Chapter 3

• Nature, types and sources of stress are examined as life challenges.
• The effects of stress on psychological functioning and health are examined.
• Stress management techniques are discussed to cope with stress.
• Promoting positive health and well-being is a key aspect of stress management.
• Life skills are discussed to stay healthy.
• Resilience and health are examined as factors that promote positive health and well-being.
• Lifestyle factors that can cause stress and lead to diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease are difficult to change.
• Parents and grandparents face unique stressors in their lives and have developed coping strategies to deal with them.
• Coping strategies can be suggested to friends to avoid stress in their everyday lives.
• A life event that is likely to be stressful can cause different degrees of stress to the person experiencing it.
• Environmental factors that have a positive impact on the being are those that contribute to health and well-being.
• Different stressors are faced by girls and boys, and they cope with them in unique ways.
• Environmental factors that have a negative effect are those that contribute to disease and illness.
• Generally, social support leads to mental health benefits for both the giver and the receiver.
• People with high levels of social support from family and friends may experience less stress when they confront a stressful experience, and they may cope with it more successfully.
• For example, a student facing a stressful event such as a difficult board examination, if provided information by a friend who has faced a similar one, would not only be able to identify the exact procedures involved, but also it would facilitate in determining what resources and coping strategies could be useful to successfully pass the examination.
• Research has demonstrated that social support effectively reduces psychological distress such as depression or anxiety, during times of stress.
• There is growing evidence that social support is positively related to psychological well-being.
• During times of stress, one may experience sadness, anxiety, and loss of self-esteem.
• Supportive friends and family provide emotional support by reassuring the individual that she/he is loved, valued, and cared for.
• Family and friends also provide informational support about stressful events.
• For example, a child gives notes to her/his friend, since s/he was absent from school due to sickness.
• Social support may be in the form of tangible support or assistance involving material aid, such as money, goods, services, etc.
• Daily hassles are very frequent in jobs where people are under constant pressure.
• Professional help will be needed to cope with them especially if they persist for many months after the event is over.
• The more stress people report as a result of daily hassles, the poorer is their psychological well-being.
• There are four major effects of stress associated with the stressed state, viz emotional, physiological, cognitive, and behavioural.
• Behavioural effects of stress include eating less nutritional food, increasing intake of stimulants such as caffeine, excessive consumption of cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs such as tranquillisers etc.
• Chronic daily stress can divert an individual’s attention from caring for herself or himself.
• Emotional effects of stress include mood swings, erratic behaviour, feelings of anxiety and depression, increased physical tension, increased psychological tension and mood swings.
• Traumatic events include being involved in a variety of extreme events such as a fire, train or road accident, robbery, earthquake, tsunami, etc.
• Daily hassles may sometimes have devastating consequences for the individual who is often the one coping alone with them as others may not even be aware of them as outsiders.
• Physiological effects of stress include increased production of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which produce marked changes in heart rate, blood pressure levels, metabolism and physical activity.
• When stress is prolonged, it affects physical health and impairs psychological functioning.
• Severe trauma can also strain relationships.
• Hassles are the personal stresses we endure as individuals, due to the happenings in our daily life, such as noisy surroundings, commuting, quarrelsome neighbours, electricity and water shortage, traffic snarls, and so on.
• Cognitive effects of stress include mental overload, poor concentration, and reduced short-term memory capacity.
• The effects of these events may occur after some lapse of time and sometimes persist as symptoms of anxiety, flashbacks, dreams and intrusive thoughts, etc.
• Psychological appraisal of events is important for the determination of stress.
• Psychoneuroimmunology studies the effects of stress on the immune system.