perdev

• Stress


  is defined as a reaction of the mind and body to a stimulus that disturbs the well-being, state of calmness, or balance of a person. There is a common belief that stress is unhealthy, but discussions among experts conclude that this is not entirely the case.
• Sources of Stress


  managing new roles and responsibilities

  identifying personal strengths and weaknesses and refining skills to coordinate and succeed in these roles

  finding meaning and purpose in the roles acquired

  assessing and making necessary life changes and coping with these changes.
• Cognitive Symptoms


  Memory problems

  Inability to concentrate

  Poor judgment

  Seeing only the negative

  Anxious or racing thoughts

  Constant worrying
• Emotional Symptoms


  Moodiness

  Irritability or short temper

  Agitation, inability to relax

  Feeling overwhelmed

  Sense of loneliness and isolation

  Depression or general unhappiness
• Physical Symptoms


  Headaches

  Back pains

  Diarrhea or constipation

  Frequent colds

  Rapid heartbeat dizziness
• Eustress


  is a kind of stress that helps in promoting one's growth and development by providing sufficient challenges that allow one to become more resourceful and show initiative in problem-solving. Without some stress, life would be such a comfort zone and may lead to boredom.
• EXAMPLES OF EUSTRESS


  Traveling

  Playing sports

  Exercise

  Meeting new people

  Smaller challenges: excitement of a roller coaster or a fun challenge
• distress


  Bad stress, or ___________ may include negative changes in behavior, such as "feeling sick" when stress is already manifested in physical symptoms, lack of interaction with others, and or expressions of feelings of stress (American Psychological Association, n.d).
• eustress


  keeps a person alert, motivated, and excited which results in improved performance.
• Defense Mechanism


  are a way for the mind to cope with stress or difficult feelings. They are unconscious mechanisms, which means that a person uses them without realizing it.
• Defense mechanisms


  are unconscious psychological strategies used to protect a person from anxiety caused by unacceptable thoughts or feelings. Sigmund Freud argued that the mind was made up of three components: the id, ego, and superego.
• Id


  basic needs, impulses, and desires
• Ego


  responsible for how we react to, function in, and make sense of the external world
• Superego


  houses all the rules that we have learned throughout our life and uses these to control the ego
• Sigmund Freud


  WHO??

  Denial

  Repression

  Projection

  Displacement

  Regression

  Sublimation

  Rationalization

  Reaction formation
• Denial


  involves a refusal to accept reality, thus blocking external events from awareness. If a situation is just too much to handle, the person may respond by refusing to perceive it or by denying that it exists.

  
  

  Ex: A husband may refuse to recognize obvious signs of his wife's infidelity.

  
  

  A business owner denies that her business is failing despite declining profits.

  
  

  A smoker denies that his habit has negative health consequences so he can continue smoking.
• Repression


  an unconscious defense mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious. It is just that: not being able to recall a threatening situation, person, or event. Thoughts that are often repressed are those that would result in feelings of guilt from the superego.

  
  

  Example: A soldier back from the Middle East represses a memory of killing a civilian. He has recurrent nightmares about the incident but doesn't consciously remember it.

  
  

  A young child forgets being bitten by a dog but develops a phobia of dogs as he gets older.
• Projection


  a psychological defense mechanism in which an individual attributes unwanted thoughts, feelings, and motives to another person. It involves the tendency to see your own unacceptable desires in other people. In other words, the desires are still there, but they're not your desires anymore.

  
  

  Example:

  - You really dislike your manager at work who treats you just like they treat everyone else. Instead of admitting your dislike, you tell everyone the manager has bitterness against you and is trying to sabotage your career.

  - A woman is in a bad mood all day and comes home to her husband. After greeting her warmly and asking about her day, she instantly accuses him of being in a bad mood and ruining her evening.
• Displacement


  the redirection of an impulse (usually aggression) onto a powerless substitute target. The target can be a person or an object that can serve as a symbolic substitute. It occurs when the Id wants to do something which the Superego does not permit. The Ego thus finds some other way of releasing the psychic energy of the Id. Thus, there is a transfer of energy from a repressed object to a more acceptable object.

  
  

  Example:

  - Someone who is frustrated by his or her superiors may go home and kick the dog, beat up a family member, or engage in cross-burnings.

  - A woman who is frustrated because her boss made her work late again comes home and yells at her son for asking what's for dinner.

  -A man who is mad that he can't seem to get ahead at work constantly criticizes his wife for not making more money.
• Regression


  a defense mechanism whereby the ego reverts to an earlier stage of development usually in response to stressful situations. Regression functions as a form of retreat, enabling a person to psychologically go back in time to a period when the person felt safer. When we are troubled or frightened, our behaviors often become more childish or primitive.

  
  

  Example:

  -In response to the news that his parents are getting divorced, John has displayed behavior that is more typical of younger children. When frustrated, he screams and bites, kicks and hits his parents, and has started wetting the bed.

  -A woman gets into an argument with someone at work and starts sobbing uncontrollably.
• Sublimation


  similar to displacement but takes place when we manage to displace our unacceptable emotions into behaviors that are constructive and socially acceptable, rather than destructive activities. Many great artists and musicians have had unhappy lives and have used the medium of art of music to express themselves.

