Introduction to

Psychology
Stress and Health
Outline
• Definition
• Causes
• Symptoms of Acute Stress
• Stress management techniques
• Relaxation
• Exercise
• Stress management
 Health and Stress
• Health Psychology: A subfield of psychology that emphasizes
psychology’s role in establishing and maintaining health and
preventing and treating illness
• Biomedical Medicine: An interdisciplinary field that focuses on
developing and integrating behavioural and biomedical
knowledge to promote health and reduce illness; overlaps with
health psychology
• Psychoneuroimmunology: a new field of scientific inquiry that
explores connections among psychological factors (such as
attitudes and emotions), the nervous system, and the immune
system
 What is Stress?
• Is a negative emotional discomfort
experience accompanied by
predictable biochemical,
physiological, cognitive &
behavioral changes that are directed
either towards altering the stressful
event or accommodating its effects
Stress and the Immune System
• stressful experiences lower the efficacy of
immune systems, making individuals more
susceptible to disease
• Stress directly promotes disease- producing
processes
• Stressful experiences may cause the
activation of dormant viruses that diminish
the individual’s ability to cope with disease
 Stress vs Stressor
Stress Stressor
• stress is any • A stressor is any
uncomfortable • event, experience, or
emotional experience environmental stimulus that
accompanied by • causes stress in an
individual.
• predictable biochemical,
• These events or experiences
• physiological and are perceived as threats or
• behavioral changes. challenges to the individual
and can be either physical or
psychological.
 Types of Stress

Acute Stress Chronic Stress

• Acute stress reaction (also called acute • Chronic stress is the response to
stress disorder, psychological shock,
mental shock, or simply shock) is a
psychological condition arising in
response to a terrifying or traumatic
event or witnessing a traumatic event
that induces a strong emotional
response within the individual.
• Acute stress disorder is characterized
by the development of severe anxiety,
dissociation, and other symptoms that
occurs within one month after exposure
to an extreme traumatic stressor (e.g.,
witnessing a death or serious accident).
emotional pressure suffered for a
prolonged period of time in which an
individual perceives they have little
or no control. It involves an
endocrine system response in which
corticosteroids are released.
• examples include serious life events
like the death of a loved one, the loss
of a job, loneliness, or ongoing
marital problems.
Why is our Stress level so High?
• Urbanization
• Globalization
• Technology
• Social and economic
burden

Behavioural risk factors

• Unhealthy diet
• Physical inactivity
• Tobacco & alcohol use
Four major factors that lead to stress;
• Change: All stressful events
are caused by change.  The • Frustration: Occurs when a
more change involved, the person is prevented from reaching
more stressful the situation. goal because something or
someone stands in the way.

• Pressure: Occurs when we

• Conflict: Conflict arises when we
feel forced to speed up,
face two or more incompatible
intensify, or shift direction in
demands, opportunities, needs, or
our behavior, or when we feel goals. (Kurt Lewin:
compelled to meet a higher approach/approach -2
standard of performance. •approach/avoidance -1
• avoidance/avoidance -2
Four major factors that lead to stress;
Conflict
• Conflict within an individual is the simultaneous arousal of two or more
incompatible motives.
• To understand the dynamics of conflict, psychologists have tried to answer
one key question: "What factors make some choices easy and others
difficult?“

