Stress and how it affects your mind and your body - Essay

Olpin_4e_ch01.pptx

Home >Social Science homework help >Stress and how it affects your mind and your body - Essay

Chapter 1

Stress in Today’s World

Olpin/Hessen, Stress Management for Life: A Research-Based, Experiential Approach , Fourth Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Key Questions

Is stress always bad?

Can I really do anything about stress, or is it just an inevitable demand of living in today’s world?

Was I born with a certain capacity to handle stress? Is successful stress management a result of heredity or environment?

Objectives

Define the terms stress and stressor

Define and explain the difference between eustress and distress

Differentiate between acute, acute episodic, and chronic stress

Relate stress to the five dimensions of holistic health

Discuss some of the most common stressors affecting college students today

FYI: Got Stress?

Students’ self-ratings of emotional health dropped to a record 25-year low in 2012

Fewer students than ever before are reporting above-average emotional health

Students feel increasingly overwhelmed before entering college

Sources: The American Freshman: National Norms. Fall 2012, UCLA Higher Education Research Institute. Retrieved January 25, 2014 from www.heri.ucla.edu/monographs /theamericanfreshman2012.pdf.

Feeling Overwhelmed?

The percentage of incoming first-year women who report feeling “frequently” overwhelmed is at its highest point, 40.5%, since the question was first asked in 1985

This is more than twice the rate of incoming first-year men (18.3%)

Sources: The American Freshman: National Norms. Fall 2012, UCLA Higher Education Research Institute. Retrieved January 25, 2014 from www.heri.ucla.edu/monographs /theamericanfreshman2012.pdf.

Stress in Today’s World

College can be the best of times or the worst of times

With the proper skills and the right information, you will be in control of your destiny

Stress: What Is It?

A demand made upon the adaptive capacities of the mind and body

Three important aspects

The experience of the stressor as positive or negative

The reaction, not the actual event, as the determining factor

The capacity for handling stress and whether it is sufficient or exceeded

Yerkes-Dodson Principle

To a certain point, stress is healthy, useful, and beneficial

Can enhance performance, health, and well-being

When stress exceeds ability to cope, diminished performance, inefficiency, and health problems can occur

Yerkes-Dodson Principle Illustrated

FIGURE 1.1 Feelings Associated with Perceived Stress . . . Finding the Balance

Good Stress and Bad Stress

Stressor: any event or situation that an individual perceives as a threat that causes him or her to either adapt or initiate the stress response

Eustress: positive, desirable stress

Distress: negative effects of stress

Acute and Chronic Stress

Acute: appears suddenly, is usually quite intense, and then disappears quickly

Episodic acute stress: repeated episodes of acute stress

Chronic: long-term stress resulting from problems that just don’t seem to go away

The Relationship Among Stress, Health, and Performance

FIGURE 1.2 Relationship among Stress, Health, and Performance

Source: Relationship among Stress and Health and Performance,” Figure 12.1 from Lifetime Physical Fitness and Wellness, 11th ed., by W. K. Hoeger and S. A. Hoeger (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2011, p. 385).

Holistic Health

Understanding health

Health is more than just the absence of disease

Health relates to more than just the physical dimension

Dimensions of Health: Physical and Intellectual

Physical health

Functioning of the body’s cells, tissues, organs, and systems

Intellectual health

Ability to think and learn from experiences, the ability to assess and question new information, and an openness to learning new things

Dimensions of Health: Emotional and Spiritual

Emotional health

Experiencing and appreciating a wide range of feelings and the ability to express these feelings and emotions in a healthy manner

Spiritual health

Relates to the principles and values that guide a person and give meaning, direction, and purpose to life

Dimensions of Health: Social

Social health

Ability to relate to others and express care and concern for others

Holistic Health: Putting It All Together

FIGURE 1.3 Dimensions of Health

Nature or Nurture

What factors influence the experience of stress?

Heredity

Environment

Number of stressors

Magnitude of the stressor

Subjective meaning of the stressor

Developmental level of the individual

Availability of social support

Time Tip

Time management is vital to stress management

TRIAGE RUTHLESSLY!

Invest your time and energy where it matters most

Research Highlight: Stress and the Developing Brain

Animal research shows that a well-defined period of early postnatal development may be an important determinant of the capacity to handle stress throughout life

“Maternally-deprived” rat pups show a more profound and excessive response

Monkeys raised by mothers who experienced unpredictable conditions in obtaining food showed a pattern often seen in humans with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression

Source: National Institute of Health, Stress and the Developing Brain (NIH Publication No. 01-4603) (Bethesda, MD: NIH, 2001).

Sources of Stress

Time management

Personal expectations

Family expectations and family life

Employment decisions and finances

Academic demands

Living arrangements

Relationships

Physical health issues

More Sources of Stress

Environmental stressors

Information overload

Choices

Daily hassles

Culture Connection: Life Out of Balance

Koyaanisqatsi, a Hopi word meaning:

A crazy life

A life in turmoil

That life is disintegrating

That life is out of balance

A state of life that calls for another way of living

Conclusion

You can prevent and manage stress through the following three basic approaches

Eliminate the stressor

Change your thinking

Manage the stress

Lab 1.1 Dimensions of Health

Review

List two specific things you currently do in each dimension of health to help manage and control stress

Respond

Plan and implement a specific action to improve your stress in one dimension

Reflect

Did you feel different after you carried out your activity? If so, how?