  
  

  Example:

  - Sport is another example of putting our emotions (e.g., aggression) into something constructive.

  
  

  -A woman is frustrated that her daughter has once again neglected to call on her birthday and instead of calling her to voice her upset, she spends three hours scrubbing floors and windows. Instead of working to improve his overall health and fitness, a man lacking self-confidence pours all his energy into his career.
• Rationalization


  a defense mechanism that involves a cognitive distortion of "the facts" to make an event or an impulse less threatening. We do it often enough on a fairly conscious level when we provide ourselves with excuses. But for many people, with sensitive egos, making excuses comes so easily that they never are truly aware of it. In other words, many of us are quite prepared to believe our lies. When a person finds a situation difficult to accept, they will make up a logical reason why it has happened.

  
  

  Example

  -A person may explain a natural disaster as 'God's will'.

  -A student rationalizes cheating on a test by saying the test was too demanding anyway.
• Reaction formation


  a psychological defense mechanism in which a person goes beyond denial and behaves in the opposite way to which he or she thinks or feels. Conscious behaviors are adopted to overcompensate for the anxiety a person feels regarding their socially unacceptable unconscious thoughts or emotions. By using the reaction formation, the id is satisfied while keeping the ego in ignorance of the true motives.

  
  

  Example:

  -A woman pampers on her aging mother by cooking her meals, cleaning her home, and taking her to appointments while she secretly despises her.

  -A person with a drinking problem praises the virtues of temperance instead of taking steps toward moderate drinking.
• Personal Ways of Coping With Stress


  Tackle the problem

  Create a stress journal or include the topic in your personal journal

  Develop a "stress relief tool box"
• Brain


  is a complex organ that controls all bodily processes, including thought, sensory perception, and physical action. Despite weighing only 3 pounds, the human brain contains as many as 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections. to understand how the brain works, a basic knowledge of the parts of the brain is in order.
• four separate lobes


  frontal lobes, temporal lobes, parietal lobes, occipital lobes
• Frontal Lobes


  located directly behind the forehead, the largest lobes in the human brain, also the most common region of injury in traumatic brain injury.
• Frontal Lobes


  Where the primary motor area is located. this area controls voluntary movement in a contralateral manner (the left side controls the right side of the body, and vice versa).
• Frontal Lobes


  important for expressive language and for managing higher-level executive functions. executive functions refer to a collection of cognitive skills including the capacity to plan, organize, initiate, self-monitor, and control one's responses in order to achieve a goal. Are also considered our behavior and emotional control center and home to our personality. there is no other part of the brain where lesions can cause such a wide variety of symptoms.
• Temporal Lobes


  sit behind the ears and are the second largest lobe.

  They are most commonly associated with processing auditory information and with the encoding of memory. The temporal lobes are also believed to play an important role in processing affect/emotions, language, and certain aspects of visual perception.
• Parietal Lobes


  are located near the back and top of the head. they are important for processing and interpreting somatosensory input which processes sensory signals such as touch, pressure, pain, thermal sense, and sense of body movements (kinesthesia). For example, they inform us about objects in our external environment through touch (i.e., physical contact with skin) and about the position and movement of our body parts (proprioception).
• Occipital Lobes


  It sit at the back of the head which is the location of the primary visual area. This receives visual signals from the thalamus and processes visual sensations including color, form, and motion.
• split brain


  Roger Sperry won the Nobel prize as he conducted experiments called the " " experiments.
• corpus callosum


  According to Sperry, the two hemispheres of the brain communicate with each other through the __________which serves as a bridge between the left and the right brain hemispheres. Research shows that brain activity in each hemisphere is associated with certain brain functions.
• Left Brain Characteristics


  Left Brain Characteristics

  Logical

  Detail-oriented

  Facts rule

  Knows

  Reality-based

  Practical

  Risk-avoidant

  Problem-solving

  Activities

  Mathematics

  Essay Writing

  Programming

  Careers

  Mathematician

  Reporter

  Programmer

  Business Analyst

  Network Administrator

  Scientist
• Right Brain Characteristics


  Uses feelings

  Imagination rules

  More on symbols & images

  Intuition

  Knows object function

  Fantasy-based

  Risk-taker

  Presents possibilities

  Painting

  Sculpting

  Daydreaming

  Graphic-Design

  Psychologist

  Musician

  Manager

  Interior Designer
• Ned Hermann


  Whole Brain Theory - Theorists believe that the brain is divided into four quadrants where each quadrant is responsible for particular abilities. The four quadrants each with their specialized functions as proposed by _________, An American creativity researcher, and author. He claims that people have their own thinking preferences in dealing with facts or feelings.
• Emotion


  In psychology, ________ is often defined as a complex state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behavior.
• David G. Myers


  according to the author "__________", human emotion involves "...physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience."
• Theories of Emotion


  Physiological theories - suggest that responses within the body are responsible for emotions.

  Neurological theories - propose that activity within the brain leads to emotional responses.

  Cognitive theories - argue that thoughts and other mental activities play an essential role in forming emotions.