UNIT THE SELF IN FACING CHALLENGES

7
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Module Overview:
Challenges are a part of everyday life. They make us stronger and without them life becomes
somewhat meaningless because we have nothing to compare the good times too. But regardless of the
challenge, facing up to it is the key. Doing will make you feel like you can take care of yourself, it will also
make you understand the value of what you have now.

This module will discuss the different aspects of self in facing challenges in their life. It will focus
on definition and types of stress and also the techniques on how to manage them. Further, it will tackle on
how we developed and maintain self-efficacy and the important sources of it: Performance
accomplishments or mastery experiences or enactive mastery; Vicarious experiences or vicarious
modelling; Social persuasion or verbal persuasion; and Physiological (somatic and emotional) states or
arousal. Self-efficacy tackles about one’s ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task.
Also, this module tackles about the importance of having a social support network, its types and definition.

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this unit, the students must be able to:
o Explain the effects of stress to one’s health;

o Examine design a self-care plan; and

o Cultural dimension of stress and coping

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Module Map

The self in
Facing
Challenges

Self -
efficacy Managing
and Social stress
support

Definition of Key Terms:

1. Stress – whole process by (which environmental events, called stressors, threaten or
challenge us (Gatchel & Baum, 1983).
2. Self-efficacy – It is commonly defined as the belief in one’s capabilities to achieve a
goal or an outcome.
3. Anxiety – feeling of worry: nervousness or agitation, often about something that is going
to happen.
4. Depression – psychiatric disorder: a psychiatric disorder showing symptoms such as
persistent feelings of hopelessness, dejection, poor concentration, lack of energy,
inability to sleep, and, sometimes, suicidal tendencies
5. Vicarious experiences - experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions
of another person.
6. Emotional distress —anger or irritability, anxiety and depression, short-tempered,
impatient, tense.
7. Cognitive distress— compromised attention/concentration, compromised processing
speed, compromised new learning and new learning memory consolidation and retrieval,
and mental fatigue.
8. Muscular distress—tension, headache, back pain, jaw pain, pulled muscles, tendons,
and ligament problems
9. Chronic - describes an illness or medical condition that lasts over a long period and
sometimes causes a long-term change in the body
10. Acute - extremely serious, severe, or painful
 TOOL No. 1: Managing Stress

“Just because we’re in a STRESSFUL situation doesn’t mean that we have to get
stressed out. You may be in the storm. The key is, don’t let the storm get in you.”

~Joel Osteen~

Stress is a feeling that people have when they are struggling to cope with challenges related to
finances, work, relationships, environment, and other situations. Moreover, stress is felt when an
individual perceives a real or imagined challenge or threat to their well-being. People often use the word
stress interchangeably with anxiety, feeling anxious, fearful, nervous, overwhelmed, panic, or stressed-
out.

Stress is the body’s natural defense against real or imagined danger. It flushes the body with
hormones to prepare systems to evade or confront danger. This is known as the “fight-or-flight or freeze”
response.

The body is an intelligent operating system, but the body cannot determine the difference
between life threatening external threat from imagined or perceived non-life threatening stressors. The
body reacts the same either way. The body produces significantly greater quantities of the chemicals
cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. The Neurobiology of stress is a complex operating mechanism.

According to American Psychological Association, there are Three (3) types of stress.

Stress management can be complicated because each of the 3 different types of stress can
present as single, repeated, complicated, or chronic. Therefore, they require different levels of treatment
interventions, management, and psychological treatment modalities due to the nature of the person’s
environment, lifestyle, developmental history, coping resources, and personality.

1. ACUTE STRESS

Acute stress is usually brief. It is the most common and frequent presentation. Acute stress is
most often caused by reactive thinking. Negative thoughts predominate about situations or events that
have recently occurred, or upcoming situations, events, or demands in the near future.

