Chapter 13: Stress Health And Coping

Front 1

What is Stress?

Back 1

Any circumstance that threaten or perceive to threaten ones well being and that will thereby tax ones coping abilities

Stress is a growing problem in our society and is associated with many mental and physical heath difficulties

Front 2

Define Contagious Disease

Back 2

spread from one person or organism to another by direct or indirect contact

ex. smallpox, tuberculosis, polio

Front 3

Define Chronic Disease

Back 3

Chronic diseases generally cannot be prevented by vaccines or cured by medication, nor do they just disappear.

ex. heart disease, cancer, stroke

Front 4

Biophychosocial Model (BPS)

Back 4

Biological factors can operate in a psychosocial context.

Biological, psychological, and social factors all play a significant role in human functioning in the context of disease or illness

Front 5

List a few major stresses:

Back 5

- Divorce

- Death

- New Baby

- Major stresses have a significant immediate impact.

- People do not exhibit stress the same, what might be a major stressed to on person may be exciting to another. Stage fright, sky diving.

Front 6

List a few minor, routine stresses:

Back 6

- School

- Work

- Home

Minor stresses can have a cumulative, significant impact over time. Stress adds up!

Front 7

What does stress depend on?

Back 7

The appraisal of the situation

Front 8

Define acute stressors:

Back 8

Relatively short duration with a clear end point

Front 9

Define chronic stressors:

Back 9

Long duration with no apparent time limit

Front 10

What are the four main types of stress?

Back 10

1) Frustration - Blocked Goal

2) Conflict - Two or more incompatible motivations

3) Change - Having to adapt

4) Pressure - Expectations to perform in certain ways

Front 11

List 3 types of conflict:

Back 11

1) Approach - Approach

2) Avoidance - Avoidance

3) Approach - Avoidance

Front 12

List the 3 main types of stress response:

Back 12

1) Emotional Response

2) Physiological Response

3) Behavioural Responses

Front 13

What are a few common emotional responses?

Back 13

– Annoyance, anger, rage
– Apprehension, anxiety, fear
– Dejection, sadness, grief

There is a link between specific appraisals and specific emotions

Front 14

Inverted - U - Hypothsis:

Back 14

Level of task complexity:

- Simple - high level of arousal

- Medium - average level of arousal

- Complex - low level of arousal

– Task performance improves with increased emotional arousal up to a certain point

– After this point, further arousal is disruptive and performance deteriorates

Front 15

According to the inverted-U-hypothesis peak performance is equal to:

Back 15

optimal level of arousal

Front 16

Strong emotional arousals can interfere with the following:

Back 16

- Attention and memory

- Judgment and decision making

Strong emotional arousals can interfere with coping with stress

Front 17

Fight-or-Flight Response

Back 17

- A physiological reaction to threat in which the autonomic nervous system (ANS) mobilizes the organism for attacking (fight) or fleeing (flight) an enemy

Front 18

Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome

Back 18

Alarm – Recognize a threat and mobilize resources to deal with it.

Resistance - Prolong Stress

Exhaustion - Body's resources for fighting stress are limited or depleted

Front 19

Define Coping:

Back 19

– Efforts to master, reduce or tolerate the demands created by stress.

Front 20

What are a few common behavioural responses of stress?

Back 20

– Giving up and blaming oneself
– Learned helplessness

– Striking out at others
• Frustration-aggressionhypothesis

• Catharsis

- Indulging oneself

Front 21

List a few behavioural defence mechanisms:

Back 21

• denial,

• fantasy,
• intellectualizing,
• undoing, and
• overcompensation.

Front 22

List 3 unhealthy ways of Defence coping:

Back 22

1) Avoidant Strategy

2) Delay Action

3) Wishful Thinking

Front 23

What are 4 examples of constructive coping involves:

Back 23

1) Confront problems directly

2) Realistic appraisals of your stress and coping resources

3) Recognizing disruptive emotional reactions

4) Self Care

Front 24

name two things stress is associated with and explain them:

Back 24

1) Impairs task performance according to BAUMEISTER: Self-consious leads to disruption of attention and "choking" under pressure

2) The role of attention according to KEINAN

- Pressure occurs when worries about performance distract attention from the task at hand and use up one's limited working memory capacity.

- Jump to a conclusion without considering all their options.

-stress causes attention shifts.

-stress impairs attention control.

-Hard to suppress competing thoughts when under stress.

Front 25

Explain Burnout

Back 25

- physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion as well as cynicism and a lowered sense of self-efficacy that is attributable to long-term involvement in emotionally demanding situations

Front 26

Explain the terms of burnout:

Back 26

Exhaustion: – chronic fatigue, weakness and low energy.

• Cynicism: – highly negative attitudes toward oneself, one’s work and life in general

Reduced Self-Efficacy: – declining feelings of competence at work which may give way to feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.

Loss of Meaning: – declining enjoyment

Front 27

Explain PTSD

Back 27

Posttraumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) – Enduring psychological disturbance because of major traumatic event.
– Flashbacks, emotional numbing, etc.

• Secondary Trauma Exposure and PTSD – Example: 9/11; Holocaust survivors

Front 28

Effects of stress on physical Health: explain psychosomatic vs. Hypocondriasis

Back 28

Psychosomatic: physical ailments with a genuine organic basis that are caused in part by psychological factors

Hypochondriasis:physical ailments are viewed as being “all in one’s head” or imagined

Front 29

What are 3 elements of Type a Personality:

Back 29

– strong competitiveness
– impatience and time urgency
– anger and hostility

Front 30

Effects of stress on the immune system:

Back 30

• Increased stress has been associated with suppressed immune activity (e.g., Exams)

• Duration of stress is related to degree of immune suppression

Front 31

What are some factors that can moderate the impact of stress?

Back 31

- Social Support

- Social Bonds vs Social Support

- Optimism

- Pessimism

- Optimistic explanatory style

- Pessimistic explanatory style

- Conscientiousness

- Autonomic Reactivity

Front 32

Social Support

Back 32

– Increased immune functioning
– Stronger physical and mental health – Increased mortality

Front 33

Social Bonds vs Social Support

Back 33

– Positive interactions with the people in your social network that are protective

– Quality is MORE important than quantity

Front 34

Optimism

Back 34

– general tendency to expect good outcomes

– More adaptive coping
• Action oriented and problem focused

Front 35

Pessimism

Back 35

– focus on the negative
– Passive coping and poor health practices

Front 36

Optimistic explanatory style

Back 36

– leads people to attributes setbacks to temporary situational factors

Front 37

Pessimistic explanatory style

Back 37

- Leads people to blame setback s on their own personal shortcomings

Front 38

Conscientiousness

Back 38

- Fostering better health habits

Front 39

Autonomic Reactivity

Back 39

- Cardiovascular reactivity to stress

Front 40

What are a few examples of health impairing behaviours:

Back 40

- Smoking

- Alcohol and drug use

- Poor nutrition and lack of exercise

- Risky sexual behaviour (AIDS)

Front 41

Why are people sometimes less likely to delay seeking treatment when illness occurs:

Back 41

– Higher anxiety
– More physical awareness

– Perceived severity

• However many DELAY seeking treatment

Front 42

Why do people delay seeking treatment?

Back 42

1) Misinterpret or downplay their symptoms.

2) Look silly if problem turns out to be nothing

3) Worry about bothering their physician
4) Reluctant to disrupt their own plans
5) Waste time on trivial matters