Download Ch 15 Health Stress and Coping

Ch 15 Health Stress and Coping
Test Items:
Disease-prone personality
Health Promoting behaviors
Definition of Stress
Stressors
Stressful situations
Physiological response to stress
Short term stress reactions
Long Term Stress reaction
Control over unpleasant events and its relationship to stress
Burnout
Emotional exhaustion
Lazarus and Appraisal system
Interpretations of Stress
Coping with Stress = Problem Focus or Emotion Focus
Definition of frustration
Responses to frustration
Displaced aggression
What’s the difference between Aggression and Assertiveness?
ConflictApproach-Approach Conflicts
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflicts
Approach-Avoidance Conflicts
GAS- General Adaptation Syndrome
Pg 548
Health is greatly affected by stress.
Periods of stress are commonly followed by illness.
Stress
1. Occurs whenever a challenge or threat forces a person to adjust or adapt.
2. Also a behavioral factor that directly affects personal well being.
Basic personal habits and behavior affect health
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We need to minimize risk factors
Need to increase health promoting behaviors
Personality type affects amount of stress people experience
Behavioral Principles
Unhealthy behavior - causes ½ of deaths
Behavioral – medications manage medical problems
Pain control
Coping with illness
Behavioral Risk FactorsIncrease risk of death from disease
Lifestyle diseases
Obesity
Tobacco
Diet
45% of all deaths are due to unhealthy behavior = tobacco, drinking, drug
use and lack of exercise
Risk Factors:
High level of stress
Increased blood pressure
Cigarette smoking
Abuse of alcohol + drugs
Overeating
Unsafe sex
Exposure to toxic substances
Violence
Disease Prone Personality
Chronic depression (less exercise, eat poorly, sleep poorly)
Anxious
Hostile
Frequently ill
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Not Disease Prone (generally good health)
Intellectually resourceful
Compassionate
Optimistic
Non hostile
Health Promoting behaviors
Exercise
No excessive drinking
No tobacco
No overeating
Early prevention
Prevent smoking
Refusal skills training
Life skills training- help cope with day to day stress
Stress reduction
Decision making
Self control
Social skills
Pg 554
Stress is a major behavioral Risk Factor if prolonged + severe
Stress results as a matter of how we perceive events + react to them
Definition of stress
Stress is the mental + physical condition that occurs when a person must
adapt to the environment
Examples- work, marital problems, financial problems, travel, sports, dating
Eustress
Good stress, events and issues are seen as challenges, and potentially rewarding
Stress reactionsAutonomic nervous system,  arousal, with emotion
Stressor – an event that challenges or threatens a person
Pressure- when a person must meet urgent external demand or expectations
Variables to stress:
Control (less stress) and lack of control causes stress (less controls = more stress)
Unpredictable events add to stress
Emotional shocks- intense, repeated, pressure, unpredictable, uncontrollable=stress is
magnified
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Nursing, teaching, police, social work and Burnout
Burnout- being physically, mentally + emotionally drained
1. Emotional Exhaustion- fatigued tense +apathetic; feeling all used up
2. Cynicism- detached from job, “I don’t give a damn.”
3. Feeling of reduced personal accomplishment
Helpless, hopeless or angry, poor work performance
4. Burnout is the opposite of –Job engagement (work seen as important and meaningful,
challenging)
To Prevent Burnout
Adjust workload
Keep social support (support gives encouragement)
