Stress and Psychological Disorders

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Stress and Psychological Disorders

• 6.19.2006

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(No Transcript)
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Agenda

• What is stress?
• Effects of stress
• Coping strategies
• Adjustment Disorder

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What is stress?

• No, seriously, what is it?
• How do you know youre experiencing stress?
• What does it feel like?
• What are the consequences of stress?
• What do you do to relieve stress?

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What is stress?Definitions

• Stress (stress response) physiological,
  behavioral, emotional, or cognitive reaction to a
  stressor
• Distress negative stress (anger, frustration,
  neg. mood, etc)
• Eustress positive stress (hope, meaning,
  positive mood, etc)
• Stressor Environmental demands that have the
  potential to trigger the stress response
• Physical illness, pain, lack of sleep, poor
  nutrition, etc.
• Psychological rejection, novelty, anticipation
  of punishment, etc.
• Coping Strategies the ways in which people try
  to deal with stressors in order to decrease the
  severity/extent of the stress response

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What is stress?Acute Stress

• Discrete, immediate event
• Results in a short-term activation of stress
  response
• Fight or Flight response
• Adrenaline is released
• Mental energy is used for evaluating the stressor
• Physiological changes occur to help the body
  fight, flee, and defend against injuries
• Allows for focused attention, energy, and
  enhanced immune system activity

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What is stress?Stress Response

• Stress Hypothalamus Pituitary Gland
• Catecholamines / Cortisol Adrenal Cortex
• Catecholamines - Chemical compounds that prepare
  the body for fight or flight by increasing ones
  heart rate, blood pressure, glucose levels, etc.
• Cortisol Hormone that helps restore homeostasis
  after stress
• Unfortunately, for some, this circuit doesnt
  turn off

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What is stress?Chronic/Repeated Stress

• Results in long-term activation of stress
  response and is associated with
• Physical problems Heart disease, hypertension,
  hyperglycemia, suppressed immune system activity,
  headaches, back pain, sleep disturbances
• Psychological problems Mood disturbances,
  burnout, anger, lowered ability to cope with new
  stressors
• Cognitive problems Impairments in learning and
  memory formation, poor concentration, loss of
  perspective
• Behavior problems Increased use of tobacco,
  drugs, and alcohol, increased absenteeism,
  reduced productivity, interpersonal withdrawal,
  poor self-care

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Effects of Stress

• Is stress always bad?
• What makes stress worse?
• Will two people experience the same amount of
  stress if exposed to the same stressor?

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Effects of stress - Is stress always bad?
Yerkes-Dodson Law
High
PERFORMANCE
Low
Low
High
STRESS LEVEL
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Effects of stressWhat makes stress worse?

• Nature of the stressor
• Importance
• Duration
• Cumulative effect
• Multiplicity
• Imminence
• Ambiguity
• Surprise
• Ability to cope with the stressor
• Lack of resources to deal with stressor
  (biological, psychological, interpersonal, etc.)
• Chronic stress can lower our ability to resist
  and/or cope with stressors

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Effects of StressSocial Support

• For nurses and accountants, high social support
  buffered the effects of stress in times of high
  stress

High
HEART RATE
Low
Weekday
Weekend
People with high social support
People with low social support
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What is stress?Ability to resist stress

• Alarm acute stress, initial decrease, person
  gets resources need to correct the perceived
  problem
• Resistance chronic stress, long-term coping,
  utilize all available resources
• Exhaustion resources become depleted,
  physiologically and psychologically vulnerable

ALARM
RESISTANCE
EXHAUSTION
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Effects of stressIndividual Differences

• Stress Tolerance (Resilience)
• A persons ability to withstand stress without
  becoming severely impaired
• People vary greatly in overall vulnerability to
  stressors
• Children are particularly vulnerable
• Early traumatic experiences can increase, or
  decrease, future vulnerability
• Perception of Stressor
• The same events are interpreted differently by
  people
• Stress is different depending upon how competent
  a person feels in their ability to handle the
  stressor
• Realistic expectations for stressful events helps
• Being able to see some benefit arising from a
  stressor can help as well

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Coping

• How do you cope with stress?
• How do your friends cope with stress?
• Do certain coping mechanisms tend to help more
  than others?

