Interventions

1
Interventions

2
Intervention

• Blocks stress from causing negative consequences
• Anxiety a non-specific fear
• Psychological discomfort
• Illness disease

3
Cognitive Appraisal

• 1. Life situation
• 2. Perception of event as distressing
• 3. Emotional reaction
• 4. Physiological arousal
• Muscle tension
• Blood pressure
• Blood glucose
• Decreased immunological effectiveness and
  digestion
• Chronic-arousal ? disease
• 5. Consequences

4
Roadblocks

• Idea that at every stage, an intervention is
  possible

5
Some possible interventions

• 1. Life situations Time management
• 2. Perception Self-talk
• 3. Emotions Awareness, social support
• 4. Physiological Arousal Relaxation
• 5. Consequences Problem-solving

6
Stress and Performance

• Eustress
• Distress

7
Yerkes-Dodson Curve

High
Performance
Eustress
Distress
Low
High
Stress level
8
Control over stress

• Q What force(s), factor(s), or agent(s) is
  currently exerting the greatest proportion of
  control over your personal stress level?

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Control over stress (contd)

• A You are. (Largely.)

10
Control over stress (contd)

• Frankl, V. (1959). Mans Search for Meaning.

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Control over stress (contd)

• Stressors of a concentration camp, as experienced
  by Frankl
• Biological little control
• Psychological some control
• Sociological little control
• Philosophical (existential) more control

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Controlling perceptions emotions

• Difficulty of control vs. consequences

Higher difficulty
Low difficulty
Less harmful
More harmful
Physical nature of consequences
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Controlling perceptions emotions (contd)

• Invitations entice people to feel a certain way
• Force is not implicit in an invitation
• Physical force has a greater likelihood, but no
  certainty, of eliciting a given emotional
  reaction
• Criminal law deals with those actions which are
  most likely (though not guaranteed) to cause some
  measure of personal stress.

14
Time for stress management?

• If you dont have the time and energy to
  implement an intervention at one of the five
  levels
• You probably need to re-examine the effectiveness
  of an intervention at another level

15
Time for stress management (contd)

• I dont have time to apply structured time
  management techniques.
• Ive tried to relax, but every time I look at my
  schedule I feel overwhelmed!
• Im so far behind at work, I cant afford to be
  sick! If I have to take a day off, Ill just work
  twice as hard next week.

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Conclusion

• We are neither in complete control of our
  destiny, nor are we pawns to the whims of the
  universe. The truth is probably somewhere in
  between.