• Smith and Guthrie (1921 ) made a distinction between conflict situations that
produce a stable equilibrium and those that produce an unstable equilibrium.
Easily resolved conflicts are said to be in unstable equilibrium: as soon as
the person moves toward one of the alternatives, the conflict disappears.
When a conflict is not easily resolved, incompatible responses continue to
balance each other. The person cannot accept either alternative. Since he
cannot choose, he remains in conflict. The conflict is in stable equilibrium.
• Lewin (1935) identified three patterns of conflict: approach-approach,
avoidance-avoidance, and approach-avoidance.
 Four major factors that lead to stress;
Conflict
Approach- Approach
Conflict
• Approach-approach conflicts are unstable
• In the first of these, approach-approach, the
individual is faced with the necessity of making
a choice between two (or more) desirable goals.
• Since both goals are desirable, this is the least
stressful situation.
• Such situations produce a state of unstable
equilibrium.
• As soon as one goal is approached, its
desirability increases and completely dominates,
thereby making the choice easy.
• The choice becomes easier the closer one moves
toward either goal.
• The approach-approach conflict situation: an
unstable equilibrium A step toward either goal is
sufficient to resolve the conflict by making that
goal seem more attractive than the other.
Avoidance- Avoidance Conflict
• The individual is faced with two goals, both of
which are negative, or repellent.
• He is "between the rock and the hard place." In
that very position, for example, is the child who
is faced with "Either you do your homework or
you go to bed without supper."
• Since the equilibrium is a stable one, the child is
likely to remain balanced between the two
negatives as long as possible. The nearer the
individual comes to a goal he wishes to avoid (a
repelling one), the stronger is his tendency to
avoid it.
• The avoidance-avoidance conflict situation is a
stable equilibrium in which a movement away
from one goal is countered by an increase in the
repellence of the other goal so that the
individual returns to the point where he was at
the beginning of the conflict .
 Four major factors that lead to stress;
Conflict
Approach- Avoidance Conflict
• Approach-avoidance conflicts involve only one
goal
• In this situation, the individual is both attracted and
repelled by the same goal. The same goal has
qualities that make the individual want to approach
it and other qualities that make him want to avoid
it.
• Approach-avoidance, like the avoidance-avoidance
conflict situation, produces stable equilibrium.
• The approach-avoidance conflict situation is a
stable equilibrium. As the individual nears the
goal , the strength of avoidance increases more
rapidly than that of approach, pushing him from the
goal ; at this point the strength of approach is
higher than the avoidance tendency.
• In this manner the person is brought back to the
original point of equilibrium .
Double Approach- Avoidance
• In real life, the individual frequently is faced
with having to choose between two (or more)
goals, each of which has both attracting and
repelling aspects.
• Since the tendency is to approach and avoid
each of the goals, this pattern is called double
approach-avoidance.
• Choosing a house in the country means fresh
air, room to live, peace and quiet. It also means
many hours of commuting to work in heavy
traffic and long distances from city amenities
and cultural events. Choosing to live in the city
will likewise present both the problems and the
advantages of city life.
• This is a common example of the double
approach-avoidance situation.
 Other major factors that cause Stress
#1 is Work related stress #2 are Social Stressors
• Being unhappy in your job • The death of a loved one
• Having a heavy workload or too much • Divorce
responsibility
• Loss of a job
• Working long hours
• Increase in financial obligations
• Having poor management, unclear
expectations of your work, or no say in the • Getting married
decision-making process • Moving to a new home
• Working under dangerous conditions • Chronic illness or injury
• Being insecure about your chance for • Emotional problems (depression,
advancement or risk of termination anxiety, anger, grief, guilt, no/low self-
• Having to give speeches in front of esteem)
colleagues
• Taking care of an elderly or sick family
• Facing discrimination or harassment at
member
work, especially if your company isn't
supportive
Other Major factors that cause Stress
Variables we cannot Control
Traumatic Stressors
• Change: Any major life
change can be stressful -- • Traumatic event, such as
even a happy event like a a
wedding or a job promotion. • natural phenomena,
More unpleasant events, such
as a divorce, major financial • theft,
setback, or death in the family • rape, or
can be significant sources of
• violence against you or a
stress.
• Conflicts
loved one
 Other Major factors that cause Stress
Sometimes the stress comes from inside, rather than outside
Fear and uncertainty
• When you regularly hear about the threat
of terrorist attacks, global warming, and
toxic chemicals on the news,
• it can cause you to feel stressed,
especially because you feel like you have
no control over those events.
• And even though disasters are typically
very rare events, their vivid coverage in
the media may make them seem as if they
are more likely to occur than they really
are.
• Fears can also hit closer to home, such as
being worried that you won't finish a
project at work or won't have enough
money to pay your bills this month.
Attitudes and perceptions
• How you view the world or a particular
situation can determine whether it causes
stress.
• For example, if your television set is stolen
and you take the attitude, "It's OK, my
insurance company will pay for a new one,"
you'll be far less stressed than if you think,
• "My TV is gone and I'll never get it back!
What if the thieves come back to my house
to steal again?"
• Similarly, people who feel like they're doing
a good job at work will be less stressed out
by a big upcoming project than those who
worry that they are incompetent.
Other Factors that cause stress
Unrealistic expectations Personality Type
• Life is not perfect • Your stress level will differ
based on your personality and
• If you expect to do how you respond to situations.
everything right all • Some people let everything
the time, you're roll off their back.
• To them, work stresses and
destined to feel life stresses are just minor
stressed when things bumps in the road.
don't go as expected. • Others literally worry
themselves sick.
Physiological Responses to Stress
Selye’s (1974) General Adaptation
Syndrome <G.A.S.>
• General Adaptation Syndrome is Selye’s term for the common
effects on the body when stressful demands are placed on it
• The GAS consists of 3 stages (alarm, resistance and
exhaustion)
• This model is especially useful in helping us to understand the
link between stress and health

