STRESS, HEALTH AND COPING

STRESS - Refers to experiencing events that are perceived as endangering ones

physical or psychological well-being.
Stressor - A stimulus or event that provokes a stress response in an organism.

Hans Selye (1907-1982)

An Austrian-born physician
He defined stress as The Bodys Nonspecific response to any demand made
upon it."
He stumbled upon the idea of the General Adaptation Syndrome (G.A.S.), it is
the process under which the body confronts "stress"

Characteristics of Stressful Events:

1. Traumatic Events - Situations of extreme danger that are outside the range of
usual human experience. Ex: Earthquakes, floods, wars, plane crashes and rape.

2. Uncontrollable Events - The more uncontrollable an event seems, the more
likely it is perceived as stressful. Ex: Death of a loved one and serious illness.
These events are stressful because if we cannot control them, we cannot stop them
from happening.

3. Unpredictable Events - Being able to predict the occurrence of a stressful event
usually reduces the severity of the stress. Warning signals before an aversive
event allows the person to initiate a preparatory process, thus it reduces the effects
of a stimulus.

4. Events challenging our limits. - Some situations are controllable and predictable
but still stressful because they push us to the limits of our capabilities and
challenge us. Ex: Final Exam week.

5. Internal Conflicts - These are unresolved conflicts that may be either conscious
or unconscious. Conflict occurs when a person must choose between incompatible
goals or course of action.

Psychological Reactions to Stress:

Anxiety Most common response to stressors
Aggression - Threatening behavior or actions
Anger - A feeling of extreme annoyance
Apathy - Lack of enthusiasm or energy
Depression - A state of unhappiness and hopelessness


Physiological Reaction to Stress

Fight or Flight Response - A pattern of bodily responses that prepares the
organism for an emergency. Our Sympathetic Nervous System is responsible for this
response.

Generalized Adaptation Syndrome - Selye described this as the Universal response
to the stressors.This involved two major systems of the body, the Nervous system and
the Endocrine (or hormonal) system. It is composed of three stages:

1. The Alarm phase
The immediate reaction to stressors.
This initial phase exhibits a fight-or-flight response.
The function of this stage is to mobilize the bodys resources.

2. Resistance phase
In this stage the body tries to adapt to the stressor.
The ability to resist new stressors is impaired, so that individuals become vulnerable
to health problems resulting from impaired immune functions.

3. Exhaustion phase
The true state of exhaustion occurs when the body's ability to respond is exhausted
such that recovery and resistance are no longer possible.
If stress continues then death may occur

Coping Skills

The word Coping came from the Latin word Colpus which means to alter.
The process by which a person attempts to manage stressful demands
It has 2 major forms:

1. Problem-Focused Coping - A person can focus on a specific problem that has risen,
trying to find some way of changing it or avoiding it in the future.
Problem Solving strategies are included.

2. Emotion-Focused Coping - A person focuses on alleviating the emotions associated
with the stressful situation, even if the situation itself cannot be changed.

Behavioral strategies such as using alcohol or drugs
Cognitive strategies such as temporarily setting aside the problem and reducing
the threat by changing the meaning of a situation

Defense Mechanisms
Refer to strategies that people used to deal with anxiety.
Unconscious self-protected processes that seek to protect/defend the ego from intense
and overwhelming feelings of affect and impulses

Classifications of Defense Mechanisms:

1. Withdrawal Reactions - Or Flight Reactions, wherein the individual escapes from
his/her problems or frustrations

Fantasy/Daydreaming - The subject transforms his failure into something
successful in his imagination.
Regression Retreating back to an earlier and less mature level of developmental
stage.
Reaction Formation Believing the opposite or hiding a motive by giving strong
expression to the opposite.
Repression The most basic defense mechanism. It is termed as motivated
forgetting. (Unconscious forgetting)
Denial Involves negating or blocking external events from ones awareness.
Suppression Conscious forgetfulness of painful and unpleasant thoughts and
feelings.

2. Aggressive Reactions - Or Fight Reactions, wherein the subject attacks or
confronts the source of his frustrations.

Displacement It refers to the redirection of negative impulses or feelings from an
original object to a safer, less threatening or neutral substitute.
Identification Taking into your own personality characteristics of someone else.
Projection The tendency to attribute ones traits to other people.
Introjection Attributing to oneself the good qualities of another.

3. Compromise Reactions -They are defense reactions employed by lowering ones
goals though not totally giving up the nature of the original goal.

Rationalization The distortion of the facts to justify ones conduct by offering
socially accepted reasons in place of real facts. This may be manifested by:
a. Sour-grape mechanism an excuse for failure.
b. Sweet-lemon mechanism One pretends to like what he really dislikes.

Intellectualization Attempting gain detachment from a stressful situation by
dealing with it in an intellectual term.

Compensation Disguising or covering up the presence of an undesirable trait by
emphasizing a desirable one.

Two Types of Compensation:
1. Direct Compensation trying to achieve success in the persons very field of
failure.
2. I ndirect Compensation Trying to gain success in other unrelated field of
failure.
Sublimation This is the replacement of unacceptable activities or goals into
socially acceptable ones.

