Chapter 14 From Stress to Health and Well Being Psychoneuroimmunology tying of our immune system along with our brain emotions etc Stress Physical or mental response to a challenging situation Hans Selye s definition of stress is the body s physiological response to any demand placed upon it Perspectives of stress Biological the way individuals are hard wired Behavioral certain stress responses are learned Developmental age effects how we deal with stress Cognitive some perceive stress differently Whole Person personality traits can predict healthier coping Sociocultural certain stress responses are more prevalent in some cultures than in others Stressor the demands that are placed or an internal or external stimulus that causes stress Traumatic stressor A situation that threatens one s physical safety arousing feelings of fear horror or helplessness Sources of stress Financial relationship work school etc Life changes Too much change in one s life can actually affect one s health Life change units Social Readjustment Rating Scale SRRS points given to different events that show how stressful someone s life is based on the situation Loss Loss of a loved one freedom income All leads to loss of hope Relationship ending phases Interpsychic phase think about ending it Diatec phase when one party makes it known Social phase informs friends and family Grave dressing phase mourning and reviewing of the relationship Catastrophe horrible events that take place 1 Emergency phase during first three to four weeks 2 Inhibition phase next three to eight weeks Less talk and thinking about the event But more argument over it 3 Adaptation phase 2 months on through the year Narratives a personal account of a stressful event that describes our interpretation of what happened and why Grief the emotional response to loss which includes sadness anger helplessness guilt and despair Societal stressors Overpopulation economic recession nuclear war etc Burnout Family and work stress Defined by Christina Maslach See definition below Hassles Accumulation of all the small frustrations Reponses 1 Shock denial 2 Automatic Action Loss of energy 3 Let down 4 5 Recovery Christina Maslach Syndrome of emotional exhaustion Physical consequences of stress Arousal physiological and psychological state of being awake or reactive to stimuli Acute stress A temporary state of arousal caused by a stressor with a distinct onset and limited duration Chronic stress A continuous state of arousal in which an individual perceives demands as greater than the inner and outer resources available for dealing with them Fight or flight Sequence of internal responses preparing an organism for struggle or escape The General Adaptation Syndrome GAS Hans Selye A three phase pattern of physical responses to a chronic stressor 1 Alarm phase when the body s resources are mobilized to cope with the stressor 2 Resistance phase when the body adapts to an maintains resources to cope with the stressor 3 Exhaustion phase when the body s resources become depleted Immune Function a diffuse complex network of interacting cells cell products and cell forming tissues that protects the body from pathogens and otherforeign substances destroys infected and malignant cells and removes cellular debris Psychological consequences of stress Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome PTSD a delayed stress reaction in which an individual involuntarily re experiences emotional cognitive and behavioral aspects of post trauma Residual stress pattern A chronic syndrome in which the emotional responses of posttraumatic stress persist over time Stockholm syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with them Hedonic Capacity Capacity of pleasure Cognitive consequences of stress Attention Harder to pay attention Memory memory performance declines Responding to stress Anticipatory coping The mental and physical efforts that a human makes to deal with an anticipated stressful event to tolerate minimize of overcome the emotions associated with stress Coping vs defending coping is a conscious process while defending is an unconscious process Defending is used as a survival instrument while coping is a set goal for how to handle stress Coping Styles Actions that reduces or eliminates the impact of stress Problem solving Action taken to clarify and resolve stressor Emotion focused coping Regulating one s emotional response to a stressor Moderator variables a qualitative or quantitative variable that affects the direction and or strength of the relation between dependent and independent variables Ego defense mechanisms the ego uses this to reduce negative feelings Cognitive assessment is an examination conducted to determine someone s level of cognitive function Cognitive appraisals a process of recognizing a stressor and asses the amount of demand it has on us and identifying the resources we have to deal with it Richard Lazarus Primary appraisal What is it How bad is it How long will it last Identifying the stress and how bad it is Secondary appraisal evaluate the availability of the resources we have to deal with the stress and making a decision on how to deal with it Modifying cognition Reappraising stressors evaluating the situation again and reacting differently Restructuring cognition Reappraising a stressor with the goal of seeing it from a more positive perspective What you believe about your circumstance is more important than the circumstance itself Personality factors Type A A person who s driven and is constantly pushing themselves Type B Goes with the flow more easy going Type T Thrill seeking and looking for adventures Hardiness resilient quality that s based on certain attitudes towards stress and how to manage it Don t get ill very much The 3 C s Challenge Commitment and Control They welcome change as a challenge making the commitment to meet the challenges they face control is having an internal sense of control over ones decisions This is a learned approach to stress Social support refers to the resources provided by other persons that can help a person with stressors Sandwich generation Those who are supporting older people while having kids of their own they hat to care for Health Psychology field that is devoted to how people stay healthy and why they become ill and how to respond to life when they are ill Biopsychosocial model