• HYPOTHALMIC-PITUITARY-ADRENAL AXIS (HPA axis):

is the body system that plays the greatest role in stress. It is a
complex set of interactions among the hypothalamus, the
pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands.
Selye’s (1974) General Adaptation
Syndrome <G.A.S.>
• Stage 1: Alarmed
• The body prepares itself for
immediate action; arousal of
the sympathetic nervous
system releases hormones
that help prepare the body to
meet threats or dangers. If
stress is prolonged Stage 2:
Resistance begins…
Selye’s (1974) General Adaptation
Syndrome <G.A.S.>
• Stage 2: Resistance
• Arousal is lower than during the
alarm stage but our bodies continue
to draw on resources at an above
normal rate in order to cope
effectively with the stressor.
Continued exposure to the same
stressor drains the body of its
resources and leads to the third stage
Exhaustion…
Selye’s (1974) General Adaptation
Syndrome <G.A.S.>
• Stage 3: Exhaustion
• During this stage our
capacity to resist is
depleted and our
susceptibility to illness
increases. Severe
exposure to prolonged
physical stress may result
in death.
 Main Forms of Coping with Stress:
Direct Coping

• Direct Coping – When we are threatened, frustrated, or in conflict, we have three basic choices for doping directly: confrontation,
compromise, or withdrawal.

• Confrontation – Acknowledging to oneself that there is a problem for which a

solution must be found, attacking the problem head-on, and pushing resolutely
toward one’s goal is called confrontation. 

• Compromise – Is one of the most common and effective ways of coping
directly with conflict or frustration.  In such cases, we ma decide to settle for
less than we originally sought.

• Withdrawal – The woman whose promotion depends on temporarily relocation

might just quit her job and join another company is an example of
withdrawal.  One of the greatest dangers of coping by withdrawal is that the
person will come to avoid all similar situations.
 How to Cope with Stress:
Monitoring One’s Self
Basic Stress Management Program
I. Identify stressors
II. Monitor stress level
III. Identify stress antecedents
IV. Avoiding negative self-talk
V. Setting daily or weekly personal goals
Main forms of Coping with Stress
Sigmund Freud: EGO ; Defense Mechanisms