The Psychosomatic Model
1. ) Sensory Stimulus
is also referred to as the STRESSOR, which can be any mental or physical
demand put upon our body our mind.
This can be anything from a loud noise to an exam or work load to physical
activity or the in-laws coming into town.
For example, if you are stuck in a traffic jam, what is the stress and what is the stressor?

2.)Perception - the active process of bringing an external stimulus to the CNS (especially
the brain) for interpretation.
A stressor is often an external event...but for a stressor to affect a human it must
get into the mind-body system. It is through perception that this occurs.

3) Cognitive Appraisal - process of analyzing and processing information as well as
categorizing and organizing it. Recall the section on memory - at the cognitive appraisal
level we put labels on things - good, bad, dangerous, pleasant, etc.

4) Emotional Arousal - If we classify/label something as stressful, it then produces a
bodily/physiological response.
Remember, anytime a subjective experience of emotion occurs, it is followed by a
change in autonomic physiology. So, at this stage, we simply experience an
emotion...nothing else at this point, just the production (or beginning) of an
emotion.
So, any emotion we experience, be it joy, fear, excitement, anger, etc., will elicit a
stress response in the body.
At a physiological level, we can not differentiate between positive and negative
emotions.

5) Mind-Body Connection - here the emotional arousal is changed into a bodily change
so that you may adapt to the situation and respond appropriately.

6) Physical Arousal - Once the mind-body connection has been made and the bodily
changes occur, these changes are called physical arousal.

7) Physical Effects - Now the internal organs begin to be affected by the physical arousal.
For example, increased heart rate, blood pressure, dilation of the pupils,

8) Disease - If the physical effects continue for a sustained period of time (this varies) the
imbalance of functioning can result in disease. One or more organ can become exhausted
and work inefficiently or not at al

Psychological Reactions to Stress:
Anxiety Most common response to stressors
Aggression - Threatening behavior or actions
Anger - A feeling of extreme annoyance
Apathy - Lack of enthusiasm or energy
Depression - A state of unhappiness and hopelessness

MAJOR TYPES/SOURCES OF STRESS
A) FRUSTRATION
Stress due to any situation in which the pursuit of some goal is thwarted.
Frustration is usually short-lived, but some frustrations can be source of major
stress:
1) Failures - we all fail. But, if we set unrealistic goals, or place too much emphasis on
obtaining certain successes, failure can be devastating.
2) Losses - deprivation of something that you once had and considered a "part" of your
life. Can result in tremendous stress.

B) CONFLICT
Two or more incompatible motivations or behavioral impulses compete for
expression. When faced with multiple motivations or goals, you must chose and
this is where the problems/conflict arise.
Studies have indicated that the more conflict a person experiences, the greater the
likelihood for anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms

There are 3 major types of conflicts:
1. The approach-approach conflict, the least stressful, occurs when people try to choose
between two desirable alternatives.
Example: A student tries to decide between two interesting classes.
2. The approach-avoidance conflict, typically more stressful and quite common, occurs
when people must decide whether to do something that has both positive and negative
aspects.
Example: A boy invites a girl to a party. She finds him attractive, but going to the
party means she wont have time to study for one of her final exams.

3.The avoidance-avoidance conflict, also typically stressful, occurs when people have to
choose between two undesirable options.
Example: Because of his financial situation, a man might have to choose whether
to keep his nice-looking car, which breaks down frequently, or buy a badly
dented, but reliable, used one.

C) CHANGE
Life changes are noticeable alterations in one's living circumstances that require
adjustment.
1) Holmes & Rahe (1967) - developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) to
measure life changes. They found that, after interviewing thousands of people, while BIG
changes like death of a loved one are very stressful, small life changes have tremendous
effects.

D) Pressure
Expectations or demands that one must behave in a certain way.

STRESS & PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONING

A) IMPAIRED TASK PERFORMANCE
Baumeister (1984) found that stress interferes with attention and therefore, performance.
1) Increased stress = increased distractibility
2) Increased stress = over thinking on tasks that should be "automatic".

B) BURNOUT
Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion due to work-related stress.
Cause is not sudden, but prolonged exposure to stress. Increases the more
"jobs/tasks" placed upon you. For example, having multiple roles such as parent,
student, spouse, etc.

C) POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
Disturbed behavior that is attributed to a major stressful event, but emerges after
the event has ended (often years later).
Very common in the 70's - Vietnam war veterans had symptom usually 9-60
months later.
Occurs in general population as well:
1) most common - rape
2) seeing someone die or severely injured
3) close brush with death
Symptoms include - nightmares, sleep disturbances, jumpiness, etc.

D) Psychological Problems/Disorders
usually the result of prolonged stress:
insomnia, nightmares, poor academic performance, sexual dysfunctions, anxiety,
schizophrenia, depression, eating disorders, and lots more.

Stress Management

A set of techniques and programs intended to help people deal more effectively with
stress in their lives by analyzing the specific stressors and taking positive actions to
minimize their effects.

Relaxation techniques
Meditation
Exercise
Biofeedback Individuals receive information about an aspect of their physiological
state and then attempt to alter that state.