Transcript Stress - Wiley

Chapter 15: Stress, Coping, and Health
Chapter Outline
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What is stress?
Responding to stress
Coping with stress
Stress and health
Posttraumatic stress disorder
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What Is Stress?
 Stress—response to a situation that threatens, or
appears to threaten, one’s sense of well being
 Stressor—something that triggers a stress response
 Two types of stressors


Acute stressor—short-term finite stressful situation
 Studying for finals, competing in a football game
Chronic stressor—long-term stressor with no definitive
end
 Poverty, high-pressure job
 Our appraisal and perception of a situation triggers
the emotional state connected to stress
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Ways of Experiencing Stress
 Feeling frustrated—an emotion experienced when
something prevents us from reaching a goal
 Feeling pressure—an expectation or demand that one
should act in a certain way
 Feeling conflict—discomfort due to two or more
incompatible goals or impulses
Approach-approach conflict—equally desirable
options
 Avoidance-avoidance conflict—equally undesirable
options
 Approach-avoidance conflict—both good and bad in
any available choice

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Three Types of Conflict
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Ways of Experiencing Stress
 Feeling endangered—Life-threatening situations
produce stress
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Kinds of Stressors
 Daily hassles—small,
everyday problems that
accumulate to become a
source of stress—microstressors
 Bad or rude drivers
 Cannot find keys or
cell phone
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Kinds of Stressors
 Life changes—altered
circumstances requiring
adjustment


Marriage, death, finals, break up,
starting university or a new school
Social Readjustment Rating Scale
(SRRS)—assigns life change units
to various events that can occur in
one’s life
 Does not apply equally to all
cultures or populations
 High scores on the SRRS are
related to health problems
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Kinds of Stressors
 Traumatic events—
unexpected disruptive
events


Natural disaster, witness
or victim to violence
Posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD)—an
anxiety disorder caused
by a major traumatic
event, characterized by
lingering and persistent,
frightening thoughts or
memories of the event,
along with anxiety and
depression
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Kinds of Stressors
 Chronic negative situations—continued negative
situation

Living in a dangerous place, poverty, illness, job stress
 Sociocultural conditions—challenges associated with
minority groups
Immigrating, racism, and prejudice
 Stereotype threat—suspicions, confusion, and resulting
vigilance experienced by minority group members as they
interact with majority group members
 Significant stressor for minority group members, but
often invisible to those in the majority group

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Responding to Stress
 The fight-or-flight response—during stress, your body
makes you feel like you either want to fight or run.
How?
 HPA pathway—hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal
gland
 Hypothalamus—stimulates nerves in the
sympathetic nervous system to stimulate organs
to respond
 Pituitary gland releases ACTH hormone
 Adrenal glands release stress hormones
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Responding to Stress
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The Fight-or-Flight Response
 Under fire—riot police were in extreme danger during the riot
following the Vancouver Canuck loss in 2011
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The Tend-and-Befriend Response
 Some theorists argue that
the fight-or-flight response
may be a largely male
response, and suggest that
evolution may have selected
a “tend-and-befriend”
response to cope with stress
in females
 Regardless of the
mechanism, in general
females are more likely to
have extensive and wellmaintained social networks
than are males
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The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
Three stage response to
ongoing stress

1.
Alarm

2.
Resistance

3.
Body’s reaction to initial
exposure to stressor (fightor-flight)
Body’s attempt to stabilize
if stressor continues
 May result in
vulnerability to disease
Exhaustion

Further exposure to
stressor depletes energy
and resistance
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The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
 Alarm stage—as the
wildfire moved closer to
Slave Lake, Alberta, in
2011, residents moved into
an alarm mode, struggling
to flee the fire as quickly
as possible.
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Emotional Responses to Stress
 In addition to bodily arousal, stress triggers emotions
and changes mood
 The greater the amount of stress, the more negative
the emotions associated with stress
Anxiety, fear, anger, apprehension
 As stressors subside, mood becomes more positive
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Cognitive Responses to Stress
 Appraisal is key in ability to
handle stressful situations
 Richard Lazarus—
cognitive-mediational
theory of emotions
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
Primary appraisal—
appraisal of stressor (how
big a stressor is it)
Secondary appraisal—
appraisal of resources and
one’s ability to deal with
stressor
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Individual Responses to Stress
 Autonomic reactivity and stress
 Differences in intensity of autonomic nervous system (ANS)
reaction

