Stress

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Stress
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I. What is Stress?
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A. Defining Stress

• 1. Stress emotional and physiological processes
  that occur as one attempts to deal with
  threatening/harmful circumstances
• 2. Stressors events or situations that present
  harm/danger, or cause anxiety/worry in
  individuals
• 3. Distress
• Negative emotional state
• Occurs in response to factors that are perceived
  as taxing or exceeding ones resources
• 4. Eustress
• Emotional state in response to events perceived
  as positive
• Can look physically the same as distress

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B. Types of Stressors

• 1. Big Stressors (also known as chronic
  stressors)
• Difficult life events that have major affects of
  well being
• Holmes Rahe scale rated Death of spouse as
  the most stressful life event
• 2. Little Stressors (also known as acute
  stressors)
• Daily hassles - everyday occurrences that annoy
  and upset
• Richard Lazarus found that these cumulative
  factors leave people drained, grumpy, and
  stressed out longer than big stressors do.

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C. Different types of conflict

• 1. Conflict arises when we face two or more
  incompatible demands, opportunities, needs, or
  goals
• Approach/approach conflict person is attracted
  to two different goals at the same time
• Avoidance/avoidance conflict person is
  confronted with two undesirable or threatening
  possibilities that have no positive attributes
• Approach/avoidance conflict person is both
  attracted to and repelled by the same goal
• Double Approach/Avoidance choosing between
  multiple options, each of which has pleasing and
  displeasing aspects

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D. Appraising the Situation

• 1. The level of stress you feel depends on how
  you appraise the situation
• 2. Primary appraisal our immediate evaluation
  of a situation
• 3. There are three ways you can appraise a
  situation
• Irrelevant
• Positive
• Negative
• 4. Secondary appraisal deciding how to deal
  with a stressful situation

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II. Reactions to Stress
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A. How Do We React?

• 1. A person who faces a stressor that is strong
  or long-lasting will react to it
• Some reactions are harmful
• Others are helpful
• Many are automatic
• 2. People react differently to stress
• Reactions can be physical (our bodys reaction),
  psychological (how we feel emotionally), or
  behavioral (how we act)
• 3. These reactions are not separate from each
  other
• The human body is holistic (everything works
  together to make up the whole person)
• Our physical well-being affects how we think and
  behave
• Example- Poor mental health can lead to physical
  illness

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B. Fight or Flight Response

• 1. Regardless of the stressor, the body reacts in
  a certain way
• Hormones that increase the amount of blood sugar
  for extra energy
• Adrenaline, which causes rapid breathing and
  enables the body to use energy more quickly
• 2. These responses are designed to prepare a
  person for self-defense

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B. Fight or Flight Response (cont.)

• 3. In wild animals, this response is needed for
  survival.
• It prepares them to either run from danger
  (flight) or stand and fight
• 4. This response prepares humans in the same way
  to deal with dangerous or stressful situations.
• Getting pulled over
• Being in a fight
• 5. If stress persists for a long time, the bodys
  resources are used up.
• The person becomes exhausted and, in extreme
  cases, dies

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C. General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

• 1. Hans Selye identified 3 stages in the bodys
  stress reaction.
• Alarm
• This stage is where body mobilizes fight or
  flight
• Person becomes very alert to things going on
  around him/her
• Example A hiker comes upon a rattlesnake. He
  freezes in his tracks and suddenly becomes aware
  of every sound around him. He tries not to panic.
  
• Resistance
• Person finds a mean to cope with stressor or ward
  it off (superficially)
• Ex. Hiker may tell himself to stay calm and wait
  for the snake to move off
• Exhaustion
• Breaking point the adrenal and other glands
  involved in the response have reached their limit
  
• Can no longer supply hormones (becomes exhausted
  and confused)

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III. Coping With Stress
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A. What is Coping?

• 1. Cognitive Appraisal the interpretation of an
  event that helps determine its stress impact
• Example It is finals week, and you need to make
  an A on the final. How do you feel?
• 2. We cope to get through times in which we feel
  stressed and everyone reacts differently

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B. Obstacle to Coping

• 1. Type A Type B Personality
• Friedman Rosenman
• Type A
• Tries to do more in less time
• General sense of hostility (frequent anger and
  irritation towards others)
• Intense ambition and competitiveness
• Hostility is the key factor that leads to ill
  health
• Type B
• More relaxed and laid back

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C. Defensive Coping Strategies

• 1. Denial a coping tool where a person decides
  that the event is not stressful
• 2. Intellectualization a coping tool where a
  person analyzes the situation from an emotionally
  detached viewpoint
• 3. Both can prevent physical reactions to stress

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D. Active Coping Strategies

• 1. Choosing an active strategy means you see the
  situation as a challenge and not a threat, so you
  will change the environment or situation to
  remove or reduce the stress
• 2. Hardiness personality traits of control,
  commitment, and challenge that help us reduce the
  stress we feel
• 3. Controlling Stressful Situations Active
  avoidance of a situation to control exposure to
  stress
• 4. Problem Solving Confronting the matter
  head-on
• 5. Explanatory Style Optimist vs. Pessimist

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D. Active Coping Strategies (contd)

• 6. Relaxation
• Progressive Relaxation Idea by Dr. Edmund
  Jacobson, which you lie down and tense and
  release the tension from major muscle groups
• Meditation A focusing of attention with the goal
  of clears ones mind and producing inner peace
• 7. Biofeedback The process of learning to
  control bodily states by monitoring the states to
  be controlled
• 8. Humor Using a sense of humor during
  tough/stressful times
• 9. Exercise Stimulates and provides an outlet
  for physical arousal and can burn off stress
  hormones

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IV. Stress in Your Life
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A. Growing Up

• 1. Gain a sense of autonomy (ability to take care
  of yourself and make your own decisions)
• 2. You develop a value system and learn to be
  responsible
• 3. Growing up means separating from family, both
  physically and emotionally
• Starts long before you leave home as an
  independent adult

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B. CollegeAdjustment

• 1. Studies show that first year college students
  found that many students approach college with
  unrealistic goals
• Based their goals on fantasy
• Did not have experience to make realistic choices
  or the maturity to evaluate their reasons for
  setting these goals
• 2. College requires adjustment
• Challenges the identity that a student built in
  high school
• Students are more likely to find more diversity
  in college than they ever experienced before
• Form relationships that might force themselves to
  examine basic beliefs and perhaps adopt new ones

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C. Stress in College

• 1. Some students stick to their initial goals and
  avoid people and situations that might bring
  doubt to the surface
• 2. Others avoid doubt by going through the
  motions of attending college without getting
  emotionally involved
• 3. Students can also keep their options open
  until they have enough information and experience
  to make a choice
• May give up their original goal and go in a
  different direction (form a new identity
  resynthesis)

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D. Working

• 1. Work experience varies different settings
  strict/flexible time schedules work for money or
  personal satisfaction
• 2. Five major sources of job satisfaction
• Resources- enough help, supplies, equipment to
  do job
• Financial reward- jobs to pay well and offer good
  benefits/security
• Challenge- jobs to be interesting and to use
  special talents
• Relations with co-workers- more satisfied if they
  like their peers
• Comfort- want good working conditions (hours,
  etc.)

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E. Careers

• 1. People change careers (field where they work a
  few years) often
• Examples Retire at 60 and get another career
  women raise children and then go back to work
• 2. People in careers that require same training,
  skill, and responsibility should receive same pay
  (comparable worth)
• Women are often paid lower than men
• Laws have been passed to prevent discrimination
  and pay inequality (Equal Pay Act of 1963 Civil
  Rights Act of 1964)