Stress and Stress Management

What is stress?
Key concepts
• Tension Distress & …
• Pressure
eustress
• Emotional response
• Shaking hands Acute stress
& chronic
Stressors
• Pale/red face Objective VS subjective

Biochemical, physiological,
Behavioral, psychological changes
 Different Kinds of Stress
In physics, stress is defined as pressure, or a force. In
psychology, stress is the arousal of one’s mind and body in
response to demands made upon them.
Eustress Distress

• Eustress is positive stress • Distress is negative stress

• Increases sharpness and
motivation and can keep people
alert and involved
• A sign that a person is taking on
a challenge to try to reach a
goal
• Linked to intense pressure or
anxiety
• Can strain people’s ability to
adjust to various situations
• Can dampen mood, impair
ability, and harm the body
Physiology of stress
 Physiology of stress
ANS
Sympathetic system – preparing for fight or
flight
mobilizes the body’s
resources in
emergency

Parasympathetic – conserves energy/back to

homeostasis
active under normal,
nonstressful conditions
 ANS and stress
• acetylcholine and norepinephrine
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)
axis
Allostasis is a term that refers to the body’s
maintenance of an appropriate level of activation
under changing circumstances
• Prolonged sympathetic activation, creates
allostatic load, which can overcome the body’s
ability to adapt.
• Allostatic load - weak or disregulated cortisol
production in response to stress,
• high blood pressure,
• insulin resistance,
• fat deposits
• decline in cognitive abilities over time
 Men VS Women

• Men Fight/flight reactions

• women exhibit neuroendocrine responses to
stress that differ from men’s reactions.
• hormone oxytocin & estrogen released in
response to some stressors
• women’s behavioral responses to stress are
better characterized as “tend and befriend” than
“fight or flight.”
Psychological Reactions to Stress
• Stress activates the body’s fight/flight response –
the sympathetic nervous system and stress
hormones
• Anxiety and PTSD
• Anger and Aggression
▫ Correlation between stress in animals and aggression
• Apathy and Depression
▫ Learned Helplessness
• Cognitive Impairment
▫ Emotional arousal can interfere with cognition
Physiological Reactions to Stress
• Fight or Flight Response
▫ Liver releases sugar
▫ Metabolism increases
▫ Heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate increase
• Hypothalamus activates sympathetic NS, also
activates the pituitary gland to release ACTH
• General Adaption Syndrome – a set of responses
to stress
▫ Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion
 Theories of Stress
• Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome
Lazarus’s View
Sources of Stress
• Stressor: an event or situation that
produces stress
• What is a stressor for one person
might not be for another.
• Some stressors are common to
most people.
Daily Hassles
• Everyday frustrations: household,
health, time-pressure, inner-
concern, environmental, financial,
work, future-security
Frustration
• Being blocked from attaining a
goal, such as being late to an
appointment or lacking money
• Many frustrations are minor, but
more serious ones can be
extremely stressful
Life Changes
• Major events such as moving,
serious illness, or a death
• Many life changes are positive, and
tend to happen less often
Personality Types
Some people create their own stress.
• Two basic personality types: type A (intense) and type B (laid-back)
– Type A people are always on the go and put pressure on themselves
– Type B people are more relaxed and patient, and do not become angry as
easily as type A
• Type A people usually achieve more than type B people, but their
success comes with a price of heightened stress

Contrast
type A and type B people and
adherence
How can sources of stress influence a
person’s life?
• Sources of stress influence a person’s life in
psychological
• depression or anxiety

• physical ways
• health problems
Effects of Stress on the Immune System
The Immune System
• Most people are exposed to a great
variety of disease-causing
organisms, but an intact immune
system fights off most of them.
• White blood cells destroy disease-
causing microorganisms, worn-out
body cells, and malignant cells.
• The immune system “remembers”
some invaders and maintains
antibodies to fight them, often for
years.
Stress and the Immune
System
• One reason stress exhausts people
is that it stimulates bodies to
produce steroids, which suppress
the immune system.
• One study showed lower immune-
system functioning during more
stressful periods.
• Another study showed that training
in coping skills improved the
functioning of the immune system.
 Stress and Health

Psychological Factors and Health

• Both biological and psychological factors play important
roles in health problems.
• Headaches are among the most common stress-related
health problems.
• People can make behavioral changes to help reduce the
risks of heart disease.
• People with cancer must cope with the biological aspects
of their illness as well as with its psychological effects.
Identify Cause and Effect
How can headache pain result in a vicious
cycle?
Biological and Psychological Factors

• Biological factors such as family history of a disease, exposure to

disease-causing microorganisms, inoculations against certain
diseases, accidents, injuries, and age play an important role in
physical illness.
• Psychological factors also affect health problems.
– Attitudes
– Patterns of behavior
– Anxiety
– Depression
• Health psychology: concerned with the relationship between
psychological factors and the prevention and treatment of physical
illness.
Psychological factors and Stress
• Psychoanalysis – unconscious conflict is the
source of all stress
• Behaviorism – stress is learned based on prior
experiences
• Cognitive Approach – attitude is a major factor
in stress (optimism vs. pessimism)
▫ Personality – hardiness?
 Commitment, control, challenge
 Measurement of Stress
• Physiological: • Psychological
• blood pressure, • Life Events Scales
• heart rate, Social Readjustment Rating
• galvanic skin Scale (SRRS)
• response, • Everyday Hassles Scales
• respiration rate,
• stress hormones • Urban Hassles Index (Miller &
Townsend, 2005)

direct, highly reliable, and easily

quantified.
Why won't Japanese businessmen take a break?
Coping

Trying to manage stress

• Problem-focused: think about problem solving
• Emotion-focused: resolve the emotions, not the
problem
▫ Support groups
▫ Sharing has been found to reduce stress and
decrease likelihood of illness
 Writing activity study
Sense of Humor
• Students who had a sense of humor and saw humor in difficult
situations experienced less stress than students who were not
able to find humor in the same situations.
• Some research suggests that emotional responses may aid the
immune system.
Predictability
• Having the ability to predict a stressor seems to reduce the
amount of stress it causes.

Social Support
• The presence and interest of other people provide support that
helps people cope with stress.
• Ways to help: express concern, provide physical relief, offer
information, provide feedback, and socialize
Active Coping
• Active coping: involves changing the environment or situation (in
socially acceptable ways) to remove stressors, or changing one’s
response to stress so that stressors are no longer harmful.
– Changing stressful thoughts
• People who have stressful thoughts can learn to recognize and change them
before becoming overwhelmed by them.
• Cognitive Behavior Therapy
– Relaxation techniques
• A number of techniques for reducing the bodily reactions to stress:
– Meditation
– Biofeedback
– Progressive relaxation
– Mindfulness
– Exercise
• Fosters physical health, enhances people’s psychological well-being, and helps
people cope with stress.
– Breathing
• Practicing controlled breathing can reduce stress.
Managing Stress
• Biofeedback – receive real time information
about one’s physiological state to gain more
control
• Relaxation Training
• Exercise
• Cognitive Behavior Therapy – try to change
methods of thinking and reinforce behaviors
that support those changes
Chapter 3

• stress and health