Example: Individuals consistently displayed either high or low
cardiovascular activity in response to stressor
 Explanatory style and stress
 Generally optimistic style
 Generally pessimistic style
 Social support and stress
 More social support seems to correlate with less stress
Support may increase self-confidence in dealing with stressors
 Social feedback may alter one’s perception of stressor
 Presence of others reduces bodily arousal and negative emotions

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Individual Responses to Stress
 Personality and stress
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

Hardy, or stress-resistant personality—welcome challenges,
take control, view stressors as growth opportunities
Type A personality—style resulting in continual stress
 Personality traits: competitive, impatient, angry, hostile
Type B—experience lower levels of stress
 Personality traits: more relaxed, less aggressive, less
hostile
Type C—particularly vulnerable to stress
 Personality traits: positive attitudes but unable to express
or acknowledge negative feelings, tend to turn the anger
inward
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Coping with Stress
 Coping—cognitive and
behavioural strategies to manage
stress
 Lashing out—psychological or
physical

Self-defence—defensive, avoidant
behaviours to protect oneself from
stress

Self-indulgence—alcohol, drugs,
overeating

Constructive strategies


Problem-focused coping—
efforts aimed at a stressor
Emotion-focused coping—
changing feelings about the
stressor
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Stress and Health
 Strong relationship between stress and health
 Psychosomatic
or psychophysiological
Interaction between psychological and biological
factors
 Coronary heart disease
• Psychological (e.g., Type A) and biological
(e.g., obesity)
Life change and illness
 Life stressors (SRRS) linked to physical illness
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Type A Personality and Hostility
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Stress and Health
 Stress and the immune system
 Psychoneuroimmunology—studies links between stress,
the immune system, and health
 Immune system—organs, tissues, and cells that identify
and fight bodily invaders (e.g., viruses, bacteria, cancer cells)
 Lymphocytes—white blood cells, key in fighting bacterial
and viral invaders
 Biochemical activity
 Norepinephrine
 Cortisol
 Cytokines
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Stress and the Common Cold
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Behaviour, Personality, and Social Support
 Behavioural changes in response to stress can affect the
immune system
 Anxiety and/or depression may trigger other behaviours
 Examples: Smoking, alcohol or drug use, sleep
deprivation
 These behaviours result in slowed immune system
 Personality traits improve immune system functioning and
resilience in dealing with stress
 Examples: Optimism, constructive coping, and ability to
“bounce back”
 People exhibiting Type C behaviour pattern appear to be
more at risk for cancer
 Social support helps to shield us from the negative effects of
stress
 Examples: Church, family, community
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The Benefits of Stress
 When is stress a good
thing?
 Eustress—optimal
stress level
 Promotes physical and
psychological health
 Inoculation—dealing
with small levels of
stress to improve
functioning in
increasingly stressful
situations
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Stress and Performance
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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
 PTSD—anxiety disorder in response to a traumatic
event
 Symptoms of PTSD
 Memories, dreams, or nightmares about event
 Avoid activities, thoughts, feelings, conversations
that are reminders of the event
 Depression, anxiety, guilt, fear, helplessness
 Sleep problems; may feel detached from others
 What events cause PTSD?
 Most commonly combat, natural disasters, abuse,
and victimization
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Who Develops PTSD?
 Can occur at any age, even in childhood
 10% of Canadians during course of lifetime
 Twice as common in women than men
 Biological factors
 Intense biochemical reactions that continue far beyond
fight-or-flight
 Examples: Increased cortisol and norepinephrine in rape
victims and others who experienced severe stressors
 May have exaggerated sympathetic nervous system
responses and blunted HPA axis responses to stress
 May have a smaller hippocampus or the biochemical
arousal may eventually shrink the hippocampus
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Personality, Childhood Experiences,
and Social Support
 After a traumatic event:
 Personality traits associated with decreased likelihood of
developing PTSD
 Examples: Optimism, constructive coping, more resilient
 Childhood experiences may increase risk of developing
PTSD
 Examples: Poverty, abuse, family psychological disorders,
experienced a catastrophe at a young age
 Social environment
 Individuals with weak social support are more likely to
experience PTSD
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