Comprehensive Stress Management

Thirteenth Edition

Chapter 8
Perception
Interventions

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 Chapter Outline
• Selective awareness
• Stop to smell the roses
• Perspective and selective awareness
• An attitude of gratitude
• Humor and stress
• Type A behavior pattern
• Self-esteem
• Locus of control
• Anxiety management
• Resiliency
• Hardiness
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 Perceptions
• Cognitive interpretations of people, things,
and events within one’s world
– Relate to the inner self
– Include perceptions of events and one’s own
self-worth

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 Selective Awareness
• Being selectively aware of the positive
aspect of each situation
– People should realize the good and bad
sides of every situation
 Should selectively de-emphasize the
disturbing features of a stressor
 Should believe in their strengths and let go
of their weaknesses

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 Daily Experience

• People restrict themselves from enjoying

the pleasures of life
– Due to the routine of daily experience
 People are desensitized to experience due to
habituation

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 Perspective and Selective Awareness
• Includes putting minor stressors into
perspective
– By focusing on the positive aspects of a
current situation
• Developing an attitude of gratitude
– Attitude of gratitude: Focusing on things
about which to be grateful

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 Optimism and Health
• Optimism keeps people healthy and stress-
free
– Pessimism contributes to poor health
• Humor plays an important role in optimism
– Humor captures interest and helps one
learn more about stress

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 Humor and Stress (1 of 2)
• Humor is an effective means of coping with
stress
– Increases cheerfulness
• Forms of humor
– Exaggeration
– Incongruity
– Surprise
– Slapstick

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 Humor and Stress (2 of 2)
• Humor
– Results in psychological and physiological
changes leading to relaxation
– Improves the health of the elderly and is
used as a therapy
– Helps in overcoming posttraumatic stress
disorder
• Humor can be used inappropriately, causing
distress to others

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 Type A Behavior Pattern
• Set of behaviors associated with the
development of coronary heart disease
– Competitive drive
– Aggressiveness
– Impatience
– Time urgency
– Free-floating hostility
– Insecurity

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 Type B Behavior Pattern
• Behavior that exhibits no free-floating
hostility or sense of time urgency
– Opposite of Type A

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 Research Findings on Type A
Patterns
• Study of nurses and teachers shows that
Type As tend to experience more job stress
– Type A hospital employees had more health
problems than other employees
 Suffer from coronary heart disease and
obstruction of the coronary vessels
• Type As take longer to recover from
stressful events than Type Bs

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 Type A Behaviors
• Hostility and anger
• Modification of Type A behavior involves:
– Rewarding Type B behavior, while ignoring or
punishing Type A behavior
– Setting weekly, realistic, and attainable goals
– Listing behaviors that one wants to eliminate
– Separating needs from wants
– Slowing down and not taking things in a hurry

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 Other Behavior Patterns
• Type C: Associated with the development of
cancer and is characterized by:
– Denial and suppression of emotions
– Pathological niceness
• Type D: Associated with the development of
and death from coronary heart disease
– Characterized by negative emotion and
inhibited self-expression

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 Self-Esteem
• How highly one regards oneself
– Poor self-esteem is related to drug abuse,
irresponsible sexual behavior, and other
unhealthy activities
• Self-esteem is learned
– Through societal standards, friends, and family
• Poor self-esteem leads to the development of
stress-related illnesses
• Self-efficacy helps in building self-esteem
– Self efficacy - Belief that one can be successful at
doing something
– Helps in recovering from posttraumatic stress
disorder, depression, and occupational stress
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 How to Increase Self-Esteem
• Identifying what needs to be improved
• Looking at other components of self-esteem
that need to be addressed
– Seeking honest feedback from friends
– Being open about one’s thoughts, feelings,
passions, and frustrations

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 Locus of Control
• Perception of the amount of personal
control one has over the events in one’s life
– External locus of control: Perception that
one has minimum control over life events
– Internal locus of control: Perception that
one has maximum control over life events
• People have good locus of control in one
area of life and not in another
• Cocreator perception deficiency (CCPD)
– Belief that people are in total control over
events or have no control at all
 Both are faulty
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 Anxiety
• Unrealistic fear
– Results in physiological arousal and
behaviors to avoid or escape the stimulus

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 Types of Anxiety (1 of 2)
• Test anxiety
– Consists of worry and emotionality
• Trait anxiety
– General sense of anxiety
• State anxiety
– Anxiety that is either temporary in nature or
specific to a particular stimulus

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 Types of Anxiety (2 of 2)
• Panic disorder
– Feelings of terror that strikes people
repeatedly without warning
 Makes them numb, sweaty, and weak
• Social phobia
– Overwhelming fear and self-consciousness
in everyday situations
 Experienced in formal and informal
situations
• Specific phobia
– Intense fear of a specific situation that is
harmless
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 Table 8.1 - Anxiety Management
Techniques
Technique Description
Environmental Adjusting the environment to avoid the
anxiety-provoking stimulus, or to be
Planning better able to confront it.
Giving the anxiety-provoking stimulus a
new label that will make you less
Relabeling
anxious.
Making statements to yourself that
focus on the positive aspects of a
Self-Talk
potentially anxiety-provoking event.
Recognizing when you experience an
Thought anxious thought, then redirecting your
attention elsewhere. Deep muscle
Stopping relaxation can be used to reinforce the
ability to ignore the anxious thought.
Imagining or experiencing an anxiety-
Systematic provoking scene stepwise (in small
steps), and engaging in a relaxation
Desensitization
exercise when able to do so,
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Example
Bringing a friend with you to the dentist.
Having blood drawn may have been
"labeled" a negative event when you said,
"The nurse will stick a needle in my veins
and may draw out too much blood or infect
me." You can re label that a positive event
by stating, "I'm going to have the
opportunity to find out how healthy 1 am
and be better able to plan to stay healthy."
You have to give a speech in front of a group
of people, and you say to yourself, “I will get
the chance to let everyone know how much
1 know about this topic."
If you experience anxious thoughts about an
upcoming exam, think about something else
and meditate afterward.
Imagine bungee jumping by first imagining
phoning for a reservation, then driving to
the site, etc. and after being able to imagine
that scene without experiencing anxious
thoughts, doing diaphragmatic breathing.
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 Coping Techniques for Anxiety
Disorders
• Cognitive restructuring
– Involves viewing an anxiety-provoking event as
less threatening
 Helps in the accurate assessment of a situation by
measuring the consequences or outcomes
– Taught to people of all ages
• ABCDE technique:
– Examines irrational beliefs
 A - Activating agent
 B - Belief system
 C - Consequences
 D - Disputing irrational beliefs
 E - Effect
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 Resiliency
• Ability to identify and make use of strengths
and assets
– Respond to challenges that help one grow as
an individual
• People should use their strengths to become
resilient based on the situation

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 Resilient Traits
• Happiness
• Optimism
• Self-determination
• Creativity
• Self-control
• Gratitude

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 Hardiness
• State of mind that includes the “three Cs”
– Commitment
– Control
– Challenge
• Hardy people can withstand stressors

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 Perception Interventions

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