16. What are different sources of stress ?

18.What are the different strategies to cope up with stress ?

20. Elaborate on stress prone personality?

21. Explain how mediation, Spirituality and religion help to cope up with stress?

17. Explain theories of stress. I. Lazarus model II. Selye model.

I. Lazarus model

Richard Lazarus's theory is called the appraisal theory of stress, or the

transactional theory of stress. Richard Lazarus's appraisal theory of stress
states that an individual's perception of a situation causes stress, rather than
the situation itself.

Lazarus distinguished between two types of appraisal:

1. Primary appraisal: Primary appraisal refers to the perception of a new or

changing environment as positive, neutral or negative in its consequences.

Negative events are evaluated for their possible harm, threat or challenge.

(a) Harm is the assessment of damage already been done.

(b) Threat is the assessment of possible future damage.

(c) Challenge is associated with confidence to cope with stressor, overcoming

it and taking advantage of the event.

• If we perceive an event as stressful on the basis of primary appraisal, we

most probably try to make secondary appraisal.

2. Secondary appraisal : Secondary appraisal is the assessment of ones coping

and resources available to meet the harm, threat and challenge of the event.

Resources may be mental, physical, personal, or social.

These appraisals depend on many factors:

a. Past-experience of dealing with such a stressful situation/condition.

b. Whether the stressful event is perceived as controllable, i.e, whether one

has mastery or control over a situation.

II. Selye model

Hans Selye’s GAS Model explains the influence of stress on the body.

• From his studies, he found that there was a similar pattern of bodily
responses in
animals to a variety of stressors.
• According to Hans Selye, stress refer to non-specific bodily reactions. He
believed that stresses may be many but responses are only physiological
reactions. Selye is known as ‘father of modern stress researches’. He did many
experiments on animals in extreme climatic conditions as well as he observed
chronic patients and concluded that reaction of stress is the same.
•On the basis of his experimental conclusions, he gave a pattern of stress
reactions . He called this pattern the General Adaptation Syndrome and it
involves three stages:
1.Alarm Reaction: The presence of a harmful stimulus or stressor leads to
activation of the adrenal-pituitary-cortex system.
This triggers the release of hormones which produces the stress response and
prepares the individual for fight or flight.
2.Resistance: If stress is prolonged, the parasympathetic nervous system calls
for more cautious use of the body’s resources.
During this stage, an individual makes an effort to cope with the threat.
3.Exhaustion: Continued exposure to the same stressor or additional stressors
drains the body of its resources and leads to burn out.
The physiological systems involved in the first two stages become ineffective
and susceptibility to stress-related diseases like high blood-pressure increases.
This model is widely criticized because it focuses only on physiological aspects
of stress and ignores the psychological dimension of stress.

19. Explain the relations between immunity system and stress ?

A: The Immune system guards the body against attackers both from within and
outside. Psychoneuroimmunology focuses on the links between the mind, the
brain and the immune system. It focuses on the study of how our immune
system works. The white blood cells ( leucocytes) within the immune system
identify and destroy foreign bodies ( antigens) such as viruses by producing
antibodies.
T- cells destroy invaders and enhance immunological activity. ( It is these T cells
when attacked by HIV virus , it causes AIDS.

B-cells produce anti-bodies.

Natural Killer cells are involved in fight against viruses and tumours.

Stress can effect Natural killer cells- cytotoxicity which are defence against
infections and cancer. Stressed persons have been found to have reduced
levels of these cells. (students appearing for important examination, bereaved 
and severely depressed people.)