Coping with Stress Flashcards
The cognitive, behavioral, and emotional ways that people deal with stressful situations and includes any attempt to preserve mental and physical health
Coping / + Strategies
Describes coping in that it is a series of responses involving our interactions with the environment
Dynamic Process
Two most basic styles of coping
Approach (Vigilant) and Avoidant (Minimizing)
Coping style methods which confront a stressor head-on by gathering information, taking direct action, or in other ways making an active effort to resolve the problem
Approach (Vigilant) Coping
Coping style method which tries to avoid the problem in whatever way possible through passive behaviors, antisocial behaviors, or fantasizing
Avoidant (Minimizing) Coping
Three methods of Avoidant (Minimizing) Coping
(1) Passive Behaviors [e.g. avoiding people and problems], (2) Antisocial Behaviors [e.g. escapist drug use, risky sexual behaviors, displacement], (3) Fantasizing [e.g. wishing problems would disappear]
Richard Lazarus divided coping strategies into…
Problem-focused and Emotion-focused
Coping strategy used to deal directly with the stressful situation either by reducing its demands or by increasing our capacity to deal with the stressor
Problem-focused Coping
When do we use problem-focused coping?
When we believe that our resources and situations are changeable
Coping strategy used when we attempt to regulate our emotional reactions to a stressful event
Emotion-focused Coping
When do we rely on emotion-focused coping?
When we believe that little or nothing can be done to alter a stressful situation or when we believe that our coping resources or skills are insufficient to meet the demands of the stressful situation.
It is supposed that problem-focused coping skills emerge during — while emotion-focused coping skills emerge during —
childhood; adolescence
The efficacy of problem-focused vs emotion-focused coping depends on?
The duration of the stressor and the perceived controllability of the stressor
Coping strategy more often linked with better health outcomes
Problem-focused Coping
Problem-focused coping is more effective with — stressors than — stressors
chronic; acute
Type of emotion-focused coping which has been linked to emotional distress and a variety of health problems
Rumination
Thinking repetitively about an upsetting situation and how it related to past and future problems associated with a stressor
Rumination
When rumination spirals out of control it can lead to this vicious cycle in which intense rumination makes the person more upset, which in turn causes more rumination
Emotional cascade
Stipulates that self-damaging behaviors are used to distract one from rumination through intense physical sensations
Emotional Cascade Model
Type of coping which involves working through our emotional reactions to a stressful event; The process of working through, clarifying, and understanding the emotions triggered by a stressor
Emotional-approach Coping
Emotional-approach Coping is comprised of which two emotion-regulating processes?
Emotional processing and Emotional expression
Refers to the neurotransmitters epinephrine and norepinephrine
Catecholamines
Refers to a terminating immune system response
Glucocorticoid
One way in which men and women differ in physiological reactions to stress is that men display greater stress-induced secretions of — while women exhibit a stronger — response
catecholamines; glucocorticoid
The efficacy of problem-focused vs emotion-focused coping depends on?
The duration of the stressor and the perceived controllability of the stressor
True or False: Gender differences in coping styles may have less to do with gender than with the scope of resources available
True
True or False: Individual genetic makeup can moderate how people respond the catastrophic events and other stressors
True
Stipulates that girls and boys are socialized in different ways, creating life-long behavioral differences
Socialization Hypothesis
Stipulates that when stressors are the same, gender is irrelevant; Different social roles, different stressors, different coping mechanisms
Role-constraint Hypothesis
List 6 factors in which stressful experiences are more common among impoverished families
They experience more (1) pollution, (2) substandard housing, (3) crime, (4) low-paying work, (5) limited education, and (6) limited access to healthcare and insurance
People of low SES tend to rely less on what type of coping strategy?
Problem-focused
Why do people of low SES tend to rely less on problem-focused coping?
