Stress and health psychology

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Stress and health psychology

• liudexiang

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Overview

• Source of stress
• Coping with stress
• How stress affects health
• Staying healthy
• Extreme stress

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Stress

• Stress A state of psychological tension or
  strain.
• Health psychology A subfield of psychology
  concerned with the relationship between
  psychological factors and physical health and
  illness.

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Sources of stress

• Stressor Any environmental demand that creats a
  state of tension or threat and requires change or
  adaptation.

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Sources of stress

• Change
• Everyday hassles
• Self-imposed stress
• Stress and individual differences

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Everyday hassles

• Pressure A feeling that one must speed up,
  intensify, or change the direction of ones
  behavior or live up to a higher standard of
  performance.
• Frustration The feeling that occurs when a
  person is prevented from reaching a goal.

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Everyday hassles

• Conflict Simultaneous existence of incompatible
  demands, opportunities, needs, or goals.

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Types of conflict

• Approach/approach conflict
• Avoidance/avoidance conflict
• Approach/avoidance conflict

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Approach/approach conflict

• Approach/approach conflict According to Lewin,
  the result of simultaneous attraction to two
  appealing possibilities, neither of which has any
  negative qualities.

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Avoidance/avoidance conflict

• Avoidance/avoidance conflict According to Lewin,
  the result of facing a choice between two
  undesirable possiblities, neither of which has
  any positive qualities.

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Approach/avoidance conflict

• Approach/avoidance conflict According to Lewin,
  the result of being simultaneously attracted to
  and repelled by the same goal.

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Coping with stress

• Direct coping
• Defensive coping

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Direct coping

• Confrontation Acknowledging a stressful
  situation directly and attempting to find a
  solution to the problem or to attain the
  difficult goal.

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Direct coping

• Compromise deciding on a more realistic solution
  or goal when an ideal solution or goal is not
  practical.
• Withdrawal Avoiding a situation when other forms
  of coping are not practical.

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Defensive coping

• Defense mechanisms Self-deceptive techniques for
  reducing stress, including denial, repression,
  projection, identification, regression,
  intellectualization, reaction formation,
  displacement, and sublimation.

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Defense mechanisms

• Denial Refusal to acknowledge a painful or
  threatening reality.
• Repression Excluding uncomfortable thoughts,
  feelings, and desires from consciousness.
• Projection Attributing ones repressed motives,
  feelings, or wishes to others.

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Defense mechanisms

• Identification Taking on the characteristics of
  someone else to avoid feeling incompetent.
• Regression Reverting to childlike behavior and
  defenses.
• Intellectualization Thinking abstractly about
  stressful problems as a way of detaching oneself
  from them.

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Defense mechanisms

• Reaction formation Expression of exaggerated
  ideas and emotions that are the opposite of ones
  repressed beliefs or feelings.
• Displacement Shifting repressed motives and
  emotions from an orginal object to a substitute
  object.
• Sublimation Redirection repressed motives and
  feelings into more socially acceptable channels.

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Staying healthy

• Reduce stress
• Adopt a healthy lifestyle

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Reduce stress

• Calm down
• Reach out
• Religion and altruism
• Learn to cope effectively

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Adopt a healthy lifestyle

• Diet
• Exercise
• Quit smoking
• Avoid high risk behaviors

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Extreme stress

• Unemployment
• Divorce and separation
• Bereavement
• Catastrophes
• Combat and other threatening personal attacks

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Posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD)

• Psychological disorder characterized by episodes
  of anxiety, sleeplessness, and nightmares
  resulting from some disturbing past event.

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The end