Health and Stress

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Health and Stress

• Chapter 13

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Stress

• Defined
• Physiological and psychological response to a
  threatening or challenging or threatening
  condition that requires adjustment or adaptation
• Stress response is evolutionary reaction to
  danger
• Stress responsefight-or-flight response
• If stress response does not turn of appropriately
  then health problems can occur

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Stress

• Different kinds of stressors
• Major life events
• Daily hassles

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Stress

• DeLongis et al. (1988)
• Daily stress (hassles) significantly correlated
  with health problems such as flu, sore throat,
  headaches, and backaches
• Pillow et al. (1996)
• Minor hassles associated with stressful major
  life events better predictors of psychological
  stress than the life events
• Uplifts combat the hassles

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Sources of stress

• Everyday stressors
• Making choices
• Approach-approach conflict
• Having to choose between two desirable
  alternatives
• Example
• Avoidance-avoidance conflict
• Having to choose between two undesirable
  alternatives
• Example
• Approach-avoidance conflict
• Need to choose to do something or not and the
  choice has good and bad aspects
• Example

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Sources of stress

• Everyday stressors
• Unpredictability and lack of control
• Those who are prepared for a stressor will
  experience less stress than those who arent
• More control of our lives influences physical and
  psychological well-being
• Langer Rodin (1976)
• Stress of being a minority
• Just being different can lead to stress even in
  the absence of racism or discrimination

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Sources of stress

• Occupational Stress
• Variables in work stress
• Workload
• Clarity of job description and evaluation
  criteria
• Physical variables
• Accountability
• Task variety
• Human contact
• Physical challenge
• Mental challenge

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Sources of stress

• Occupational Stress
• Decision latitude
• Degree to which you can exercise initiative and
  use your skills to control working environment
• High workload/low latitudehigh stress
• High workload/high latitude
• Burnout
• Result of intense and unmanaged job stress
  resulting in pessimism, dissatisfaction,
  inefficiency, and psychological difficulties

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Sources of stress

• Catastrophic events
• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Prolonged and severe stress reaction to
  catastrophic event or to chronic intense stress
• Symptoms
• Estimated 1-2 of Americans meet diagnostic
  criteria
• Disorder may present early or even 6 months after
  event
• 400,000 Vietnam vets found to suffer from PTSD
• Bloche and Eisenberg (1993)

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Theories of stress

• Selye (1956)
• Stressors cause specific (i.e., extreme cold
  causes shivering) and nonspecific responses
• Nonspecific stress response General Adaptation
  Syndrome
• Sequence of three reactions in response to a
  stressor
• Alarm stage emotional arousal occurs and
  defensive forces of the body are prepared to
  fight or flee
• Resistance stage intense physiological efforts
  to either resist or adapt to the stressor
• Exhaustion stage occurs in the event of a failed
  attempt to resist stressor

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Theories of stress

• Lazaruss (1966) Cognitive theory
• Takes into account psychological factors of
  stress
• When confronted with stressful event the
  following cognitive process ensues
• Primary appraisal
• Secondary appraisal
• Stress response
• Physiological
• Emotional
• Behavioral
• Depends on whether stressor is appraised as
  challenging or threatening

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Coping with Stress

• Problem-focused coping
• Reduce, modify, or eliminate source of stress
• Example
• Emotion-focused coping
• Allows one to cope with stressors that cant be
  reduced, modified, or eliminated
• Changes the way to respond emotionally
• Well-functioning individuals utilize both
  strategies
• Lord, grant me the strength to change to things
  that I can change (problem-focused), the grace to
  accept those things that I cannot change
  (emotion-focused), and the wisdom to know the
  difference.
• Proactive coping

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Health Illness

• Biomedical Model
• Biopsychosocial Model
• This model led to new specialty in psychology
• Health Psychology
• Concerned with how psychosocial factors relate to
  the promotion and maintenance of health, and with
  the causation, prevention, and treatment of
  illness.
• Factors include stress and personality, lifestyle
  choices, and compliance behaviors
• Focus

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Health Illness

• Coronary heart disease
• Caused by narrowing or blockage of arteries that
  supply blood to the heart
• Leading cause of death in US (31 of all deaths)
• Declined 50 in past 30 years
• Risk factors

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Health Illness

• Personality as a risk factor
• Type A
• Marked by sense of time urgency, excessive
  competitiveness, impatience, hostility, and anger
• Considered a risk factor for heart disease
• Hostility is the characteristic that is
  predictive of heart disease
• Associated with general bad health
• Type B
• Marked by a relaxed, easy-going approach to life
• Not associated with heart disease

