Transcript Ch. 3
Ch. 12
Stress and Health Psychology
Stress
Any environmental demand that creates a state of
tension or threat and requires change or adaptation
1. Sources of Stress
A. Life Changes
Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes and
Rahe)
Assesses major life changes - death of spouse
Indicates likelihood of getting ill
Click here to view the College Life Stress
Inventory table
B. Everyday Hassles
Pressure
Forced to speed up or shift
Frustration
Being prevented from reaching one’s goals
Delays, lack of resources, losses, failure,
discrimination
C. Conflict - Incompatible demands,
opportunities, goals, needs
Approach/approach conflict
Avoidance/avoidance conflict
Approach/avoidance conflict
Click here to view the Types of Conflict table
D. Stress and Individual Difference
Hardiness and resilience
Self-imposed stress
2. Coping with Stress
A. Direct Coping
Confrontation
Acknowledging stress directly and initiating coping
Compromise
Choosing a more realistic goal when an ideal goal
cannot be met
Withdrawal
Avoiding a situation when other options are NOT
practical
B. Defensive Coping/Defensive Mechanisms
Denial - refuse to acknowledge reality
Repression - push uncomfortable thoughts from
awareness
Projection - attribute one’s motives to others
Identification - taking on characteristics of someone
else
Regression - reverting to immature behaviors
Intellectualization - very detached analysis of
problems
Reaction Formation - expressing exaggerated beliefs
opposite to one’s own
Displacement - shifting feelings onto something less
threatening
Sublimation - Redirecting motives into socially
acceptable channels
Click here to view the Defense Mechanisms table
C. Socioeconomic and Gender Differences in
Coping
Being poor is stressful and they have less resources
Women and men seem to be equally affected by
stress
3. Stress and Health
A.
The Biology of Stress
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
Alarm reaction
In Stage 1, alarm reaction, the body recognizes that is must fight off
some physical or psychological danger and acts accordingly. If neither
direct nor defensive coping mechanisms succeed in reducing the
stress, we move to Stage 2 of adaptation.
Resistance
During this resistance stage, physical symptoms of strain appear as
we intensify our efforts to cope both directly and defensively. If these
attempts to regain psychological equilibrium fail, psychological
disorganization rages out of control until exhaustion, Stage 3 is
reached.
Exhaustion
In this phase, we use increasingly ineffective defense mechanisms to
bring the stress under control. Some people lose touch with reality,
while others show signs of "burnout."
Physiologist Hans Selye identified three stages of reacting
to physical and psychological stress that he called the
general adaptation syndrome (GAS).
B. Stress and Heart Disease
C. Stress and the Immune System
Psychoneuroimmunology
Shows stress suppresses immune function
D. Staying Healthy
Type A - linked to heart disease (esp. hostility)
Type B - relaxed
Exercise, relaxation, humor
Importance of social support, positive reappraisal
Stress and Health Video
4. Extreme Stress
A. Sources of Extreme Stress
Unemployment
Stages of relief, optimism, doubt, malaise,
cynicism
Divorce and separation
Ambivalence, failure, sadness, fear
Bereavement
Coping with painful, inescapable reality
B. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Natural and man-made catastrophes
Reactions - shock, suggestible stage, recovery
Combat and other threatening personal attacks
5. The Well-Adjusted Person
A. Does the action meet the demand? or just
postpone?
B. Does the action meet the individual's needs?
C. Is the action compatible with the well-being
of others?
Cancer Groups Video