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Ch. 12
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Stress and Health Psychology
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Stress
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Any environmental demand that creates a state of
tension or threat and requires change or adaptation
1. Sources of Stress
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A. Life Changes
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Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes and
Rahe)
 Assesses major life changes - death of spouse
 Indicates likelihood of getting ill
Click here to view the College Life Stress
Inventory table
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B. Everyday Hassles
Pressure
 Forced to speed up or shift
 Frustration
 Being prevented from reaching one’s goals
 Delays, lack of resources, losses, failure,
discrimination
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C. Conflict - Incompatible demands,
opportunities, goals, needs
Approach/approach conflict
 Avoidance/avoidance conflict
 Approach/avoidance conflict
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Click here to view the Types of Conflict table
D. Stress and Individual Difference
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Hardiness and resilience
 Self-imposed stress
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2. Coping with Stress
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A. Direct Coping
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Confrontation
 Acknowledging stress directly and initiating coping
Compromise
 Choosing a more realistic goal when an ideal goal
cannot be met
Withdrawal
 Avoiding a situation when other options are NOT
practical
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B. Defensive Coping/Defensive Mechanisms
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Denial - refuse to acknowledge reality
Repression - push uncomfortable thoughts from
awareness
Projection - attribute one’s motives to others
Identification - taking on characteristics of someone
else
Regression - reverting to immature behaviors
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Intellectualization - very detached analysis of
problems
Reaction Formation - expressing exaggerated beliefs
opposite to one’s own
Displacement - shifting feelings onto something less
threatening
Sublimation - Redirecting motives into socially
acceptable channels
 Click here to view the Defense Mechanisms table
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C. Socioeconomic and Gender Differences in
Coping
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Being poor is stressful and they have less resources
Women and men seem to be equally affected by
stress
3. Stress and Health
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A.
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The Biology of Stress
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
 Alarm reaction
 In Stage 1, alarm reaction, the body recognizes that is must fight off
some physical or psychological danger and acts accordingly. If neither
direct nor defensive coping mechanisms succeed in reducing the
stress, we move to Stage 2 of adaptation.
 Resistance
 During this resistance stage, physical symptoms of strain appear as
we intensify our efforts to cope both directly and defensively. If these
attempts to regain psychological equilibrium fail, psychological
disorganization rages out of control until exhaustion, Stage 3 is
reached.
 Exhaustion
 In this phase, we use increasingly ineffective defense mechanisms to
bring the stress under control. Some people lose touch with reality,
while others show signs of "burnout."
Physiologist Hans Selye identified three stages of reacting
to physical and psychological stress that he called the
general adaptation syndrome (GAS).
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B. Stress and Heart Disease
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C. Stress and the Immune System
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Psychoneuroimmunology
 Shows stress suppresses immune function
D. Staying Healthy
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Type A - linked to heart disease (esp. hostility)
Type B - relaxed
Exercise, relaxation, humor
Importance of social support, positive reappraisal
Stress and Health Video
4. Extreme Stress
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A. Sources of Extreme Stress
Unemployment
 Stages of relief, optimism, doubt, malaise,
cynicism
 Divorce and separation
 Ambivalence, failure, sadness, fear
 Bereavement
 Coping with painful, inescapable reality
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B. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Natural and man-made catastrophes
 Reactions - shock, suggestible stage, recovery
 Combat and other threatening personal attacks
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5. The Well-Adjusted Person
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A. Does the action meet the demand? or just
postpone?
B. Does the action meet the individual's needs?
C. Is the action compatible with the well-being
of others?
Cancer Groups Video