pos review

• Intermittent Stress


  Can be good and useful – when it is experienced in small and infrequent doses
• Allostasis


  Important in helping us keep prepared for better response (vs succumbing) to possible future stressors
• Stress Inoculation


  Encounters with adversity and time-limited forms of stress or 'suffering'
• Stress Inoculation


  • Frustration; disappointments; challenges; drawbacks; existential angst
• Resiliency


  • Active coping; facing one's fears and using the fear to catalyse and orient action
  • Trauma overcomes adversity or risk often also develop a stronger self-belief, grit and flexibility in approaching resources for self-regulation (normative as well as non-normative developmental transitions)
• Denial; Collusion


  • Avoidance of fear
  • Associated with the maintenance of fear and the stress it inflicts on the mind and body
• Trauma


  • Experienced as a result of a sudden or ongoing system of stressors
  • Creates a high degree of emotional distress and affects the whole person 'substantially interrupting an individual's personal narrative'
• Life-threatening situations


  • Events such as natural disasters – but more so, man-made inflictions such as victimization through violence, psychological or sexual assault
  • Tend to generate long-lasting problems for the experiencing individual
  • Neurological development being adversely affected
  • Brain wiring responses to new situations that 'replicate the experience of loss of power, choice, control and safety in ways that may appear extreme, or even abnormal, when a history of past adverse events is not taken into account'
• Possible psychological responses to trauma

  • Succumbing to the stressor (also referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD)
  • Resilience focused on recovery (bouncing-back from stress, regaining equilibrium and relatively quickly returning to baseline level of functioning and state of health)
  • Post-traumatic growth (sustaining the process of recovery such that the recovery trajectory becomes a resilient adaptation that leads to growth and enhancement)
• Resilience


  • Flexibility in response to changing situational demands, and the ability to bounce back from negative emotional experiences
  • The ability to adapt well to adversity and bounce back from difficult experiences
  • Developing thoughts, behaviors, and actions that allow you to recover from traumatic or stressful events in life
  • Character trait and a strength that can be learned
• Facets of resilience


  • Recovery (refers to the return back to normal, pre-stressor, level of functioning (health and psychosocial well- being))
  • Resistance (occur when a person displays minimum or no signs of disturbance (low distress, normal functioning) following a traumatic event)
  • Reconfiguration (occur when a person returns to homeostasis in a different formation: key aspects about that individual have changed (either positively or negatively) as a result of their traumatic experience)
• Components of resilience


  • Confidence (having feelings of competence effectiveness in coping with stressful situations and strong self esteem)
  • Social Support (Building good relationships with others and seeking support)
  • Adaptability (Flexibility and adapting to changing situations which are beyond our control)
  • Purposefulness (Having a clear sense of pupose, clear values, drive, and direction)
  • Reframing (ABC Model)
  • Experience of positive emotions
  • Participation in Physical activities
  • Trusted social support
  • Use of personal and authentic strengths
  • Optimism
• Thinking Traps


  • Jumping to Conclusions (Making a hasty judgement before learning or considering all the facts)
  • Tunnel Vision (Extreme narrowness of viewpoint)
  • Magnifying the Negative and Minimizing the Postive (Exaggerating the importance of shortcomings and problems while minimizing the importance of desirable qualities)
  • Personalizing or Externilizing Blame (Blaming yourself or someone else for a situation that were out of your control)
  • Over Generalizing Small Setbacks (Happens when you make a rule after a single evnt or a series of coincidence)
  • Engaging in Mind Reading (Thinking that someone is going to react in a particular way, or you believe someone is going to react in a particular way)
  • Using Unhelpful Emotional Response (Judging yourself or circumstances based on your emotions)
• Survivors


  Those left behind by people who were slaughtered in holocaust
• Sense of Coherence (SOC)

  • Comprehensibility (Person's insight into their achievements and difficulties, Understanding the nature of their task and the available resources at their disposal)
  • Manageability (Thinking of high probability that things will work out, Percieves that resources at their disposal are adequate)
  • Meaningfulness (Motivational belief that it makes emotional sense to cope, though life may have its pains, one wishes to go on)
• How to develop SOC

  • Develops by age 30
  • Experience character by consistency
  • Participation in shaping outcome
  • Balance of stimuli
  • Radical and enduring changes in one's life situation does not occur
• Effects of SOC


  • High association with well being and life satisfaction
  • Reduced fatigue and loneliness
  • Negative correlation with anxiety and depression
  • Protects against depression
  • Predict low suicidal thoughts
  • Lower mortality from all causes
  • Low SOC predicts musculoskeletal symptoms (neck, shoulder, and low back) in late life
  • Linked to pain level in cancer patients and arthritis
• Post Traumatic Growth (PTG)

