Topic: Autobiographical Psychosocial History

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Stress and Health

Psy150

Jim McAlhaney

Many people are beginning to focus on changing unhealthy habits in order to achieve better lives. Diets are being modified and time is being made for exercise, but countless individuals are forgetting one key aspect of their life, their mental health. Americans are being overburdened with excessive workloads. The tremendous amount people have on their plates coupled with the pressure to succeed causes an unhealthy amount of stress in the general population. While many write their stress off as normal, a lot of people’s stress may be of an unhealthy nature that may lead to great physical and mental difficulties down the road. America must become familiar with this threat and take measures to reduce it before we ‘work ourselves to death’. http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Stress_(psychological)

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Stress Defined

The first definition for stress was created in 1936 by Hans Selye. He stated that stress is”the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change" (Institute of Stress).

Selye’s definition allows others to understand that stress is not merely a reaction to something bad, but merely a reaction to a change in situation. This definition lacks an explanation to what kind of response the body has. Stress is not only a change in a body response but more specifically a "physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension" (Institute of Stress). In order for stress to form, whether it is from a good or bad situation, there must be a stressor causing tension to appear.

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Stress

  • We experience stress when we are faced with a tense or threatening situation that requires us to change or adapt our behavior.
  • Adjustment refers to any attempt we make to cope with a stressful situation, balancing our needs and desires against the demands of the environment and the realistic possibilities available to us. 

What are some signs I am too stressed out?

  • Past a certain threshold, stress decreases productivity drastically, by triggering exhaustion and even sickness (Institute of Stress). It is because so many people’s stress has surpassed this threshold that nearly 1 million workers are absent each day. This number tripled from 1996 to 2000 (Institute of Stress).

Stress has long been considered a bad thing by most people. This is probably due to the undesirable side-effects that occur when in a stressful situation.

The truth is that stress can be a motivating factor until it reaches a particular threshold. Increased stress has been shown to increase productivity up to a certain point(Institute of Stress)

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Symptoms of Stress

Unhealthy amounts of stress can have detrimental long term effects on the human body. Stress initiates a release of cortisol, norepinephrine, and serotonin (Stress and Cardiovascular disease & Stress on the Brain). Normal stress levels allow the body to recuperate following a stressful situation and to re-balance hormone levels. On the other hand, chronic stress causes an imbalance of these hormones, with excess in some areas of the body and deficiencies in others (Stress and Cardiovascular disease). For example, chronic stress causes a surplus of cortisol in the brain. This can lead to damage of neurons and loss of short term memory. In addition, the sympathetic activity which stress instigates, leads to a suppression of the immune system which may worsen allergies and lead to greater susceptibility to illnesses (Stress and Cardiovascular disease).

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Health Psychology

  • How we adjust to the stresses in our lives affects our health; prolonged or severe stress can contribute to physical and psychological disorders.

Health psychology is a subfield of psychology concerned with the relationship between psychological factors and physical health.

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Causes of Stress

Pressure

  • Pressure also contributes to stress. Pressure can derive from both internal and external forces; in either case, we feel forced to intensify our efforts or to perform at higher levels.

We feel frustrated when someone or something stands between us and our goal.

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Frustration

  • Five basic sources of frustration are delays, lack of resources, losses, failure, and discrimination.

Conflict

  • Conflict arises when we are faced with two or more incompatible demands, opportunities, needs, or goals.

Kurt Lewin analyzed conflict in terms of approach and avoidance, and showed how these tendencies combine to characterize three basic types of conflict. Someone who is simultaneously attracted to two incompatible goals experiences an approach/approach conflict, in which the person must either make a choice between the two goals or opportunities or modify them so as to take some advantage of both goals.

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Conflict

  • The reverse of this problem is avoidance/avoidance conflict, in which a person confronts two undesirable or threatening possibilities. People usually try to escape this kind of conflict or vacillate between the two possibilities.

Also difficult to resolve is an approach/avoidance conflict, in which a person is both attracted to and repelled by the same goal or opportunity. People in this dilemma eventually reach a point where the tendency to approach equals the tendency to avoid and they vacillate until they finally make a decision or until the situation changes.

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Change

  • According to Shelley Taylor, people evaluate changes, first, in terms of whether they believe they have a little or a lot at stake (primary appraisal), and second, in terms of whether they believe they have the personal skills, knowledge, and experience, as well as social resources to cope with the event (secondary appraisal).