For example, if you have recently been involved in an argument, you may have acute stress
related to negative thoughts that are repetitive about the argument. Or you may have acute stress that is
about an upcoming work deadline, again the stress is thought induced. However, most often when the
thinking induced stress is reduced or removed the stress will subside too. However, if the stress meets
DSM-5 criteria, then individual may be diagnosed with Acute Stress Disorder

Acute stress causes signs and symptoms in the body + brain + emotions, but does not cause the
significant amount of damage as Episodic Stress and Chronic stress.
Short-term Effects of Acute Stress

The most common signs + symptoms:

 Transient Emotional distress — some combination of anger or irritability, anxiety and depression.
 Transient Muscular distress—tension, headache, back pain, neck pain, jaw pain, and other
muscular tensions that lead to pulled muscles and tendons and ligament problems.
 Transient stomach, gut and bowel problems, heartburn, acid stomach, flatulence, diarrhoea,
constipation.
 Transient hyperarousal—elevated blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, rapid pulse, sweaty palms,
heart palpitations, dizziness, migraine headaches, cold hands or feet, shortness of breath, sleep
problems, and chest pain.

Acute stress can present in anyone’s life. It is highly treatable and manageable. However, repeated acute
stress can become very harmful for your physical and mental health.

2. EPISODIC ACUTE STRESS

People who frequently experience acute stress, or whose lives present with frequent triggers of stress,
have episodic acute stress.

There are 2 main personality types that frequently present with Episodic Acute Stress: 1) “Type A”
personality 2) The “Worrier”

 “Type A” personality: Type A personality have an excessive competitive drive,

aggressiveness, impatience, abrupt, and a sense of time urgency. In addition, Type A personality
presents as reactive with hostility, and almost always a deep-seated insecurity about
performance. These personality traits create frequent episodes of acute stress for the Type A
individual. The cardiologists, Friedman and Rosenman found Type A’s to be significantly likely to
develop coronary heart disease.
 The “Worrier”: The Worrier presents with almost incessant negative thoughts causing
episodic acute stress on physical and mental health. “Worry warts” project probable disaster and
negatively forecast catastrophe in almost every situation. They have core beliefs that the world is
a dangerous, unrewarding, punitive place where something awful is always about to happen.
These negative binge thinkers also tend to be over aroused and tense, but are more anxious and
depressed than angry and hostile. Their thoughts are frequently filled with “What if….” statements
that are with projected negative outcomes. They are often diagnosed DSM-5 with generalized
anxiety disorder.

Signs and Symptoms of Episodic Acute Stress:

The most common signs + symptoms are similar to acute stress, but due to the extended frequent over
arousal or extended hyper arousal there is ongoing damage and suffering.

 Emotional distress —anger or irritability, anxiety and depression, short-tempered, impatient,

tense.
 Cognitive distress—compromised attention/concentration, compromised processing speed,
compromised new learning and new learning memory consolidation and retrieval, and mental
fatigue.
  Interpersonal relationships deteriorate, The workplace becomes a very stressful place for them.
 Muscular distress—tension, headache, back pain, jaw pain, pulled muscles, tendons, and
ligament problems.
 Stomach, gut, bowel problems, heartburn, acid stomach, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation,
irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
 High blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, heart palpitations, dizziness, migraine
headaches, cold hands or feet, shortness of breath, insomnia, chest pain, and heart disease.
 Immune System Compromise: frequent colds/flu, allergies, asthma, and other immune system
compromise illnesses.

Episodic acute stress leads to more pronounced health issues such as, high blood pressure and heart
disease, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Treatment for Episodic Acute Stress. Episodic acute stress requires intervention on a many levels.
The treatment requires professional help spanning many months.

3. CHRONIC STRESS

Chronic stress is the most harmful type of stress. If chronic stress is left untreated over a long
period of time, it can significantly and often irreversibly damage your physical health and deteriorate your
mental health. For example, long term poverty, repeated abuse in any form, unemployment, dysfunctional
family, poor work environment, substance abuse, or an unhappy marriage can cause significant chronic
stress.

