Chapter 12: PowerPoint

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Chapter 12 PowerPoint 1 Stress and Health
Psychology

• Stress
• Any environmental demand that creates a state of
  tension or threat and requires change or
  adaptation

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1. Sources of Stress

• A. Life Changes
• Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes and
  Rahe)
• Assesses major life changes i.e. death of
  spouse, divorce
• Indicates likelihood of getting ill
• Click here to view the College Life Stress
  Inventory table

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• B. Everyday Hassles
• Pressure
• Forced to speed up or shift
• Frustration
• Being prevented from reaching ones goals
• Delays, lack of resources, losses, failure,
  discrimination

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• C. Conflict - Incompatible demands,
  opportunities, goals, needs
• Approach/approach conflict
• Avoidance/avoidance conflict
• Approach/avoidance conflict
• Click here to view the Types of Conflict table
• D. Stress and Individual Difference
• Hardiness and resilience
• Self-imposed stress

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2. Coping with Stress

• A. Direct Coping
• Confrontation
• Acknowledging stress directly and initiating
  coping
• Compromise
• Choosing a more realistic goal when an ideal goal
  cannot be met
• Withdrawal
• Avoiding a situation when other options are NOT
  practical

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• B. Defensive Coping/Defensive Mechanisms
• Denial - refuse to acknowledge reality
• Repression - push uncomfortable thoughts from
  awareness
• Projection - attribute ones motives to others
• Identification - taking on characteristics of
  someone else
• Regression - reverting to immature behaviors

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• Intellectualization - very detached analysis of
  problems
• Reaction Formation - expressing exaggerated
  beliefs opposite to ones own
• Displacement - shifting feelings onto something
  less threatening
• Sublimation - Redirecting motives into socially
  acceptable channels
• Click here to view the Defense Mechanisms table

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• C. Socioeconomic and Gender Differences in Coping
• Being poor in itself is stressful, also left with
  less resources
• Women and men seem to be equally affected by
  stress

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3. Stress and Health

• A. The Biology of Stress
• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) - Hans Selye
• Alarm reaction
• In stage 1, alarm reaction, the body recognizes
  that it must fight off some physical or
  psychological danger and acts accordingly.
• Resistance
• During the resistance stage, physical symptoms of
  strain appear as we intensify our efforts to cope
  both directly and defensively.
• Exhaustion
• In the exhaustion stage, we use increasingly
  ineffective defense mechanisms to bring the
  stress under control. Some people lose touch with
  reality, while others show signs of "burnout."

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• B. Stress and Heart Disease
• Type A - linked to heart disease (esp. hostility)
• Type B - relaxed
• C. Stress and the Immune System
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Shows stress suppresses immune function
• Stress and Health Video

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• D. Staying Healthy
• Exercise, relaxation, humor
• Importance of social support, positive
  reappraisal
• Stress and Memory Video

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4. Extreme Stress

• A. Sources of Extreme Stress
• Unemployment
• Stages of relief, optimism, doubt, malaise,
  cynicism
• Divorce and separation
• Ambivalence, failure, sadness, fear
• Bereavement
• Coping with painful, inescapable reality
• Catastrophes
• Reactions - shock, suggestible stage, recovery
• Combat and other threatening personal attacks

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• B. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Psychological disorder caused by reaction to a
  severely stressful event
• Combat veterans are especially vulnerable
• Flashbacks victim relives the trauma

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5. The Well-Adjusted Person

• It is possible to evaluate adjustment using the
  following criteria (Morris, 1990)
• A. Does the action meet the demand? or just
  postpone?
• B. Does the action meet the individual's needs?
• C. Is the action compatible with the well-being
  of others?
• Cancer Groups Video