Stress, Health and Coping

Understanding StressoWhat is Stress?

– Negative emotional state occurring in response to events that are perceived as taxing or exceeding a person’s resources or ability to cope

– the arousal, both physical and mental, to situations or events that we perceive as threatening or challenging.

Main foci

How to promote health-

enhancing behaviors

How people respond to being ill

How people respond in

the patient–health

practitioner relationship

Health PsychologyStudies how biological, behavioral, and social factors influence health, illness, medical treatment, and health-related behaviors

What Causes You Stress???

Understanding Stress: Sources of Stress

Sources of Stress

Cataclysmic Events: stressors that occur suddenly and generally affect many people simultaneously

Sources of StressChronic Stressors: ongoing, long lasting,

unpleasant eventsStress of povertyDysfunctional familiesBeing trapped in an unhappy marriage Being in a despised job or career

Sources of Stress

Life Changes:

life events that require some adjustment in behavior or lifestyle

Measuring Life Changes

• Early stress researchers (Holmes and Rahe, 1967) believed any change that required you to adjust your behavior and lifestyle would cause stress

• Developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

Problems with the SRRS• Link between SRRS and

physical and psychological problems is weak

• Assumes that a given life event will have the same impact on everyone

• Assumes that change in itself, whether good or bad, produces stress

• Most researchers agree that undesirable events are significant sources of stress but that change in itself is not necessarily stressful

Pause and Reflect: Why Study

Psychology?

• Most people only think of negative events like final exams or being fired as the major sources of stress. Psychology shows us that even positive life changes like graduation or a job promotion can create stress. This research informs us, while also providing helpful coping strategies.

Sources of Stress• Hassles: small,

everyday problems that accumulate to become a source of stress

• What are some hassles you face in a daily basis?

Daily HasslesThat’s Not What I Ordered!• Everyday minor events that

annoy and upset people• Such ordinary irritations in

daily life might be an important source of stress

• Number of daily hassles people experience is a better predictor of physical illness and symptoms than is the number of major life events experienced

• Women are more likely to report daily stressors that are associated with friends and family

• Men are more likely to feel hassled by stressors that are school-related or work-related

Sources of Stress• Occupation Burnout:

state of psychological and physical exhaustion resulting from chronic exposure to high levels of stress and little personal control

– Do you think College could be considered an Occupational Burnout???

Sources of Stress

Frustration: unpleasant tension resulting from a blocked goal

Conflict: forced choice between two or more incompatible goals or impulses

Approach-Approach: forced choice between two or more desirable alternatives

Avoidance-Avoidance: forced choice between two or more undesirable alternatives

Approach-Avoidance: forced choice between two or more alternatives both having desirable and undesirable results

Three Types of Conflict

Pause and Reflect: Check & Review Assuming this man

is attracted to one of these three women, is he experiencing an approach-approach, approach-avoidance, or avoidance-avoidance conflict?

Vocational Stress as the President

Vocational Stress as the President

• Presidents age two times faster while in office, primarily -- but not only -- due to stress. 

• Stress in the office

Review

• What are the 7 Sources of Stress???1. Cataclysmic Events2. Chronic Stressors3. Life Changes4. Hassles5. Occupation Burnout6. Frustration7. Conflict

Traumatic Events

• 85% of people report having been exposed to a traumatic event during their lifetime

• When traumas are intense or repeated, some psychologically vulnerable people may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (abbreviated PTSD).

• Fewer than 30% of those who experience major disasters—such as floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes—develop PTSD

Events or situations that are negative, severe, and far beyond our normal

expectations for everyday life or life events

Developing Resilience• Seery - high and low

levels of cumulative adversity were associated with poor health outcomes

• Experiencing some stress was healthier than experiencing no stress at all

• People who have had to cope with a moderate level of adversity develop resilience• Ability to cope with

stress and adversity, to adapt to negative or unforeseen circumstances, and to rebound after negative experiences

Stress and the Body

Stress and the Body

Sympathetic

Nervous System

Stress

Stress and the Body

• Prolonged elevation of cortisol is related to:

– increased depression, memory problems, etc.

– impairment of the immune system, which leaves the body vulnerable to disease.

Stress and the Body

• Psychoneuroimmunology: interdisciplinary field that studies the effect of psychological factors on the immune system

Stress and the Body

Adaptation Syndrome 1. Alarm 2. Resistance 3. Exhaustion

Stress and the Body

Stress can indirectly affect a person’s health

by prompting behaviors that

jeopardize physical

well-being, such as not eating or

sleeping properly

Stress can directly affect physical health by altering body

functions, leading to symptoms of

illness or disease

Stress and Illness

Cancer: related to genetic predisposition and environmental factors

Cardiovascular Disorders: related to stress hormones, certain personality types, and certain behaviors

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): anxiety disorder following extraordinary stress

Gastric Ulcers: caused by bacteria or stress? Or both?