Chronic stress can also set in when an individual feels hopeless, does not see an escape from
the cause of stress, and gives up on seeking solutions. Chronic stress can be caused by a aversive
experiences in childhood or traumatic experiences later in life.

People with chronic stress have the list of signs and symptoms previously mentioned, but the
signs and symptoms are chronic and can result in a physical and mental breakdown that can lead to
suicide, violent actions, homicide, psychosis, heart attacks, and strokes.

Treatment for Chronic Stress

When a person never sees a way out of a miserable situation, feels anxiety of unrelenting
demands and pressures for seemingly interminable periods of time. With no hope, the individual gives up
searching for solutions.

Some chronic stressors or triggers stem from traumatic early childhood experiences that become
internalized and remain forever painful and present. Early childhood experiences profoundly affect
personality; often resulting in core belief systems that are created by causes of unending stress for the
individual (e.g., the world is a threatening place, you must be perfect at all times). When personality or
deep-seated convictions and beliefs must be reformulated, recovery requires active self-examination with
professional psychological help. Good news is psychological treatment is very effective.

People with Chronic Stress require extended medical and psychological treatment that includes
behavioural and stress management.
SIGNS OF STRESS
When we face a stressful event, our bodies respond by activating the nervous system and
releasing hormones such as adrenalin and cortisol. These hormones cause physical changes in the body
which helps us to react quickly and effectively to get through the stressful situation. This is called the
“fight or flight” response.

The hormones increase our heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, metabolism and muscle
tension. Our pupils dilate and our perspiration rate increases. Other effects include sleeping problems,
chest pains, nausea and others.

While these physical changes help us try to meet the challenges of the stressful situation, they
can cause other physical or psychological symptoms if the stress is ongoing and the physical changes do
not settle down.

These symptoms can include:

1. Headaches, other aches and pains

2. Sleep disturbance, insomnia
3. Upset stomach, indigestion, diarrhea
4. Anxiety, anger, irritability
5. Depression
6. Fatigue
7. Feeling overwhelmed and out of control
8. Feeling moody, tearful
9. Difficulty concentrating
10. Low self-esteem, lack of confidence
11. High blood pressure
12. Weakened immune system
13. Heart disease

Techniques to Reduce Stress (Self-Care

Therapy and Self-Compassion Therapy)

One positive way to counter stress is Self-Care Therapy by Nancy Apperson (2008) of Northern
Illinois University.

Self-Care Therapy has provided the following steps:

1. Stop, breathe, and tell yourself: “This is hard and I will get through this one step at a time.”
Identify the steps to take first, write them down, and focus on each step one at a time.

2. Acknowledge to yourself what you are feeling. All feelings are normal so accept whatever you are
feeling. During periods of extreme stress and grief, it is very hard to hold back your feelings, particularly,
your tears and anger.
 3. Find someone who listens and is accepting. You do not need advice. You need to be heard.
Sharing the story is how you begin to accept whatever happened and integrate it into reality.

4. Maintain your normal routine as much as possible. Making everyday decisions gives you a
sense of control and feels comforting as it is a familiar activity. Avoid making major decisions based on
the stress you feel right now.

5. Allow plenty of time for a task. You will not be as productive as you normally are. Accept how much
you are able to do right now and recognize it will not be this way forever.

6.Take good care of yourself. Remember to:

a. Get enough rest and sleep. Sleep at least six (6) hours and not more than nine (9)
hours. Sleep helps our body heals and strengthens our immune system.
b. Eat regularly and make healthy choices. Healthy food choices maintain blood sugar
level, energy, and concentration of the body.
c. Know your limits and when you need to let go. Some problems are beyond our
control. If something cannot be changed, work at accepting it for what it is.
d. Identify or create a nurturing place in your home. A rocking chair, a nice view, and a
soothing music are important components to a nurturing place.
e. Practice relaxation or meditation. Time spent in meditation or prayer allows yur mind
and body to slow down and let go of the stress.
f. Escape for a while through meditation, reading a book, watching a movie, or
taking a short trip.