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Health Illness

• Personality as a risk factor
• Suppressed anger, resentment, loneliness, and
  dissatisfaction may be a death risk factor for
  female heart attack survivors
• Financial, emotional stress, the lack of an
  intimate relationship seems to be associated with
  increased heart disease-induced death risk

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Health Illness

• Cancer
• Abnormal cell growth that eventually kills the
  organism
• 2nd leading cause of death in US (23)
• 30 of Americans will develop cancer
• Risk factors

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Health Illness

• Stress and the immune system
• Lymphocytes
• White blood cells-including B cells and T
  cells-that are key component of immune system
• B cells produce antibodies that destroy antigens
  (foreign cells) in the bloodstream
• T cells destroy antigens that reside inside cell
  bodies
• AIDS attacks the T cells
• Juvenile diabetes, MS, and rheumatoid arthritis
  occur as result of immune system attacking
  healthy cells

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Health Illness

• Stress and the immune system
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Study of the effects of psychological factors on
  the immune system by psychologists, biologists,
  and medical researchers.
• Ader (2000) Cohen (1997)
• High stress associated with infectious diseases
• Stress shown to cause decrease in B and T cells
• Stress associated with increase in report
  physical symptoms and seeking medical care
• Academic pressures, poor marital relationships,
  and sleep deprivation, depression, and severe
  bereavement linked to lower immune system
  response

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Health Illness

• Factors that contribute to better health
• Optimism
• Psychological Hardiness
• Combination of three psychological qualities
  shared by individuals who stay healthy despite
  experiencing high stress

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Health Illness

• Factors that contribute to better health
• Religious Involvement
• Hospitalized elderly men who used religious
  coping found to be less depressed
• Study found frequent religious attendance to be
  correlated with better health habits
• Religious involvement positively correlated with
  measures of physical health and lower rates of
  cancer, heart disease, and stroke
• Social Support
• Help in time of need
• Has positive effect on immune system and
  cardiovascular and endocrine systems
• Reduces impact of stress from job loss, long-term
  illness, retirement, and bereavement
• Study found those with low support died at twice
  the rate as those with support

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Lifestyle Health

• People have a tendency to underestimate the
  risks associated with their own health-impairing
  habits(Weitan Lloyd, 2002, p.404)
• Smoking
• Although on the decline since the 60s,
• Health effects
• Earlier death due to
• Cancer
• Heart disease
• Impacts others

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Lifestyle Health

• Smoking
• GIVE IT UP!
• It can be done!
• Health risks decline
• The less smoked, the better the success rate
• Nicotine substitutes really CAN help!

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Lifestyle Health

• Alcohol
• THE most common of the drugs
• Over 68 of average adults drink
• Over 85 of undergrads drink
• Why? To relax, relieve negative emotions, social
  inclusion
• Short-term, negative effects
• Physical effectsthe hangover
• Poor decision-making

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Lifestyle Health

• Alcohol
• Long-term effects
• DRUNK DRIVING
• DANGEROUS, DEADLY, ILLEGAL
• Alcohol Dependence or ALCOHOLISM
• Chronic health problems
• What risk to home, family, loved ones?

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Lifestyle Health

• Nutrition
• Dietary elements of concern
• Fat content
• Cholesterol LDL vs HDL - Do you know yours?
• Relationship to colon, breast, and rectal cancer
• Salt Caffeine
• Increased risk factors for hypertension
• Calcium
• Osteoporosis
• Developmental significance for youth
• Vitamins
• C disease resistance
• E anti-aging
• BOTH arterial elasticity
• Nutritional goal GOOD health

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Lifestyle Health

• Exercise
• Benefits
• Increases efficiency of the heart
• Raises HDLs
• Helps you lose or maintain weight
• Strengthens bones
• Moderates effects of stress
• Increases energy and resistance to fatigue
• Increases natural killer cell activity

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Lifestyle Health

• Exercise
• COMBAT a Lack of Exercise with
• ACTIVITY that you ENJOY!
• GRADUAL increase in rigor and time of
  participation
• Engage REGULARLY
• 30 minutes, EVERY 2 days
• Look to target heart rate for conditioning effect
• REWARD yourself
• Avoid competitions
• Even with yourself
• Dont weigh every day
• DO look in the mirror!

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