Stress is more prevalent today’s society than ever before in our past
· Stress is blamed for effects including: mental illness, poor health, physical illness, painful emotions and poor relationships
· Stress profoundly affects the immune, nervous and endocrine systems (study of psychoneuroimmunology)
· Situations that one person finds stressful (for example public speaking) others might find invigorating
· Some types of situations everyone finds stressful (war, earthquakes, fires)
· Definition: Stress occurs when one is faced with events perceived as threatening to their physical or psychological well being
· Events that produce stress are called stressors
· Reactions to stressors are called stress responses
· Bad stress = distress
· Good stress = eustress
Categories of Stressful Events:
· Traumatic situations: outside the range of usual human experience (house fires, earthquake, war, car accidents, robbery, rape)
· Uncontrollable and unpredictable events: noise, crowds, hassles, traffic, car repairs, weather, etc.)
· Internal events that challenge the limits of our own capabilities and self concepts (for example, moral and ethical issues)
Traumatic events:
· First stage: survivors usually stunned, dazed, appear unaware of the scope of the incident
· Second stage: passive, unable to initiate behaviour but will allow themselves to be directed
· Third stage: anxiety, apprehension, difficulty concentrating, can last for weeks
Factors influencing the perception of stress:
Control:
· Greater control leads to less stress
· Perception of control is most important (you don’t even have to exercise the control)
· Primary and secondary control
Example experiment:
Group 1: sees murder photos but can’t stop the sequence of slides
Group 2: sees the same murder photos in the same sequence
And for the same duration but can stop the slides at any time
Results: Group 1 indicates far more stress on a stress measurement questionnaire
Predictability:
· Greater predictability leads to less stress
· If you can anticipate stress, you can better prepare
· Wives with husbands lost in action in Vietnam reported much more stress than husbands confirmed dead
Personality:
· Certain personality styles are more conducive to stress
· Independent Vs dependent (locus of control)
· Impulsive/aggressive Vs moral standards
· Pessimistic attribution styles are conducive to illness
· Type A personality: competitive, compulsive
Common psychological responses to stress (affective state)
· Anxiety (worry, apprehension, fear)
· Post-traumatic stress disorder: becoming numb to the world, reliving trauma, sleep disorders (e.g. people from war and concentration camps can still experience stress response 20 years later)
· Anger and aggression: can result as a response to blocked goals
· Apathy and depression: occurs with prolonged stress
learned helplessness
Cognitive effects of stress:
· General cognitive impairment – difficulty concentrating
· Task performance degraded, especially on complex tasks (arousal, performance and task complexity)
· Reversion back to old behaviour
· Stress is blamed for effects including: mental illness, poor health, physical illness, painful emotions and poor relationships
· Stress profoundly affects the immune, nervous and endocrine systems (study of psychoneuroimmunology)
· Situations that one person finds stressful (for example public speaking) others might find invigorating
· Some types of situations everyone finds stressful (war, earthquakes, fires)
· Definition: Stress occurs when one is faced with events perceived as threatening to their physical or psychological well being
· Events that produce stress are called stressors
· Reactions to stressors are called stress responses
· Bad stress = distress
· Good stress = eustress
Categories of Stressful Events:
· Traumatic situations: outside the range of usual human experience (house fires, earthquake, war, car accidents, robbery, rape)
· Uncontrollable and unpredictable events: noise, crowds, hassles, traffic, car repairs, weather, etc.)
· Internal events that challenge the limits of our own capabilities and self concepts (for example, moral and ethical issues)
Traumatic events: · First stage: survivors usually stunned, dazed, appear unaware of the scope of the incident
· Second stage: passive, unable to initiate behaviour but will allow themselves to be directed
· Third stage: anxiety, apprehension, difficulty concentrating, can last for weeks
Factors influencing the perception of stress:
Control:
· Greater control leads to less stress
· Perception of control is most important (you don’t even have to exercise the control)
· Primary and secondary control
Example experiment:
Group 1: sees murder photos but can’t stop the sequence of slides
Group 2: sees the same murder photos in the same sequence
And for the same duration but can stop the slides at any time
Results: Group 1 indicates far more stress on a stress measurement questionnaire
Predictability:
· Greater predictability leads to less stress
· If you can anticipate stress, you can better prepare
· Wives with husbands lost in action in Vietnam reported much more stress than husbands confirmed dead
Personality:
· Certain personality styles are more conducive to stress
· Independent Vs dependent (locus of control)
· Impulsive/aggressive Vs moral standards
· Pessimistic attribution styles are conducive to illness
· Type A personality: competitive, compulsive
Common psychological responses to stress (affective state)
· Anxiety (worry, apprehension, fear)
· Post-traumatic stress disorder: becoming numb to the world, reliving trauma, sleep disorders (e.g. people from war and concentration camps can still experience stress response 20 years later)
· Anger and aggression: can result as a response to blocked goals
· Apathy and depression: occurs with prolonged stress
learned helplessness
Cognitive effects of stress:
· General cognitive impairment – difficulty concentrating
· Task performance degraded, especially on complex tasks (arousal, performance and task complexity)
· Reversion back to old behaviour
Physiological reactions to stress:
· If source of stress is resolved quickly, physiological reactions are brief (could be acute)
· If stressor is ongoing (chronic), stress response becomes prolonged and particularly damaging
· All stress responses are similar (sympathetic nervous system and adrenal cortical systems activated – fight flight syndrome)
· Hypothalamus controls stress response
· Chronic exposure to stress will lead to physical illness (high blood pressure, migraine headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, ulcers, hardening of the arteries, enlarged heart)
· Intermittent exposure to some types of stress can be physically healthy (good stress = eustress)
· Moderate levels of stress can improve performance
Hans Seyle (1907-1982)
Three phases of physiological reaction:
1) Alarm phase: SNS response
2) Resistance phase: prolonged SNS, immune system response to deal with stressor
3) Exhaustion phase: from chronic exposure, body’s resources become depleted leaving one open to physical and mental illness.
Coping with stress:
· Problem focused coping: working things out through problem solving, looking at alternatives, discussions
· Emotional focuses coping: use of emotional states so you do not have to confront problems directly (behavioural strategies and cognitive strategies):
Behavioural strategy examples:
· Running
· Eating
· Drinking, drug abuse
Cognitive strategy examples:
· Setting thoughts aside
· Focusing on other things, e.g., TV, movies, etc.
Managing stress:
· Biofeedback
· Aerobic training
· Relaxation training
· Meditation
· Cognitive: altering people’s perceptions of situations they view as stressful
· Increases level of control in one’s life
· Increase social contacts and number of close friends
0 Comments
Post a Comment