Another positive way to counter stress is Self-Compassion Therapy discussed by Kristin Neff
(2012) in her article, “The Science of Self-Compassion.”

The major points of Self-Compassion Therapy include:

a. Self-compassion entails being warm and understanding toward ourselves when we

suffer, fail, or feel inadequate, rather than punish ourselves with self-criticism.
b. It recognizes that being imperfect and experiencing life difficulties is inevitable, so
we soothe and nurture ourselves when confronting our pain.
c. We clearly acknowledge problems and shortcomings without judgment, so we can
do what is necessary to help ourselves.
d. We cannot always get what we want. We cannot always be who we want to be.
When this reality is accepted with benevolence, we generate positive emotions of
kindness and care that help us cope.
e. Self-compassion recognizes that life challenges and personal failures are part of
being human, an experience we all share.

TOOL No. 2: Self-efficacy and Social Support

Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce
designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. Self-efficacy
beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave. Such beliefs produce these
diverse effects through four major processes. They include cognitive, motivational, affective and selection
processes.
 In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to struggle together with resilience to
meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life
Self-efficacy
~Albert Bandura~

Psychologist Albert Bandura has defined self-efficacy as one's belief in one's ability to succeed in
specific situations or accomplish a task.

One's sense of self-efficacy can play a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks, and
challenges.

Self-efficacy typically comes into play when there is an actual or perceived threat to one’s
personal safety, or one’s ability to deal with potentially aversive events.

Dr. Bandura identified acts of people with “high assurance in their capabilities,” such as:

a. Approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered;

b. Set challenging goals and maintain strong commitment to them;
c. Heighten or sustain efforts in the face of failures or setbacks;
d. Attribute failure to insufficient effort or deficient knowledge and skills which are acquirable;
and
e. approach threatening situations with assurance that they can exercise control over them.

In contrast, people who” doubt their capabilities:”

1. shy away from tasks they view as personal threats;

2. have low aspirations and weak commitment to goals they choose to pursue;
3. dwell on personal deficiencies, obstacles they will encounter, and all kinds of adverse
outcomes, rather than concentrating on how to perform successfully;
4. slacken their efforts and give up quickly in the face of difficulties;
5. are slow to recover their sense of efficacy following failure or setbacks; and
6. fall easy victim to stress and depression.

Ways to develop and maintain Self-Efficacy:

Self-efficacy can be developed. People with high self-efficacy have been found to stop smoking the
moment they decide to do so.

Our society, our parents and our own positive experiences can help in the development of a strong sense
of self-efficacy by presenting positive models during the formative years of children.
Dr. Bandura described four main sources of influence by which a person’s self-efficacy is developed
and maintained. These are:

1. Performance accomplishments or mastery experiences or enactive mastery

Mastery experiences or personal performance accomplishments are the most effective ways to
create a strong sense of efficacy. Successes build a robust (strong and healthy) belief in one’s
personal efficacy. Failures undermined it, especially if failures occur before a sense of efficacy is
firmly established.

2. Vicarious experiences or vicarious modeling

Seeing people similar to oneself succeed by sustained effort raises observers’ beliefs that they,
too, possess the capabilities to succeed, given the comparable activities.

Vicarious experiences through observance of social models influence one’s perception of self-
efficacy. The most important factor that determines the strength of influence of an observed
 success or failure of one’s own self-efficacy is the degree of similarity between the observer and
the model.

The impact of modelling on perceived self-efficacy is strongly influenced by perceived similarity to

the models. The greater the similarity, the more persuasive is the models’ successes and
failures.

3. Social persuasion or verbal persuasion

It is a way of strengthening people’s

beliefs that they have what it takes to
succeed. Verbal or social persuasion can
provide a temporary boost in perceived
ability.

When it is effective in mobilizing a

person to action, and their actions lead to
success, the enhanced self-efficacy may
become more permanent.

