Week 2 Behavior & Stress Managment

Overview

Sure, we've all heard the term "Drama Queen". But the relationship between personality, behavior, and stress can be quite complex! This week in your readings, we will examine how personality and temperament can influence how we perceive stress and how we respond to stress. In addition, we will consider a concept called "locus of control" and how this can influence our behaviors and the impacts of stress.

Let's start by reviewing something surprising from last week: your physiological stress response to the daily hassles of traffic jams, email, and worrying about taxes looks the same as your stress response from a huge traumatic incident like a traffic accident, natural disaster, or the loss of a loved one. That is... unless we learn how to cope with our daily hassles using stress reduction techniques such as those in this class.

How the physiological stress response is connected to long-term health is a product of a complicated interplay between each person's temperament, personality, and locus of control, and our ability to cope, as well as the nature of the stressor itself. If we gain an understanding of ourselves and how we function from a behavioral perspective, we can mitigate negative stress responses and learn how to respond rather than react. It is also important to acknowledge that change is a process, not an event. Understanding and changing our stress responses does not happen overnight. Rather, once we are aware of something that has a negative impact, we can begin to address the stressor slowly over a period of time. Changes that result from a process are likely to be successful.

Outcomes

Upon completion of this learning topic, you will be able to:

· Identify personal preferences regarding locus of control.

· Distinguish between personality and temperament.

· Explain why responding produces better results than reacting when it comes to stress.

Readings and Research

· Chen, Ch. 3, 4, 5

· This week's online course content

· JAUK article

· Personality and Loneliness

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· Kelly McGonigal interview - listen to 2nd short interview here

Press Reset on Stress

positive psychology website