Frustration, Conflict, and Stress

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Frustration, Conflict, and Stress
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Frustration

• A process that blocks or hinders us from reaching
  our goals
• People talking while you are trying to take a
  test
• Being behind a slow driver when you are late for
  school or work
• Not having enough money for a coke
• Not being able to find the shirt you wanted to
  wear for a date or activity

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How does frustration affect you?

• Name three frustrations that you have faced in
  the past 24 hours, and identify the goal blocked
  by each frustration
• List three adjectives that describe how you felt
  when confronted with these frustrations

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Conflict

• A problem that demands a choice between
  alternatives
• Four types of conflict
• Approach-approach
• Approach-avoidance
• Avoidance-avoidance
• Double approach-avoidance

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Approach-approach Conflicts

• Choosing between the best of two or more
  desirable options
• Do I want pepperoni or cheese pizza?
• Which movie do I want to see?

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Avoidance-avoidance Conflicts

• Choosing between two or more undesirable options
• Would I rather be late to school and get a
  detention, or skip school and get behind in my
  classes?
• Should I break up with my boyfriend and be alone,
  or stay with him and put up with his cheating and
  lying?

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Approach-Avoidance Conflict

• A choice involving a situation with both good and
  bad features
• Should I curse out my teacher, which will make me
  feel better, but will probably get me suspended?
• Should I go to the scary movie with my friends?
  It would be fun, but then I wont be able to
  sleep tonight.

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Double Approach-Avoidance Conflict

• A choice between alternatives, both of which have
  good and bad parts
• Should I major in law (lots of school, lots of
  studying, but will make lots of money) or social
  work (less school, helping people, rewarding, but
  make a lot less money)
• Should I eat pizza (tastes great but fattening)
  or salad (BORING but healthy and low cal)

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Group Brainstorming

• In groups, come up with one good example of each
  type of conflict
• Examples must be creative and accurate
• Report your examples to the class

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Anxiety

• Dread, the feeling that something is wrong, and
  the belief that disaster is inevitable
• Results from
• Unresolved conflict
• Long-term frustration
• Feelings of helplessness

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Stress

• Physical reaction to demands or changes in the
  environment
• Can result from frustration, conflict, anxiety
• Can be positive or negative

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Eustress

• Positive stress that leads to something desirable
• Job promotion
• New baby
• First date
• Eustress is good because it keeps us moving
  towards a goal

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Distress

• Bad stress that is overwhelming, blocks goals, or
  that causes problems
• Being fired from a job
• Loss of a family member
• Bankruptcy

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Fight-or-Flight Response

• the bodys response to crisis
• Higher brain recognizes threat or stress
• Lower brain secretes stress hormone (adrenaline)
  which speeds up heart, tenses muscles, and shuts
  down digestive system

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What is your stress level?

• Psychologists have assigned values to positive
  and negative stressors
• Combinations of high stressors may require
  intervention to prevent breakdown or depression
• Take the stress test

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Coping with Stress

• While we cant always control the stress
  situations in our lives, we can control the way
  we cope with them
• Regressive coping negative reaction to stress
• Transformational coping creating something good
  out of something bad
• Most people rely on both strategies to cope with
  stress

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• Name some negative ways that people deal with
  stressful situations
• Name positive ways that people deal with stress
• For one of the techniques mentioned in each
  category, list the positive and negative
  consequences of that method

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Regressive Coping Mechanisms

• Sleeping too much
• Avoiding the problem
• Denying the problem
• Taking problems out on family or friends
• Drinking/drugs
• Violence or anger
• Apathy

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Transformational Coping

• Examine situation and explore solutions
• Channel frustrations into some positive activity
• Evaluate causes of stress and make lifestyle
  changes to avoid similar problems in the future
• Readjust priorities

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Why Stress Affects Some People Differently that
Other People

• What affects the way we handle stress?
• View of life
• The amount of control we have
• Self-concept

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Control

• We are less stressed when we have more control
  (rats/shock experiment)
• Even if we have no control, we cope better if we
  know what is coming
• Complete helplessness (not being able to predict
  or control circumstances) can result in higher
  stress
• Lack of control leads to illness, ulcers, apathy,
  frustration

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View of Life

• People with positive attitude handle stress
  better than negative people
• Positive people find good in bad and dont dwell
  on problems
• Negative people focus on the bad and let it pull
  them down

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Self-Concept

• Self-concept how we see ourselves
• Positive self-concept leads to less stress
• Social situations
• Job promotion
• School and grades
• Most people see themselves in a more positive
  light than others see them
• Self-esteem view of our self worth
• Self-concept and self-esteem are related but not
  the same

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Defense Mechanisms

• Psychological tricks we use to maintain stability
  or balance despite stressful circumstances
• Most are therapeutic and normal for short term,
  but can be damaging when sustained for longer
  periods

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Repression

• Pushing painful material out of our consciousness
• Feelings not acknowledged but still affect
  behavior emotions
• Usually damaging and unhealthy

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Denial

• Refusing to admit that anything bad has
  happened (drinking problem, getting fired)
• Repression admit to problem, but then push it
  away
• Denial refusing to admit to problem at all
• Denial is a way of not taking responsibility for
  actions

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Displacement

• Venting feelings on something/someone that is
  not the source of stress
• Yelling at parents after boyfriend breaks up with
  you
• Kicking your dog because you failed a test

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Reaction Formation

• Expressing the opposite of what we feel
• A teenage with a disabled sibling may resent the
  sibling because they get more attention. Because
  the teen feels guilty about the resentment, he
  spends a lot of time working with the sibling and
  taking them places
• A teen is ashamed of an alcoholic parent but
  brags about the parents past athletic
  achievements to friends

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Intellectualization

• Becoming rational and unemotional about a crisis,
  and removing feelings completely
• Calmly planning the funeral of a family member
• A doctor using clinical terminology to inform
  family members that a loved one has died while in
  surgery

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Identification with an Aggressor

• Taking on the characteristics of someone who
  mistreated you to avoid the abuse
• People who were kidnapped befriend the kidnapper
• Prisoners of war befriend the guards
• People who are abused as children become child
  abusers when they have kids of their own
• Usually results in feelings of guilt and confusion

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Regression

• Moving backward in maturity and behaving like a
  child to avoid taking responsibility
• Children in families with new babies regress to
  an earlier maturity level (pee in pants)
• Athletes pitch fits when messing up or losing
• Celebrities have temper tantrums on camera

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Rationalization

• Explaining away a problem rather than accepting
  blame
• I didnt want to go out with him anyway because
  of his uni-brow
• There is no way I could have passed that test
  with my work schedule and basketball practice

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Projection

• The process of attributing shifting blame to
  someone else
• I failed my test because Mrs. Brown didnt teach
  the material very well
• Mrs. Rich is being a big jerk for suspending me
  just for cussing out that teacher

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Sublimation

• Finally, a GOOD defense mechanism!!!
• Sublimation using emotional energy resulting
  from stress to create some positive result
• Using anger energy to go for a long run
• Frustration over gaining weight to go on a diet
• Writing poetry after losing someone you love
• Playing football to help you deal with aggressive
  impulses