People who are persuaded verbally, that they possess the capabilities to master given
activities, are likely to mobilize greater effort and sustain it than if they harbour self-doubts and
dwell on personal deficiencies when problems arise. This increases their chances of success.

4. Physiological (somatic and emotional) states or arousal.

People also rely on their somatic or emotional states when judging their capabilities. Dr.
Bandura notes that it is not the intensity of the emotional or physical reaction that is important, but
rather, how it is perceived and interpreted.

People with a high sense of self-efficacy may perceive affective arousal as an energizing
facilitator of performance, whereas those who are beset by self-doubts regards their arousal as a
debilitator (cause to lose strength).

SOCIAL SUPPORT

Social support is often identified as a key component of solid relationships and strong
psychological health, but what exactly does it mean? Essentially, social support involves having a network
of family and friends that you can turn to in times of need.

Whether you are facing a personal crisis and need immediate assistance, or you just want to
spend time with people who care about you, these relationships play a critical role in how you function in
your day-to-day life.

It is social support that builds people up during times of stress and often gives them the strength
to carry on and even thrive. But social support is certainly not a one-way street. In addition to relying on
others, you also serve as a form of support for many people in your life.
Social support is commonly categorized into four types of behaviors.

1. Emotional
2. Instrumental
3. Informational
4. Appraisal

The ways in which types of social support differ may best be illustrated using an example.

Example: A 39-year-old graduate student and mother of 2 young children is feeling overwhelmed after
being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Types of Social Support

Content Definition Application

Emotional Expressions of empathy, love Close friends and family provide hope and a
trust and caring listening ear
Her husband decides to work from home 2
Instrumental Tangible aid and service days per week to baby-sit the children while
she attends her chemotherapy
Doctors provide facts about breast cancer and
Informational Advice, suggestions, and guidance during the treatment process. Her
information mother offers advice about her own
chemotherapy treatment 3 years prior
A close friend of 15 years reminds her of all of
Appraisal Information that is useful for the qualities that equip her to “beat” breast
self-evaluation cancer (to encourage an accurate assessment
of her current situation)

Why Strong Social Support Is So Important?

Psychologists and other mental health professionals often talk about the importance of having a strong
social support network. When trying to reach our goals or deal with a crisis, experts frequently implore
people to lean on their friends and family for support.

Research has also demonstrated the link between social relationships and many different aspects of
health and wellness. Poor social support has been linked to depression and loneliness and has been
shown to alter brain function and increase the risk of the following:
 Alcohol use
 Cardiovascular disease
 Depression
 Suicide
Synthesis:

How we react to a difficult situation will affect how stress affects our life and our physical and
mental health. A person who feels they do not have enough resources to cope will be more likely to have
a stronger reaction that triggers significant physical and mental health problems. It is paramount to
remember that the mind and body are connected — meaning that psychological factors affect how a
person feels physically and the longevity of the body.

A persistently negative response to challenges can have a detrimental effect on mind + body +
emotions. However, being aware of how you react to stressors and seeking professional help can help
reduce the negative feelings and effects of stress, and to manage it more effectively.

Perceived self-efficacy is concerned with people's beliefs in their capabilities to exercise control
over their own functioning and over events that affect their lives. Beliefs in personal efficacy affect life
choices, level of motivation, quality of functioning, resilience to adversity and vulnerability to stress and
depression. People's beliefs in their efficacy are developed by four main sources of influence. They
include mastery experiences, seeing people similar to oneself manage task demands successfully, social
persuasion that one has the capabilities to succeed in given activities, and inferences from somatic and
emotional states indicative of personal strengths and vulnerabilities. Ordinary realities are strewn with
impediments, adversities, setbacks, frustrations and inequities. People must, therefore, have a robust
sense of efficacy to sustain the perseverant effort needed to succeed. Succeeding periods of life present
new types of competency demands requiring further development of personal efficacy for successful
functioning. The nature and scope of perceived self-efficacy undergo changes throughout the course of
the lifespan.