Stress, Health, Coping Flashcards
(21 cards)
Stress
Negative emotional experience that occurs when demands on a person are greater than his or her capabilities
What Makes Events Stressful?
- unpleasant or negative events
- uncontrollable or unpredictable events
- ambiguous events
- unresolvable events
Social Readjustment Rating Scale
-Holmes and Rahe
-stress is the degree to which you have to change
-more change=more stress
-refers to both positive and negative events
Problems:
-link between SRRS scores and illness is weak
-negative events have greater impact than positive
-daily hassles may be better predictor than major life events
-research is correlational
-subjects appraisals is often more important
Selye’s Theory of Physical Effects of Stress
General Adaptation Syndrome
- alarm: brief period of high arousal from sympathetic nervous system; getting ready for fight or flight
- resistance: prolonged or moderate arousal; body adjusting to on going stress; feel more withdrawn/inactive
- exhaustion: become much more susceptible of health problems; body’s ability to restore resources has diminished
Fitness
-Good psychical condition as evidenced by endurance and strength
Brown Study:
-assessed fitness which objective and subjective reports, and illness with objective and subjective reports
-students with little stress had little illness, regardless of fitness
-high stress, high fitness are less likely to get sick than high stress, low fitness
Hardiness
-Combination of personality traits characterized by resilience and ability to cope effectively to stress
-serves as buffer for negative effects of stress
Three Components:
-commitment: believe they can continue to move forward
-control: believe they can influence events, don’t feel powerless
-challenge: hardy people see difficult situations as challenges, not threats
Personal Control
- Control may reduce negative impact of stress
- may increase positive emotions
- needs to be realistic
- ex: rat study with executive rat, subordinate rat, and control rat
Pessimism/Optimism
- how we explain failures makes a difference in how stressful they are
- optimistic explanatory style: external, unstable, specific explanations for negative events (I failed because I had too many other things going on)
- pessimistic explanatory style: internal, stable, global explanations for negative events (I failed because I’m not smart); illness takes longer to heal, stress os worse
Type A Personality
-Friedman and Rosenman Behavior Pattern: -competitive orientation towards achievement -like to be involved in many activities -have an exaggerated sense of time urgency -tendency to feel angry and hostile Two Groups of Type A’s 1. Healthy Competitive 2. Cynical Hostility
Coping With Stress
-refers to ways we try to make changes or think about stressors differently
Two Types:
-problem-focused coping
-emotion-focused coping
Problem-Focused Coping
-taking direct actions to solve problems
Two Kinds:
-Planful problem solving: rationally thinking through problem
-Confrontative coping: aggressive, risky efforts to change situation
Emotion-Focused Coping
-Changing your reaction to the stressor
Four Examples:
1. Denial- can be positive immediately after stressor; becomes negative if problem continues
2. Cognitive Reappraisal- changing your thoughts about something
3. Distancing- trying to minimize or eliminate the emotional stressor, such as trying to find humor in the situation
4. Social Support- interpersonal exchange were one person gives help to another
Four Specific Ways
-emotional Concern
-instrumental Aid- others giving you gifts
-providing information
-self appraisal- not sure when you’ve done the right thing, so you talk about it with someone
Cigarette Smoking
- prevalence of smoking has decreased
- if continue through age 20, 95% become addicts
- link to 1 in every 5 deaths
Quitting Smoking
-about 10 to 30 attempts before actually quit
Stages of Quitting:
-precontemplation- not thinking about quitting
-contemplation- thinking about it but hasn’t done anything yet
-preparation- getting ready to quit
-action- taking action to quit
-maintenance- trying to maintain the non smoking habit
Components of Successful Treatment
-patch, medication (physiological)
-need to learn strategies to avoid triggers (psychological)
Work Stress
- takes toll on physical stress and increase likelihood of unhealthy behaviors
- burnout: exhaustion, cynicism, failure or inadequacy caused by chronic work stress
- caused by overload and lack of control
- can be prevented with sense of community and job crafting
Stress of Adapting to New Cultures
-acculturation: process of changing individuals values or customs as a result of contact with another culture
Four Possible Patterns
-integration: most adaptive
-assimilation: abandon original cultures traditions
-separation: avoid contact with new culture
-marginalization: lack of exposure to both cultures
Stress and Fight or Flight
- Walter Cannon
- helps ensure survival
- prolonged fight or flight can be harmful
Placebo Effect
- May reduce pain by activating the brain’s own natural painkillers, or endorphins
- Study by Petrovic: hot metal placed on hand and then given pain meds or placebo; brain scan lit up in both anterior cingulate cortex
Gender Differences in Stress
- men rely on close relationship with spouse of partner
- women rely on close fiends and spouse or partner
- hormone oxytocin
- women are more vulnerable because they are usually the providers of support and engage in the stress contagion effect
Culture and Coping Strategies
- no perfect formula for effective coping
- individualistic cultures focus on problem focused strategies
- collectivist cultures focus on emotion focused strategies
- all that matters is that coping helps in identifying alternatives, managing emotions, maintaining relationships
Minimizing Effects of Stress
- Avoid or minimize use of stimulants
- Exercise regularly
- Get enough sleep
- Practice a relaxation/meditation technique
