WEEK 6 Appraisal Coping and Health Appraisal of event coping strategies how you feel and managing feelings and social support status Modulators of stress response Event Appraisal Primary What is at stake Nothing Positive Stressful Secondary what can I do What are my coping options Coping Cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage the situation and ones emotional response to it Outcome Emotional adjustment Health Key Dimensions of Stress Appraisal 1 Threat Challenge Combination of primary Is there something at stake Yes and secondary appraisal Do I have the resources to meet it Threat insufficient resources to meet the demand associated with feelings of stress fear and worry Results in a less efficient cardiac output heart not pumping blood as well Challenge resources sufficient to meet situational demand associated with feelings of control and challenge Creates a more efficient cardiac output greater blood flow Same pattern seen during aerobic exercise representing efficient energy mobilization for coping These appraisals are associated with an increased cortisol response after being exposed to an acute stressor 2 Can I Control it Control is an important regulatory of physiobiological responses Uncontrollable our behavior or response won t influence the outcome Meta analysis uncontrollable stressors create an acute cortisol increase Job Control Experiment Low levels of job control higher blood pressure Health Related Control Experiment Asked kids with asthma how much control they feel over their health Low control led to an increased amount of cytokines IL 4 that makes asthma worse and poor pulmonary function 3 Am I being evaluated Social self preservation may also be just as important as physical Threats to social self loss of social esteem social status or social acceptance Trier Social Stress Test Evaluation vs Non evaluation conditions Both conditions elicit a cardiovascular response Only evaluation elicits a stress response Larger Audience magnified effects Heart rate affected by just doing the task but the cortisol response is affected by the amount of people Social evaluation is the component that influences cortisol Presence of inattentive confederate does not induce cortisol response Daily Life Threat Participants reported experiences of social evaluation throughout the day Higher levels of threat associated with a higher blood pressure Meta Analysis Stressors with Social Evaluation lead to acute cortisol increases Lowest to highest Motived performance with uncontrollability motived performance with social evaluative threat motivated performance with socialevaluative threat and uncontrollability Lack of control social evaluation leads to an increase in the pro inflammatory response to stress Manipulating Appraisals 1 Arousal Reappraising arousal feeling of being stressed experimentally manipulate the feeling by telling participants that arousal is functional and adaptive which leads to beneficial effects on physiology and performance Experiment 1 Participants were in three conditions reappraising their arousal to a stressful task as adaptive ignore or control group Those in the reappraisal group showed a better cardiovascular response GRE Experiment Participants randomly assigned to reappraise their arousal to a practice test and scored higher on the actual test 2 Stress Telling people stress is good for them Experiment three groups stress is enhancing stress is debilitating and control Those who saw a video about how stress is enhancing had improved health symptoms and work performance Those in Debilitating condition had the most health symptoms and worst stress mindset but a better work performance the post test 3 Exercise Housekeeper Study Informed group vs Control Informed group was told that their regular daily activities met the CDC standard for daily exercise 4 weeks later the informed group perceived they were getting more exercise despite no change in behavior Informed group also lost weight and saw improvements in blood pressure 4 Calories Milkshake Study the effect of your perceived caloric intake on ghrelin hungry hormone that is released when the stomach is empty to induce sensation of hungry suppressed with full secretion Two conditions indulgent shake and healthy shake both really the same calories Steeper decline in ghrelin after shake in indulgent condition which means they felt more full than the other group also goes up higher in anticipation of the shake Can eat the same exact thing and have a different physiological response Summary Changing appraisals has the following effects on physiology Cardiovascular responses performance weight blood pressure ghrelin No one knows the mechanisms that create these changes Power Poses Experiment Randomly assigned to high or low power poses High taking up more space open limbs Those in the high condition felt more powerful were more likely to take risks in gambling and had lower cortisol levels Coping Efforts to deal with demands taxing or exceeding one s resources Anything you do to mange your response to a stressful situation May may not be deliberate and cognitive behavioral or emotional Approach Coping Designed to deal with situation and or ones thoughts and feelings about it EX problem solving planning seeking social support I ve been getting help and advice form other people I ve been taking action to make the situation better Avoidance Coping Designed to avoid situation and or one s thoughts and feelings about it Ex disengagement denial I ve been giving up trying to deal with it Mental Heath Avoidance strategies are helping for dealing with short term unavoidable stressors Cognitive avoidance led to lower anxiety for women undergoing mammography Avoidance coping is bad in the long term Avoiding thoughts and feelings around persistent stressors predicts elevated stress cancer patients coping with terrorist attacks Predicts poor behavioral outcomes like risky sexual behavior and lower medical regimen adherence Coping in HIV Approach Coping Increased positive affect Decreased negative affect Better health behaviors Better physical health Avoidance Coping Decreased positive affect Increased negative affect Worse physical health and health behaviors Avoidance and Immunity 177 HIV men women assessed over 2 years Avoidant coping predicts faster decline in CD4 T cells and an increase in viral load Avoidance and Progression 82 HIV gay men Denial coping and stressful life events predicts faster progression to AIDS