  Positive Psychological Change after a traumatic experience
• Domains of PTG


  • Personal Strength (Believe in yourself. There is something within you to overcome it, when trauma survivors report becoming stronger, deeper, more authentic, confident)
  • Relating to Others (Having people to support you, Becoming closer with their immediate and extended families)
  • Spiritual Change (People may decide to return to their previous (or alternative) faith, They begin to actively participate in church activities)
  • Appreciation of Life (Increase in existential awareness, Change in life philosophy, When trauma highlights our vulnerability and that we are not invincible, we start to reflect on deeper issues such as mortality, spirituality, the meaning of and purpose in life)
  • New Possibilities (Covers an individual's desires to change their life goals, re-enrol in schooling to learn a new subject, get a degree or obtain new skills)
• Growth Facilitators of PTG

  • Time and Type
  • Social Support
  • Coping Style
• Shattered Assumption Theory


  • We all have an inner world which we harbor fundamental assumptions of a sense of safety and security
  • Process of rebuilding around the traumatic experience and thus acknowledging the trauma in a non-anxious way
• Organismic Valuing Theory of Growth through Adversity

  • Person-centered approach
  • Person must overcome obstacles in their social environment
  • Completion Tendency (A person must incorporate trauma into their world-view via accommodation or assimilation)
• The Transformational Model


  • PTG is the result of excessive rumination following a seismic event (Overthink)
  • The more you share, the less negative reaction
• Stages to manage excessive rumination

  1. One experiences automatic and intrusive thoughts; over time, individuals will learn to manage these automatic thoughts until they engage in what is called 'deliberate rumination'

  2. Throughout their grappling with these thoughts, they are engaged in self- disclosure as they attempt to reduce emotional distress

  3. By doing so, they commence their disengaging from previous goals, resulting in changed schemas and narrative development
• Wisdom


  • The final stage of personality development of Erik Erickson
  • For Piaget, wisdom is the product of the final stage of cognitive development; the application of dialectical thinking to solving complex problems
• Sternberg's balance theory of wisdom

  • Conceptualized wisdom as a balance between practical intelligence and tacit knowledge
  • Wisdom comes from solving problems while also taking other people into account
  • Must balance several competing interests such as intrapersonal (your own), interpersonal (others) and extra- personal (communities and environment) conditions
• Respond


  • Adapt
  • Shape
  • Select to change our environment to something more advantageous to our needs
• Positive Ageing


  Negative myths that lead society to begrudge and fear this inevitable and natural process
• Myths about ageing


  • Loss of neurons
  • Irreversible deterioration of cognitive abilities
• Factors that do not predict healthy Ageing

  • Ancestral longevity
  • Cholesterol level at 50
  • Parental social class
  • Warm childhood environment (stability of parental marriage, parental death in childhood, family cohesion)
  • Stable childhood temperament (rated by parents)
  • Stress
• Factors that predict healthy ageing

  • Not being a heavy smoker or stopping smoking young (by about the age of 45)
  • Mature adaptive defences
  • Absence of alcohol abuse (moderate drinking is perfectly fine)
  • Healthy weight
  • Stable marriage
  • Exercise (burning more than 500 kilocalories per week)
  • Years of education (the more, the better)
• Tips to engage in successful ageing

  • Engage with life and maintain activities that are personally meaningful to you
  • Create environments where you are able to feel in control and able to make choices
  • Maintain a positive attitude (associated with good memory, longevity, good health, well being and a will to live)
  • Always believe that you can keep learning and remember
• Goal Theorists


  Subjective Wellbeing can be explained depending on our ability to reflect, choose a direction in life, to form intentions and to direct oneself towards a certain path or goal
• Life Goals


  • Core goals, personal striving, personal projects, life tasks, future aspiration
  • Motivational objects which we direct our lives
  • Gives us a sense of purpose, a reason for being
  • Meeting smaller subgoals can enhance our self-esteem and self-efficacy
• Types of Life Goals

  • Self-focused versus others-focused goals
  • Extrinsic (financial success, image, fame) versus intrinsic aspirations (personal growth, relationships, community involvement)
  • Self-enhancement versus materialist values
• Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

  • Intrinsic (do it for the sake of doing it) versus extrinsic (do it for the sake of something else)
  • Engaging with intrinsic motivation, we can become more authentic and self-fulfilled
• Authentic/self-concordant goals


  • The goals match our values, which are our deep-set beliefs
  • Form the basis of why we do what we do
• Values


  • Help us prioritize
  • Value as a moderator model (not the content but the congruence between the person's values and their goals)
• Types of Goals


  • Approach oriented (do something rather than avoid something)
  • Harmonious (Sometimes goals can be conflicting)
  • Flexible and appropriate (change with age and time)
  • Activity goals (joining a club, volunteering, new experience and new opportunities)
• Flow


  Total absorption in the task that leads to an engaged life and enhanced positive emotions