Demeaning social experiences may lead to feelings of hopelessness which affect their perception of personal psychological control over the events in their lives, thus relying more on emotion-focused coping
Perception that one can determine one’s own behavior and influence the environment to bring about desired outcomes
Psychological control
Impoverished women reported greater stress and were more likely to resort to — strategies
Avoidant coping
SES is — related to stress levels among most groups
inversely
Insults, indignities and marginalizing messages sent by well-intentioned people who seem unaware of the hidden messages they are sending
Microaggresions
Personality style that refers to a cluster of stress-buffering traits consisting of commitment, challenges, and control
Hardiness
Hardiness is beneficial to one’s health in that… (2)
Hardy people are less likely to become aroused by stressful situations and avoid stress-related physical and psychological reactions leading to illness
An effective indicator of successful adjustment to numerous health problems
Hardiness
Hardiness is linked to… (3)
Lower levels of anxiety, adaptive coping styles, adjustment to chronic illnesses (cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes)
List the factors affecting our ability to cope (9)
Hardiness; Resilience; Explanatory Style; Personal Control and Choice; Social Support; Gratitude; Humor; Pets; Spirituality
List the internal resources for dealing with stress (4)
Hardiness; Optimism; Personal Control; Disclosure
The ability to bounce back from stressful experiences and to adapt flexibly to changing environmental demands; The quality of some children to bounce back from environment stressors that might otherwise disrupt their development
Resilience
Two group factors from which resilience comes from
Individual traits + Positive life experiences and social support
Refers to various protective factors that contribute to positive outcomes in the elderly
Biological resilience
Our general propensity to attribute outcomes always to positive causes or always to negative causes, such as personality, luck, or another person’s actions
Explanatory style
A negative explanatory style that tends to explain failures in terms that are global, stable, and internal
Pessimism
Four mechanisms by which pessimism might shorten life
(1) Experience more unpleasant events; (2) Restrictive belief that “Nothing I do matters”; (3) More likely to be diagnosed with major depressive disorder; (4) Weaker immune systems than optimists
Positive/optimistic explanatory style
Optimism
Stipulates that positive emotions increase our physical, cognitive, and social resources, which in turn help us cope more effectively with stressful experiences and live healthier lives
Broad-and-build Theory
Why are some people more prone to one explanatory style or the other?
Individual attribution styles concerning whom or what we blame for our failures; Culture
Compared to pessimists, optimists have been found to have more – cells and – activity which supports the idea that optimists have a healthier immune system
CD4 cells (white blood cells that help fight infection); NK cell (effector lymphocytes that control several types of tumors and microbial infections)
Optimists are more likely to – in direct problem-focused action against a stressor, while pessimists are more likely to – and ruminate
actively engage; passively disengage
The ABCs of Optimism
Adversity, Beliefs, Consequences
The belief that we make our own decisions and determine what we do or what others do to us
Personal control
A belief in our ability to deal with potentially stressful situations
Self-efficacy
In extreme situations, a person who faces repeated, uncontrollable stress may learn that they cannot affect what happens to them and thus develops…
learned helplessness
Helplessness -> ? -> ? -> Life-threatening
Depression; Health-compromising behaviors
How does sense of control or self-efficacy affect the biological processes activated by stressors and the way those processes affect our health?
Strong sense of control -> Minimal physiological arousal and immune system impairment -> Little health risk
Our capacity to modulate thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
Regulatory control
Indicators of good regulatory control (6)
Calmer, less aggressive, resistant to frustration, able to delay gratification, control emotions, more constructive problem-focused coping
Indicators of loose regulatory control (7)
Impulsive, unable to delay gratification, aggressive, venting, depression, rumination, avoidant or aggressive coping
Refers to changes in cardiovascular activity that related to psychological stress
Cardiovascular reactivity (CVR)
Most challenges in heart rate are controlled by the tenth cranial nerve which is the longest in the body, extending into each limb all the way from the brain; what is this nerve?
Vagus nerve
What is the vagus nerve’s role in the parasympathetic nervous system?
Helps in the calming response by lowering blood pressure and heart rate
Heart rate variability that is a measure of the relationship between the rhythmic increases and decreases in heart rate associated with breathing in and breathing out
Vagal tone
– tone is inversely related to negative emotional arousal and positively related to constructive coping
High vagal
– enhances feelings of personal control
Choice
An emotion-focused coping style in which we attempt to inhibit our emotional responses, especially in social situations, so we can view ourselves as imperturbable; Extreme form of regulatory control in which there is a discrepancy between verbal and physiological measures of stress
Repressive coping
A coping style or personality dimension consisting of chronic negative emotions and distress; AKA Neuroticism
Negative affect
How does repression become unhealthy?
Emotional suppression activates the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system, functioning much like a stressor in elevating blood pressure and triggering the fight-or-flight response
List the benefits of emotional disclosure (3)
(1) May gain helpful advice, (2) Source of reinforcement and social support, (3) Encourage cognitive reappraisal
Companionship from others that conveys emotional concern, material assistance, or honest feedback about a situation
Social support
List benefits that people who perceive strong social support experience (3)
(1) Faster recoveries & fewer medical complications, (2) Lower mortality rates at any age, (3) Less distress in the face of terminal illness
Stipulates that social support mitigates stress indirectly by helping us cope more effectively (use of more effective coping strategies); Social support makes potentially stressful events more benign by diffusing or minimizing their initial impact
Buffering hypothesis
Stipulates that social support enhances the body’s physical responses to challenging situations; Social support produces its beneficial effects during both stressful & nonstressful times by enhancing the body’s physical responses to challenging situations
Direct effect hypothesis
A biological marker of prostate malignancy
PSA
What is the relationship between stress, social support and PSA?