Positive Emotions

Click here

Chronic Negative Emotions

Click here• Strong link between

negative emotions and poor health

• People who are habitually anxious, depressed, angry, or hostile are more likely to develop a chronic disease, such as arthritis or heart disease

• Associated with increased resistance to infection, decreased illnesses, fewer reports of illness symptoms, less pain, and increased longevity

• Less likely to develop heart disease

• Bring calming and health protective effects to the cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems

• Associated with health-promoting behaviors

• Predict more friends and stronger social networks

Type A Behavior and HostilityExaggerated sense of time urgency, trying to do more and more in less time • General sense of hostility,

displaying anger and irritation

• Intense ambition and competitiveness

• Hostility component associated with heart disease

• Hostile Type As react more intensely to a stressor than other people do

• Experience greater increases in blood pressure and heart rate

Type B• More easygoing, relaxed,

laid back• Not associated with heart

disease

Do Personality Factors Cause Disease?

• Psychologists and other scientists are cautious about the connections between personality and health

• Personality factors might indirectly lead to disease via poor health habits

• Disease may influence a person’s emotions, rather than the other way around

Health and Stress Management

• Two major approaches to coping with stress:

Emotion-focused (changing one's perception of stressful situations)

Problem-focused (using problem-solving strategies to decrease or eliminate the source of stress)

Health and Stress Management

Our emotional reaction to stress largely depends on how we INTERPRET it.

How do you manage your stress?

Health and Exercise

Positive BeliefsSocial SupportRelaxationCounseling

Social FactorsA Little Help from Your Friends

Effects of low social support• Socially isolated people were twice as likely to die as people

with good social relationships• Chronic loneliness predicts poorer physical and mental health,

higher death rates, and decreased cognitive functioning• More likely have serious health problems if parents are low in

love and caring• Isolation is as potent a health risk as smoking, obesity, alcohol

abuse, and physical inactivity

Social supportResources provided by

other people in times of need

Positive Effect of Diverse Social Networks• Greater resistance to upper respiratory infections • Lower incidence of stroke and cardiovascular disease among

women in a high-risk group • Lower incidence of dementia and cognitive loss in old age (Desai

& others, 2010)How Social Support Benefits Health• Can modify our appraisal of a stressor’s significance• Seems to decrease the intensity of physical reactions to a

stressor• Making us less likely to experience negative emotion• Direct assistance – money, meals, trips to doctor, referrals

However…

Negative interactions with other people are often more effective at creating psychological distress than positive

interactions are at improving well being

Gender Differences in the Effects of Social Support

• Men rely on close relationship with spouse or partner

• Women list close friends along with their spouse as confidant

• Men are particularly vulnerable to social isolation

Risks for Women:• Women serve as

providers of support, which can be stressful

• Women suffer from the stress contagion effect

• Women become more upset about negative events that happen to relatives and friends

Providing Effective Social SupportEffective Strategies

Be a good listener and show concern

Ask questions that encourage the person

under stress to express feelings and emotions

Express understanding about why the person is

upset

Express affection for the person

Be willing to invest time and attention in helping

Help person with practical tasks

Emotional Support

expressions of concern,

empathy, and positive regard

Tangible Supportinvolves direct

assistanceUnhelpful StrategiesGiving advice that the

person under stress has not requested

Saying “I know exactly how you feel”

Talking about yourself or your own problems

Minimizing the importance of the person’s

problem

Joking or acting overly cheerful

Offering your philosophical or religious

interpretation

Gender Differences in Responding to Stress“Tend-and-Befriend” or “Fight-or-Flight”?

• Men tend to withdraw from their families, wanting to be left alone

• Women tend to seek out interactions with their marital partners

• Women likely to seek out and use social support when under stress

Why?• Tending to offspring in

times of stress would be vital to ensuring survival of species

• Women developed a tend-and-befriend behavioral response to stress rather than fight-or-flight

• Maybe because oxytocin is higher in women than in men

• Oxytocin associated with maternal behaviors

B. F. Skinner and the Search for “Order in Behavior”

Minimizing the Effects of Stress

Suggestion 1Avoid or minimize the use of stimulants.

Suggestion 2Exercise regularly.

Suggestion 3Get enough sleep.

Suggestion 4Practice a relaxation technique.