Optimists tend to apprise events as challenges rather than threats, whereas pessimists are the opposite.

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As your textbook notes on page 401, “Stressors are inevitable. This fact coupled with the fact that persistent stress correlates with heart disease, depression and lowered immunity, gives us a clear message: We need to learn to cope with the stress in our lives, alleviating it with emotional, cognitive and behavioral methods.”

There are many ways of coping with stress. Their effectiveness depends on the type of stressor, the particular individual, and the circumstances.

For example, if you think about the way your friends deal with stressors like exams, you will see a range of different coping responses. Some people will pace around or tell you how worried they are, others will revise, or pester their teachers for clues.

Lazarus (1991) and Folkman (1984) suggested there are two types of coping responses emotion focused and problem focused:

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Problem-Focused Coping

  • Problem-focused coping targets the causes of stress in practical ways which tackles the problem or stressful situation that is causing stress, consequently directly reducing the stress.

  • Problem focused strategies aim to remove or reduce the cause of the stressor.

McLeod, S. A. (2010). Stress Management - Problem Focused Coping with Stress. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/problem-focused-coping.html

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Problem-Focused Coping Strategies

  • Taking Control – this response involves changing the relationship between yourself and the source of stress. Examples: escaping from the stress or removing the stress.

  • Information Seeking – the most rational action. This involves the individual trying to understand the situation (e.g. using the internet) and putting into place cognitive strategies to avoid it in future. Information seeking is a cognitive response to stress.

  • Evaluating the pros and cons of different options for dealing with the stressor.

In general problem-focused coping is best, as it removes the stressor, so deals with the root cause of the problem, providing a long term solution.

However, it is not always best, or possible to use problem-focused strategies. For example, when someone dies, problem-focused strategies may not be very helpful for the bereaved. Dealing with the feeling of loss requires emotion-focused coping.

Problem focused approached will not work in any situation where it is beyond the individual’s control to remove the source of stress. They work best when the person can control the source of stress (e.g. exams, work based stressors etc.).

It is not a productive method for all individuals. For example, not all people are able to take control of a situation. People with low self esteem typically use emotion focused coping strategies.

McLeod, S. A. (2010). Stress Management - Problem Focused Coping with Stress. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/problem-focused-coping.html

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Emotion-Focused Coping

  • Emotion-focused coping involves trying to reduce the negative emotional responses associated with stress such as embarrassment, fear, anxiety, depression, excitement and frustration.

  • This may be the only realistic option when the source of stress is outside the person’s control.

Emotion-Focused Coping Strategies

  • Keeping yourself busy to take your mind off the issue
  • Letting off steam to other people
  • Praying for guidance and strength
  • Ignoring the problem in the hope that it will go away
  • Distracting yourself (e.g. TV, eating)
  • Building yourself up to expect the worse

Emotion-focused strategies are often less effective than using problem-focused methods. For example, Epping-Jordan et al (1994) found that patients with cancer who used avoidance strategies, e.g. denying they were very ill, deteriorated more quickly then those who faced up to their problems. The same pattern exists in relation to dental health and financial problems.

It does not provide a long term solution. However, they can be a good choice if the source of stress is outside the person’s control (e.g. terrorist attack).

Gender differences: women tend to use more emotion-focused strategies then men (Billings and Moos, 1981). It also may have negative side effects as it delays the person dealing with the problem.

McLeod, S. A. (2009). Emotion Focused Coping. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/emotion-focused-coping.html

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Coping with Stress

  • When we cope directly with a particular threat or conflict, we do it in one of three ways: confrontation, compromise, or withdrawal.
  • When a stressful situation arises and little can be done to deal with it directly, people often turn to defense mechanisms as a way of coping.

Defense mechanisms are ways of deceiving ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, about the causes of stressful events, thus reducing conflict, frustration, pressure, and anxiety.

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Coping with Stress

  • Confronting a stressful situation may lead us to learn new skills, enlist other people's aid, try harder to reach our goal, or express anger.
  • Compromise usually resolves a conflict by forcing us to settle for less than we originally sought.
  • Sometimes the most effective way of coping with a stressful situation is to distance oneself from it, but the danger of withdrawal is that it may become a maladaptive habit.