Pg 555
Appraising Stressors
Ultimately- stress is determined by how a situation is perceived
Richard Lazarus- researcher said
Making the appraisal of a situation=
1. Primary Appraisal – Q: Am I ok or in trouble?
a. Decide if the situation is relevant or irrelevant positive or negative
2. Secondary Appraisal- Q: What can I do about this situation?
a. Assess resources
b. Choose a way to meet threat or challenge
c. Coping with threats=coping
Coping with Threats:
1. Problem-focused coping (control is the issue)
a. Need to manage or alter the distressing situation
2. Emotion-Focused Coping: (when there is no control of the situation)
a. People try to control their emotional reactions to the situation
Extreme Situations + Responses
Frustration-negative emotional state occurs when people are prevented from reaching
desired goals (2 types)
1 External Frustration- outside force or individual impedes progress toward a goal (flat
tire)
Delays success
Can be social obstacles = people
Or
Non-social = objects
Frustration increases- as strength of blocked motive increases-frustration
increases
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2. Personal Frustration- personal characteristics
CopingReactions to Frustration:
Aggression- any response with intent of harming a person or object
Most frequent response to frustration
*Persistence to frustration- varied efforts to overcome frustration
Displaced Aggression
Focusing aggression toward some-other person or object- whoever or
whatever is available
Redirection – usually to a safe, less likely to retaliate direction
*Chains of displacement
*Hostility and violence are largely due to displaced aggression
*Scapegoating- available sources blaming
Withdrawal or Escape, Avoidance
Conflict- a person must choose between contradictory desires, needs and motive demands
1. Approach-Approach Conflicts (weak conflict)
Two positive choices
Two desirable alternatives
2. Avoidance-Avoidance Conflicts (difficult to resolve)
Choice between 2 negative undesirable alternatives
Based on personal needs or bias
3. Approach-Avoidance Conflicts (difficult to resolve)
People are attracted to
+
same goal or activity
Repelled
fear + attraction—could result in ambivalence= mixed positive and negative
feelings
Multiple Conflicts- neither complete positive or negative options
AKA- double approach-avoidance- each alternative has positive + negative qualities
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Psychological Defense
Psycho-dynamic-Freud identified
Anxiety- comes with threatening situations
Tense, uneasy, apprehension, worried, vulnerable
Emotion-focused coping = defense mechanism helps us reduce anxiety
Defense Mechanism (definition)
Any mental process used to avoid, deny, or distort sources of threat or anxiety
Help us keep from being overwhelmed by immediate threats
Denial:
(basic) protecting oneself from unpleasant reality by refusing to accept it or
believe it
Repression:
Holding memories away from unpleasant reality by refusing to accept it or believe
it
Reaction Formation:
Impulses held in check by exaggerating opposite behavior – I hate you- but act
over protective
Regression:
Returning to earlier less demanding situations Child like behaviorsProjection:
Unconscious process- protects us from anxiety to see out own faults in others
Exaggerates negative traits in others
Directs attention away from personal failings
Rationalization:
Making excuses
Justifying behavior by giving rational but false reasons
Can be reasonable and convincing but false
Compensation:
Over achieving in one area to compensate for failures in another area
Defense against feelings of inferiority
Overcoming a weakness
Going to great lengths to do so
Sublimation:
Working off frustrated desires (especially sexual desires) through socially
acceptable activities
Rechanneling sexual energy into productive behavior
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Learned helplessness:
An acquired- learned inability to overcome obstacles and avoid aversive stimuli
Major element of depression
Learning to passively endure
Occurs when events seem to be uncontrollable especially after repeated failures
Unpredictable and unavoidable punishment
Leads to depression with feelings of learned helplessness, feelings of
powerlessness, lowered aggression, decreased activity, loss of apetite, loss of sex
drive, despondency, hopelessness…
Other Defense Mechanisms
Since Freud first described the original defense mechanisms, other researchers have
continued to describe other methods of reducing anxiety. Some of these defense
mechanisms include:
Acting out –The individual copes with stress by engaging in attention-seeking behavior to
try and get notice that they crave. (School children trying to be class clown)
Affiliation – Involves turning to other people for support. (co-dependent behavior when
one feels he/she can’t cope by self)
Passive-aggression – Indirectly expressing anger. (teen silently resents chores; puts
dishes in washer, but does sloppy job and bangs plates around—easier for parent to take
charge of chore)
Avoidance – Refusing to deal with or encounter unpleasant objects or situations. (dislike
certain people at school and doesn’t join a club they’re in order to avoid contact with
them)
Altruism – Satisfying internal needs through helping others.
Humor – Pointing out the funny or ironic aspects of a situation.
Psychosomatic illness:
Psychological factors contribute to actual body damage
Not hypochondrias Examples: can be caused by stress
Dyspepsia- stomach pain- not an ulcer
Eczema
Hives
Migrane headache
Rheumatoid arthritis
Hypertension
Colitis
Heart disease
Head, neck ache
Back ache
Indigestion
Chronic diarrhea
Fatigue
Insomnia
Sexual dysfunction
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Type A personality
High risk of heart attack
Hard driving
Ambitious
Highly competitive
Achievement oriented
Persistent
Time urgency
Anger
Hostility
Very rigid in attitudes
These people are also prone to heart
diseases because of the tensions,
stress and worrying attitude.
Type B Personality
These people tend to be productive under
stress.
They are very much relaxed, patient and
have a lot of self control.
One of the type B personality traits is that
these people do not get irritated or angry
easily.
They are less competitive and their
competitiveness is often productive with
good intentions.
They rarely tend to be aggressive or
frustrated.
People belonging to type B personality are
also very much tolerant and flexible who
can change in order to adapt to situations
and changes.
These people do not get hyper if their time
is wasted and do not mind waiting in
queues or wait to get their work done.
Relaxation, enjoyment, fun comes very
naturally to them. They spend their free
time socializing, shopping or having a good
time.
They are very calm as compared to their
highly stung counterparts (type A). People
of type A personality often wish they were
working rather than spending their time in
leisure and the type B personality traits are
just the opposite.
People of B type personality tend to plan
things in advance before executing them.
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