Causes of Stress
Cognitive appraisal: Our interpretation of a stressor and our resources for dealing with
it
• Traumatic Stressors: A situation that threatens ones physical safety arousing feelings
of fear, horror, or helplessness
▪ Vicarious Traumatization
o Severe stress caused by exposure to traumatic images or stories that
cause the observer to become engaged with the stressful material
▪ Collectivism vs. Individualism
▪ Humiliation
o Stressors that involve humiliation (like losing a partner to another) or
social rejection are more likely to cause depression than other stressors
and bring depression more quickly
o Evolutionary terms: loss of social status decreases chances of survival
o Humiliation creates fear of being humiliated again
▪ Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A delayed stress reaction in which an
individual involuntarily re-experiences emotional, cognitive, and behavioral
aspects of their past trauma.
o 1 in 12 adults
▪ Usually sightings of killings/injury, natural disaster, or life
threatening accident
o Symptoms: distracted and disorganized, and experience difficult
memories, numb and alienated, startle response, sometimes
psychological afterefects
• Chronic Stressors: Long lasting stressful
▪ Work Stress: Burnout vs. Engagement
o Burnout: Syndrome of overwhelming exhaustions, physical fatigue,
and cognitive weariness. Feelings of cynicism and detachedness from
the job and ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.
▪ Most noticeable in interpersonal jobs (Like doctors and
teachers)
▪ Workload, Control, Rewards
▪ Community, Fairness, Values
▪ Compassion Fatigue vs. Compassion Satisfaction
o Compassion fatigue: A state of exhaustion experienced by medical
and psychological professionals, as well as caregivers, which leaves
the individual feeling stressed, numb, or indifferent.
o Compassion satisfaction: An appreciation of the work they do that
drew them to the profession in the first place ▪ Daily Hassles
o Hassles: Minor irritations and frustrations
▪ Can accumulate and can cause interpersonal difficulties
o Relation between amount of hassles and physical healthy
o Major life hassle is waiting
Fight or flight response: Sequence of internal and behavioral processes triggered when a threat
is perceived, preparing the organism for either struggle or escape.
o Occurs in amygdala
o Signs: Accelerated blood pressure, increased breathing, and profuse perspiration
o Illustrates Accute stress: A temporary pattern of stressor activated stim
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): Three phase pattern in response to a chronic
stressor. Bodily response general rather than a specific adaptation effort
• Discovered by Hans Selye
o Discovered that different stressors trigger essentially the same systematic
response
o Under chronically stressful conditions can lead to heart disease, athsma, gastric
ulcers, arthritis…etc
Three Phases of respose to GAS
• Alarm phase:
o First stage during which body resources are mobilized to cope with the stressor
o General arousal caused by:
▪ Increase of adrenal hormones
▪ Reaction of sympathetic nervous system
• Sends signals to internal organs and Adrenal medulla
• Resistance Phase
o Second phase of GAS, During which the body adapts and maintains resources to
cope with the stressor.
o All psychological changes of the alarm phase remain in effect. Immune system
remains in high gear and WBC count increases to fight off infection
o Resistance during this stage applies only to original stressor
▪ Introduction of a second stimulus has detrimental effects because body is
already put full efforts into fighting original stress.
o Arousal subsides b/c of:
▪ Decrease in adrenal output
▪ Counterreaction of parasympathetic nervous system • Exhaustion phase
o Body functions drop back into normal range and then become depleted
▪ Third phase
o The body requires rest and rejuvenation to bring back up to normal levels. If not
then illness/death may ensue
o General arousal of stage 1 reappears:
▪ Powerful parasympathetic response opposes arousal
▪ If stressor is not removed in time then illness/death follows
▪
• Tend and Befriend
o Stress response model proposing that females are biologically
predisposed to respond to threat by nurturing and protecting offspring and
seeking social support
• Cortisol
o Significantly higher w/ men in fight or flight responses
o Stress steroid produced by fight or flight response
• Oxytocin:
o A hormone produced in both genders in response to a stressor
o May combine with estrogen in females to prompt affiliation seeking
behavior
o Higher oxy levels are associated with greater calmness and decreased
anxiety
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Dispositional Factors
• Type A Personality & Hostility
o Type A: Behavior pattern charact
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