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CopingGoals

• Two goals
• Meet the requirements of the stressor
• Protect the self from physical and psychological
  damage

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CopingResources

• Levels of Coping
• Biological
• Immune system defends against disease
• Damage-repair mechanisms
• Diet, exercise, sleep
• Sociocultural
• Labor unions
• Religious organizations
• Law enforcement agencies
• Interpersonal
• Family
• Friends
• Significant others
• Teams/groups
• Psychological

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CopingPsychological Resources

• Learned coping patterns (avoidance, anger, etc.)
• Self-defenses (denial, repression,
  intellectualization, etc.)
• Optimism
• Self-esteem
• Locus of control
• Self-complexity
• Self-talk
• Relaxation

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Psychological ResourcesLocus of Control

• A persons belief in where control is located
• Internal Locus of Control a person believes
  that s/he has control over the situation and s/he
  is responsible for its outcome, this person
  attributes successes and failures to things that
  s/he did
• External Locus of Control a person believes
  that some external force is in control of the
  situation and s/he has no control over its
  outcome, this person attributes successes and
  failures to things that s/he has no control over

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Psychological ResourcesSelf-Complexity

• Self-complexity - the number of self-aspects a
  person has as well as the overlap between them
• Eg. A student, an athlete, a friend, etc.
• High self-complexity buffers the effects of
  stress, depression, and illness by containing the
  negative effects of a stressor so that the entire
  self is not affected
• High Self Complexity Low Self-Complexity

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Psychological ResourcesSelf-talk

• Self-talk the things we say to ourselves
• Negative, inaccurate self-talk can contribute to
  stress
• Positive, accurate self-talk can reduce our
  stress
• I must get an A on this Extremely high levels
• test because if I dont, of stress and
  anxiety
• Im a failure
• I would like to get an A, but Some stress and
  anxiety,
• I dont NEED to get an A. If I but
  significantly less than
• dont get an A, that DOESNT before
• mean I am a stupid person

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Psychological ResourcesRelaxation

• What do you do to relax?
• Breathing
• Mediatation/Mindfulness
• Yoga
• Exercise
• Hobbies
• Massage

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CopingDefense-oriented coping

• Defense-oriented coping
• Responses protect the self from hurt and
  disorganization often directed at things/people
  that are not the stressor
• Common types of responses
• Damage repair responses (eg. crying, mourning,
  shouting, etc.)
• Ego defense mechanisms (eg. blaming, repression,
  denial, etc.)
• Have the potential to be maladaptive if they are
  used to the extreme or if they are the only
  coping strategies used
• External Locus of Control

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CopingTask-oriented coping

• Task-oriented coping
• Responses change aspects of life often directed
  at the stressor
• Common types of responses
• To change the stressor so that it is no longer a
  stressor
• To change ones self or surroundings so that the
  stressor is no longer a stressor
• Typically more productive
• Internal Locus of Control

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Adjustment DisorderCriteria

• The development of emotional or behavioral
  symptoms in response to a stressor within 3
  months of the onset of the stressor
• The symptoms are clinically significant, as
  evidenced by one of the following
• Marked distress in excess of what would be
  expected
• Significant impairment in functioning
• The symptoms do not meet criteria for another
  disorder
• The symptoms do not represent bereavement
• Once the stressor is gone, the symptoms do not
  persist longer than 6 months

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Adjustment Disorder Considerations

• Prevalence 2-8 (community samples)
• 10-30 (clinical samples)
• Gender Occurs in both men and women
• May be more common in adult women than
  adult men
• Age of onset Occurs in all age groups
• Course By definition, no longer than 6 months
• Associated w/ Decreased performance in
  work/school, changes in relationships, suicide
  (attempts), somatic complaints, substance use,
  etc.
• Culture The experience of and reaction to
  stressors may vary across cultures as well as
  the evaluation of that reaction