Chapter 6: Stress-Prone and Stress-Resistant Personalities

1
Chapter 6 Stress-Prone and Stress-Resistant
Personalities

• As I examined my own position, I realized that
  the preliminary period of my persecution was
  drawing to a close. Whatever lay ahead, I would
  have to redouble my efforts to frustrate my
  persecutors attempt to incriminate me. As long
  as they did not kill me, I would not give up...my
  mood was not one of fear and defeat, but one of
  resolution. - Nien
  Cheng

2
Personality

• Personality is thought to be comprised of
  several
• traits
• characteristics
• behaviors
• expressions
• moods
• feelings
• (as perceived by others)

3
Personality

• The complexity of ones personality is thought
  to be shaped by
• genetic factors
• family dynamics
• social influences
• personal experiences

4
Personality Types Stress

• Type A behavior
• Codependent personality
• Helpless-hopeless personality
• Hardy personality
• Type R personality (sensation seeker)

5
Type A Behavior

• time urgency
• polyphasia
• ultra-competitiveness
• rapid speech patterns
• manipulative control
• hyperaggressiveness and free-floating
  hostility
• Hostile aggression 1 CHD predictor

6
Social Influences Type A

• Material wealth
• Immediate gratification
• Competitiveness
• People as numbers
• Secularization
• Atrophy of the body and right brain
• Television watching

7
Codependent Personality Traits

• ardent approval seekers
• super-overachievers
• crisis managers
• devoted loyalists
• perfectionists
• martyrs/manipulators
• victims
• reactionaries
• inferiority/inadequacy

8
Codependent Personality Behaviors

• External referencing
• Lack of emotional boundaries
• Impression management
• Mistrust of ones own perceptions
• Martyr syndrome
• Lack of spiritual health

9
Codependents Fears

• Fear of rejection
• Fear of the unknown
• Fear of failure

• Need to be needed

10
Helpless-Hopeless Personality

• a.k.a.
• Learned Helplessness
• The Theory of Attribution
• Locus of control

11
Learned Helplessness Develops

• When individuals experience uncontrollable life
  events.
• When individuals believe they can do nothing to
  change the outcome of the events.
• When individuals develop inappropriate
  expectations that outcomes of future events will
  also be beyond their control.

12
Learned Helplessness deficits/consequences

• Motivational deficits
• apathy, listlessness, giving up
• Cognitive deficits
• decreased ability to learn new responses
• Emotional/Affective deficits
• depression, lowered self-competence

13
Learned Helplessness
Internal/External Global/Specific Stable/Unstable
I control what happens to me. The world controls what happens to me This event has huge effects. This event has limited effects. Things will always be like this. Things can change.
Personal Pervasive Relatively permanent
14
Learned Helplessness

• When a bad thing happens, do you think it will
  just be a bad day?
• Do you succeed because you are smart? Lucky this
  time? Or because things just happened to work
  out?
• Do you fail because you are stupid? Because life
  is unfair?
• LANGUAGE
• I failed the test because Im stupid I cant
  pass any tests. (internal-stable-global)
• Everyone who took the exam with me failed that
  test was unfair Ill pass other tests.
  (external-unstable-specific attribution)

15
Hardy PersonalityA Stress Resilient Personality

• Commitment
• Control
• Challenge

16
Hardy / Type A

• Resilient people may have many Type A
  traitsbut MINUS feelings of hostility.
• Resilient people enjoy life and hurry in order to
  experience more. They love life.

17
Type R personalitysensation seekers

• Zuckerman identified the sensation-seeking
  personality, as those people who seek thrills and
  sensations but take calculated risks in their
  endeavors they appear to be dominated by an
  adventurous spirit.

18
Self-EsteemThe Bottom-Line Defense

• Basic elements of high self-esteem
• connectedness
• uniqueness
• personal power
• models / mentors
• Be OK with the fact that there are some things
  over which we have NO control!

19
Self-EsteemRaise and/or Maintain

• No criticism
• Positive reinforcements and affirmations
• Avoid should haves
• Focus on internal self
• Avoid comparisons
• Diversify
• Improve connectedness
• Avoid self-victimization
• Know your value!

20

• SELF-IMAGE
• how you perceive yourself
• SELF-ESTEEM
• how you value yourself

21
(No Transcript)