Defense Mechanisms: are the tactics

the ego uses to reduce anxiety by
unconsciously distorting reality

• Repression
• Rationalization
• Sublimation
• Identification
• Reaction Formation
• Projection
• Denial
• Displacement
• Regression
Main forms of Coping with Stress
Sigmund Freud: EGO ; Defense Mechanisms
• Defensive Coping – Defense mechanisms is a way of coping.  Defense mechanisms are
techniques for deceiving oneself about the causes of a stressful situation to reduce pressure,
frustration, conflict, and anxiety.  The following are some forms of defense coping:
•  
• Denial – Is the refusal to acknowledge a painful or threatening reality.
• Repression – Is a form of forgetting that excludes painful thoughts from consciousness.
• Projection – Is occurs when a problem cannot be completely denied or repressed the person may project the
repressed motives, ideas, or feelings onto others.  A corporate executive who feels guilty about the way he rose to
power ma project his own ruthless ambition onto his colleagues. 
• Identification – Taking on the characteristics of someone else so that we can vicariously share in that person’s
triumphs and overcome feeling inadequate.  When the child is promoted, the parent may fell personally
triumphant.
• Regression – People under stress may revert to childlike behavior, this is called regression.
• Intellectualization – Is a subtle form of denial in which we detach ourselves from our feelings about our problems
by analyzing them intellectually.
• Reaction Formation – Exaggeration is the clue to this behavior.  The woman who extravagantly praises a rival
may be covering up jealousy over her opponent’s success.
• Displacement – Involves the redirection of repressed motives and emotions from their original objects to
substitute objects.
• Sublimation – Refers to transforming repressed motives or feelings into more socially acceptable
forms.  Aggressiveness, for instance might be channeled into competitiveness in business or sports.
Defense How it works
Mechanism
Repression The ego pushes the unacceptable
impulses out of awareness, into the
unconscious mind
Rationalizati The ego replaces a less acceptable
on motive with a more acceptable one
Displacement The ego shifts the feelings towards
an unacceptable object to another
more acceptable object
Sublimation The ego replaces an unacceptable
impulse with a socially acceptable
one
Projection Ego attributes personal shortcomings, A man who wants to cheat accuses his
problems, and faults to others
Reaction The ego transforms an unacceptable
Formation motive into its opposite
Denial Ego refuses to acknowledge anxiety-
producing realities
Regression Ego seeks security of an earlier dev
in the face of stress
Example
A young girl was sexually abused as a
child, has no recollection of the
traumatic experience
A person did not get into a college,
the person now tells himself that the
college only accepts rich people
A woman can’t take her anger out on
her boss, so she takes it out on her
husband
A man with strong sexual urges,
becomes an artistes and paints nudes
wife of flirting with other men
A woman with strong sexual urges
becomes a devout Christian (abstains)
Refuses cancer treatment even though
doctors tell him he has cancer
Returns to mother’s house whenever
she has an argument with her husband
The 5 R’s of Coping with Stress
• Rethink- do I need this
• Reduce- take off some weight
• Reorganize- start the day differently
• Release- let go of some things
• RELAX!- find time for yourself
 The 5 R’s of Coping with Stress
Rethink
• Changing the way we think about the world and
potential stressors can make a tremendous difference
• Becoming more logical and rational regarding how we
view the world often requires us to change our
Perspective (a person’s relative mental picture, or
point of view, in regard to a particular situation or
event
 The 5 R’s of Coping with Stress
Reduce
• Cutting back on the overall volume of stressors in
one’s life- MAKE TIME FOR SELF- SLEEP is good
• Stimulation: the state of being aroused, excited,
energized, or forced to react in some way
• Demand: a positive/ negative condition /activity/
stimulus that forces the body to use energy
• It is important to have a balance between things that
are demanding and stimulating.
 The 5 R’s of Coping with Stress
Relax
• Relaxed State: is a state of being characterized by the
decrease of key physiological processes such as
muscle tension, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood
pressure; it is also accompanied by a passive mental
state
• Ways of becoming relaxed is through: meditation,
visualizing & listening to things that you personally
find soothing, entertainment such as partying, talking
with friends etc.
 The 5 R’s of Coping with Stress
Release
• Using physical activity to dissipate the effects of
stress
• Exercise: is a formal series of movements & activities
designed to work targeted muscles & body systems
• Physiological benefits include; tension reduction,
hormone utilization, reduce fat/cholesterol, enhanced
cardio respiratory function
• Psychological benefits include; increased creativity &
concentration, reduced anxiety, improved outlook on
life, enhanced self- esteem
 The 5 R’s of Coping with Stress
Reorganize
• This is based on changing the way you view your health to
make it a higher priority as a defense against stress