mod 8

• Stress


  Physical, emotional, and cognitive and behavioral responses to events that are appraised as threatening or challenging
• Stressors


  Events that cause a stress reaction
• Distress


  The effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors
• Eustress


  The effect of positive events, or the optimal amount of stress that people need to promote health and well-being
• Catastrophe


  • An unpredictable, large scale event that creates a tremendous need to adapt and adjust as well overwhelming feelings of threat
• Catastrophe


  • Japan earthquake
• Major Life Events


  Cause stress by requiring adjustment
• Major Life Events


  • Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)
  • College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS)
• Hassles


  Daily annoyances of everyday life
• Hassles


  • Troublesome neighbors
• Pressure


  The psychological experience produced by urgent demands or expectations for a person's behavior that come from an outside source
• Pressure


  • Meeting a deadline
  • Studying for final exams
• Time pressure


  One of the most common forms of pressure
• Uncontrollability


  The degree of control that the person has over a particular event or situation
• The less control a person has, the greater degree of stress
• Frustration


  The psychological experience produced by the blocking of a desired goal or fulfillment of a perceived need
• Frustration


  • Losses
  • Rejections
  • Failures
  • Delays
• Internal frustrations


  Also known as personal frustrations, occur when the goal or need cannot be attained because of internal or personal characteristics
• Internal frustrations


  • A man wants to be a professional basketball player but is only 5 feet tall and weighs only 85 pounds
• Possible Reactions to Frustration

  • Persistence
  • Aggression
  • Displaced Aggression
  • Escape or withdrawal
• Conflict


  Psychological experience of being pulled toward or drawn to two or more desires or goals, only one of which may be attained
• Types of Conflict


  • Approach-approach conflict
  • Avoidance-avoidance conflict
  • Approach-Avoidance Conflict
  • Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflicts
• Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)


  Part of the human nervous system that is responsible for automatic, involuntary, and life-sustaining activities
• Two Divisions of ANS


  • Sympathetic system
  • Parasympathetic system
• Sympathetic system


  Responds to stressful events, "fight or flight" system
• Parasympathetic system


  Restores the body to normal functioning after stress has ceased
• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

  Endocrinologist Hans Selye studied the sequence of physiological reactions that the body goes through when adapting to a stressor
• Three Stages of GAS

  • Alarm
  • Resistance
  • Exhaustion
• Immune System


  Cells, organs, and chemicals of the body that respond to attacks from diseases, infections and injuries
• Immune system is negatively affected by stress
• Psychoneuroimmunology


  The study of the effects of psychological factors (stress, emotions, thinking, learning and behavior) on the immune system
• Stress


  Puts people at higher risk for coronary heart disease (CHD)
• Stress


  Associated with excessive weight gain and Type 2 diabetes
• Stress


  Increases malfunction of natural killer (NK) cells responsible for suppressing viruses and destroying tumor cells
• Cognitive Appraisal Approach (Lazarus)


  Cognitive psychologist Richard Lazarus developed a cognitive view of stress called the cognitive-mediational theory of emotions, in which the way people think about and appraise a stressor is a major factor in how stressful that particular stressor becomes
• Two-step process in assessing the degree of threat or harm of a stressor

  • Primary Appraisal
  • Secondary Appraisal
• Primary Appraisal


  Involves estimating the severity of a stressor and classifying it as either a threat or a challenge
• Secondary Appraisal


  Involves estimating the resources available to the person for coping with the stressor
• Type A Personality


  • Ambitious, time conscious, extremely hardworking, tends to have high levels of hostility and anger, easily annoyed, finds difficult to relax and do nothing
• Type B Personality


  • Relaxed and laid-back, less driven and competitive than Type A, slow to anger