Chap 11 - Stress and Health

• Types of stressors


  • Psychological stressors
  • Environmental stressors
  • Hassles
  • Major life changes
  • Catastrophe
  • Uncontrollability
  • Frustration
  • Pressure
  • Conflict
• Stress


  Physical, emotional, 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
• Distress


  • Divorce
  • Break-up
• 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 as overwhelming feelings of threat
• Catastrophes affect a large group of people
• Examples of catastrophes


  • Flood
• Major life changes


  Cause stress by requiring adjustment
• Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

  Measures the amount of stress resulting from major life events in a person’s life over a one-year period
• College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS)


  Measures the amount of stress resulting from major life events in a college student’s life over a one-year period
• Major life changes can have long term effects on a person’s chronic physical and mental health
• Sample items from the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

  • Death of spouse (100)
  • Divorce (75)
  • Marital separation (65)
  • Jail term (63)
  • Death of a close family member (63)
  • Personal injury or illness (53)
  • Marriage (50)
  • Dismissal from work (47)
  • Marital reconciliation (45)
  • Pregnancy (40)
  • Death of a close friend (37)
  • Change to a different line of work (36)
• More sample items from the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

  • Change in number of arguments with spouse (36)
  • Major mortgage (31)
  • Foreclosure of mortgage or loan (30)
  • Begin or end school (26)
  • Change in living conditions (25)
  • Change in work hours or conditions (20)
  • Change in residence/schools/recreation (19)
  • Change in social activities (18)
  • Small mortgage or loan (17)
  • Vacation (13)
  • Christmas (12)
  • Minor violations of the law (11)
• Hassles


  Small/minor things that annoy you (daily annoyances of everyday life)
• Hassles are associated with short-term illness
• Pressure


  The psychological experience produced by urgent demands and expectations for a person’s behavior that come from an outside source
• Time pressure


  Most common type 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 the degree of stress
• Frustration


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


  • External frustrations
  • Internal or personal frustration
• External frustrations


  Conditions such as losses, rejections, failures, and delays
• Internal or personal frustration

  Occurs when the goal or need cannot be attained because of internal or personal characteristics
• Possible reactions to frustration

  • Persistence
  • Aggression
  • Escape or withdrawal
• Persistence


  Continuation of efforts to get around whatever is causing the frustration
• Aggression


  Actions meant to harm or destroy
• Frustration-aggression hypothesis


  The proposed connection between frustration and aggression
• Displaced aggression


  Taking out one’s frustrations on some less threatening or more available target
• Escape or withdrawal


  Leaving the presence of a stressor
• Conflict


  The 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
  • Avoidance-avoidance
  • Approach–avoidance
  • Multiple Approach-avoidance
• Approach-approach conflict


  Must choose between two desirable goals
• Avoidance-avoidance conflict


  Must choose between two undesirable goals
• Approach–avoidance conflict


  Must choose or not choose a goal that has both desirable and undesirable aspects
• Multiple Approach-avoidance conflict


  Must choose from among two or more goals, with each goal possessing both desirable and undesirable aspects
• Factors affecting stress


  • Health psychology
  • Immune system
  • Automatic nervous system
  • Social and cultural factors
  • Personality factors
  • Cognitive factors
• Autonomic nervous system


  Part of the nervous system that is responsible for automatic, involuntary, and life-sustaining activities
• Sympathetic division


  Reacts to stress