Stress and Health

  • Stress is known to be an important factor in the development of coronary heart disease (CHD). Type A behavior pattern, a set of characteristics that includes hostility, urgency, competitiveness, and striving, has been linked to a greater likelihood of CHD.

Stress-reduction programs can slow, and sometimes arrest, the progress of CHD.

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Stress and Health

  • Studies in psychoneuroimmunology have shown that stress can suppress the functioning of the immune system, increasing one's susceptibility to the common cold as well as to cancer in situations of prolonged exposure to stress.

Stress-reduction techniques can help cancer patients cope.

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Reducing Stress

  • Exercise can reduce the negative impact of stress, as can relaxation training. People with strong social support systems enjoy better health.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjrBdKXgYFY

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Reducing Stress

  • Some evidence suggests that social support may directly affect immune system functioning.

It may be that people with high levels of social support more frequently engage in healthier behaviors, such as better diets and more physical exercise.

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Reducing Stress

  • Other ways of minimizing stress include:
  • Proactive coping -- anticipating stressful events and taking advance steps to avoid them or minimize their impact.
  • Positive reappraisal, or making the best of a tense or painful situation, particularly by using humor.

Reducing Stress

  • Developing healthy habits like eating a well-balanced diet, getting regular exercise, not smoking and avoiding high-risk behaviors are all important to maintaining health.

Extreme Stress

  • Extreme stress derives from a number of sources, including unemployment, divorce and separation, bereavement, combat, and natural disasters.
  • People try to cope with these intense, life-altering events in various ways; most resort to defense mechanisms at one or more stages to allow themselves time to gather their energies for more direct coping efforts later on.

Extreme trauma may result in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a disabling emotional disorder whose symptoms include anxiety, sleeplessness, and nightmares. Combat veterans and people with a history of emotional problems are especially vulnerable to PTSD.

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Good Adjustment

  • Some psychologists believe that well-adjusted people live according to social norms, having learned to control socially forbidden impulses and limit their goals to those that society allows.
  • Barron, on the other hand, argues that the refusal to adjust to social norms is the mark of a healthy character. He suggests that well-adjusted people accept and enjoy challenges because they are confident of their ability to deal with problems in a realistic and mature way.

  • Still other psychologists believe that well-adjusted people are those who have learned to balance conformity and nonconformity, self-control and spontaneity.

What constitutes good adjustment?

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Good Adjustment

  • Finally, some psychologists use specific criteria to evaluate a person's ability to adjust, such as how well the adjustment solves the problem and satisfies both personal needs and the needs of others.

Happiness

Happiness is thought of as the good life, freedom from suffering, flourishing, well-being, joy, prosperity, and pleasure.

Its pursuit is enshrined as a fundamental right in the United States and occupies most of us. But what do we really know about happiness? Defining happiness can seem as elusive as achieving it. We want to be happy, and we can say whether we are or not, but can it really be defined, studied and measured? And can we use this learning to become happier?

http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/happiness/what-happiness

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Positive Psychology

  • The positive psychology movement has prompted many health psychologists to explore other ways to promote good health by adopting a healthier life style.

Positive psychology is the branch of psychology that uses scientific understanding and effective intervention to aid in the achievement of a satisfactory life, rather than merely treating mental illness.

Positive psychology is concerned with three issues: positive emotions, positive individual traits, and positive institutions.

Positive emotions are concerned with being content with one's past, being happy in the present and having hope for the future.

Positive individual traits focus on one's strengths and virtues.

Finally, positive institutions are based on strengths to better a community of people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology#Application:_How_to_increase_happiness

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A practical application of positive psychology is to assist individuals and organizations in identifying strengths so as to increase and sustain well-being. Therapists, counselors, coaches, various psychological professionals, HR departments, business strategists, and others, are using new methods and techniques to broaden and build upon the strengths of a wide population of individuals. This includes those not suffering from mental illness or disorder.

Researcher Dianne Hales described an emotionally healthy person as someone who exhibits: flexibility and adaptability to different circumstances, a sense of meaning and affirmation in life, an "understanding that the self is not the center of the universe", compassion and the ability to be unselfish, an increased depth and satisfaction in intimate relationships, and a sense of control over the mind and body.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology#Application:_How_to_increase_happiness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2rVDCrt6QY

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