stressors can directly harm other body systems
- hormones- affect heart activity excess secretion leads to artery lining harm
- increase illness by behaving in ways to increase risk (e.g. stop exercising, stop
taking meds)
- stress hormones, cortisol, affect brain (hippocampus) extreme exposure
deterioration + memory impairment
- prolonged stress clinical conditions (depression and anxiety disorders)
VULNERABILITY AND PROTECTICE FACTORS:
- Vulnerability factors: increase people’s susceptibility to stressful events – poor
coping techniques, poor social supports, anxiety, pessimistic
- Protective Factors: environmental or personal that help people to cope more
effectively
SOCIAL SUPPORT:
- one of the most important environmental factors
- social isolation is an important vulnerability factor
- enhances immune system functioning
- experience greater sense of identity and meaning in lives
- greater psychological well-being - reduces exposure to risk factors – social pressure to prevent people coping with
maladaptive ways (alcohol/drugs, etc.)
- make people less reactive to potentially threatening situations – generate a
stress response less often – amygdala (mediate appraise the response to
threats. Extensive connection with areas of the hypothalamus that lead to
release of stress related hormones) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC –
aversive experiences – relations to social exclusion and anxiety).
- limit the impact of a potential threat even before stress response is generated
- still may respond to stress but are better at coping and recovering from stress
(prefrontal cortex regulate emotions and suppress negative emotions
COGNITIVE PROTECTIVE FACTOR: THE IMPORTANCE OF BELIEFS:
HARDINESS:
- commitment – to family, work, other involvements
- control – over outcomes
- challenge – see demands of situations as a challenge – not a threat
- less stress, higher performance
COPING SELF-EFFICACY:
- believe we posses the ability to cope successfully
OPTIMISM:
- optimists believe in the long run things will work out okay
- pessimists have greater risk for helplessness and depression when faced with
stress
PERSONALITY FACTORS:
- Type A people live under great pressure and are demanding of themselves and
other.
o Rapid talking, moving, walking and eating
o Exaggerated sense of time urgency
o Irritated with delays or failures to meet their deadlines
o Highly ambitious and competitive
o Aggressive and hostile when faced with block in accomplishing goal
o Double the risk of coronary heart disease
o Behaviour/attitude increase stressful situations
o Reduce social support
- Type B: more relaxed, agreeable and less sense of time urgency
FINDING MEANING IN STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS:
- Humanistic theorists emphasize importance of humans seeking the meaning
More
Less
