Stress, Coping, and Health

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Stress, Coping, and Health
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The RelationshipBetween Stress and Disease

• Contagious diseases vs. chronic diseases
• Biopsychosocial model
• Health psychology
• Health promotion and maintenance
• Discovery of causation, prevention, and treatment

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Stress An Everyday Event

• Major stressors vs. routine hassles
• Cumulative nature of stress
• Cognitive appraisals

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Major Types of Stress

• Frustration blocked goal
• Conflict incompatible motivations
• Approach-approach
• Approach-avoidance
• Avoidance-avoidance
• Change having to adapt
• Social Readjustment Rating Scale
• Life Change Units
• Pressure
• Perform/conform

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Overview of the Stress Process
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Responding to Stress Emotionally

• Emotional Responses
• Annoyance, anger, rage
• Apprehension, anxiety, fear
• Dejection, sadness, grief
• Positive emotions
• Emotional response and performance
• The inverted-U-hypothesis

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Responding to Stress Physiologically

• Physiological Responses
• Fight-or-flight response
• Selyes General Adaptation Syndrome
• Alarm
• Resistance
• Exhaustion

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Responding to Stress Behaviorally

• Behavioral Responses
• Frustration-aggression hypothesis
• catharsis
• defense mechanisms
• Coping
• Reappraisal
• Confronting problems
• Using humor
• Expressing emotions
• Managing hostility

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Effects of StressBehavioral and Psychological

• Impaired task performance
• Burnout
• Psychological problems and disorders
• Positive effects

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Effects of Stress Physical

• Psychosomatic diseases
• Heart disease
• Type A behavior - 3 elements
• strong competitiveness
• impatience and time urgency
• anger and hostility
• Emotional reactions and depression
• Stress and immune functioning
• Reduced immune activity

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Factors Moderating the Impact of Stress

• Social support
• Increased immune functioning
• Optimism
• More adaptive coping
• Pessimistic explanatory style
• Conscientiousness
• Fostering better health habits
• Autonomic reactivity
• Cardiovascular reactivity to stress

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Firefighter Specific Stressors

• Reliance on teamwork
• Low job control
• Sleep disturbances/Shift work
• Boredom
• Coworker conflict
• Management-Labor conflict
• Second jobs
• Marital/Family spillover

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Firefighter Stress Reactions

• Apprehension/Dread
• Intrusive thoughts
• No hope
• Sleep difficulties
• Gastrointestinal symptoms
• Throat and mouth symptoms

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At-Risk Firefighters

• Research reveals 2 distinct profiles for at-risk
  firefighters
• Profile 1 (somaticizers) Reported greater
  frequency and intensity of physical symptoms
• Head/neck/facial tension
• Gastrointestinal distress
• Cardiopulmonary complaints
• Profile 2 (psychological stress) Reported higher
  levels of
• Apprehension/dread
• Anger
• Generalized anxiety
• Agitated depression

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Implications for treatment

• Identify high-risk firefighters
• No penalty or stigmatization
• Potential interventions
• Psychoeducation
• Work redesign
• Coping skills training
• Relaxation training
• Conflict-resolution training
• Leadership training
• Sleep hygiene education

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Coping Skills

• Problem-focused coping
• Taking direct action
• Planning
• Suppression of competing activities
• Restraint coping
• Seeking social support

• Emotion-focused coping
• Focusing on and venting emotions
• Behavioral disengagement
• Mental disengagement
• Positive reappraisal
• Denial
• Acceptance
• Turning to religion