Men with the highest levels of self-reported stress also has significantly higher levels of PSA than their less stressed counterparts
What are physiological benefits of social support? (2)
(1) Can blunt cardiovascular responses to stressful tasks, (2) Cellular aging - participants who felt greater ambivalence toward those in their social networks had shorter telomeres (a strong predictor of mortality from a number of diseases)
Who receives social support? Who doesn’t?
Receives: People with great social skills, can relate well to others, and are caring and giving; Does not receive: Angry and hostile people
When is social support not helpful? (3)
(1) When it is not wanted or perceived as beneficial/inadequate by the person; (2) The type of support is not what is needed at the moment; (3) There is too much social support which increases stress
Type of social support that is especially valuable for controllable stressors
Instrumental social support
Type of social support that is more helpful for uncontrollable stressors
Emotional support
How do pets help us cope with stress?
Helps lower blood pressure, decrease physician visits, increase heart attack survival
Refers to the concept that people who are religiously active tend to live longer than those who are less religious
Faith factor
Types of social support usually experienced by people in religious social groups (3)
Tangible assistance, Informational support, Invisible support
List the different coping interventions (4)
Relaxation Therapies; Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Expressive Writing
Describes a variety of psychological methods designed to reduce the impact of potentially stressful experiences
Stress management
Other than the coping interventions, what are other stress management strategies?
Exercise and Biofeedback
A typical stress management program includes these three phases
Education, Acquiring skills, and Practicing skills
A form of relaxation training that reduces muscle tension through a series of tensing and relaxing exercises involving the body’s major muscle groups
Progressive muscle relaxation
A meditative state of relaxation in which metabolism slows down and blood pressure lowers
Relaxation response
What are the physiological effects of exercise?
Neurophysiological “high”, Fewer stress-related health problems, Rapid physiological recovery, Less vulnerable to harmful effects of stress, Reduces BP + resting heart rate + cardiovascular reactivity
What are the psychological effects of exercise?
Time-out, Higher self-esteem, Adjunct to counseling or psychotherapy (decreasing anxiety, improving self-esteem)
The four requirements for achieving the relaxation pose
(1) A quiet place, (2) A comfortable position, (3) A mental device, (4) A passive, nonjudgemental attitude
Other tools for relaxation therapy (3)
Deep breathing, Visualization (guided imagery), and Self-affirmations
A form of focused relaxation used to create peaceful images in your mind
Visualization
Activity in which participant is directed to recall or create a pleasant, relaxing image, focusing attention on sensory details such as sensations of color, sound, and touch
Guided imagery
A term for positive self-talk
Self-affirmations
A system that provides audible or visible feedback information regarding involuntary physiological state; Converting involuntary physiological responses into electrical signals and providing visual or auditory feedback about them
Biofeedback
A form of therapy that focuses on using structured meditation to promote mindfulness, a moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness
Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
A form of therapy that has generally been used to improve people’s ability to self-regulate negative reactions to stress
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
What are the physiological benefits of mindfulness training?
(1) Increased prefrontal cortex activity: important in regulating parts of the limbic system related to anxiety and other negative emotions; (2) Increased tissue density in the brain’s hippocampus: may reflect improved function in regulating emotional responses to potential stressors
The use of principles from learning theory to change unhealthy patterns of thinking and behavior
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
CBT uses cognitive strategies including… (3)
Distraction, Calming self-statements, and Cognitive restructuring
A variety of psychological interventions directed at replacing maladaptive, self-defeating thoughts with healthier adaptive thinking
Cognitive restructuring
A cognitive behavioral treatment in which people identify stressors in their lives and learn skills for coping with them so that when those stressors occur, they are able to put those skills into effect
Stress inoculation training
A multimodal intervention that combines relaxation training, visualization, cognitive restructuring, reinforcement and other techniques
Cognitive behavioral stress management
Stress inoculation training involves three steps:
(1) Reconceptualization, (2) Skills acquisition, (3) Follow-through
James Pennebaker and colleagues discovered that when people write or talk about traumatic events, —, —, and — and — all decrease
skin conductivity; heart rate; systolic and diastolic blood pressure
Describe the Negative Stress Cycle
Stress, negative physical symptoms/maladaptive behavior, negative moods and emotions, and automatic thoughts all affect one another; Automatic thoughts and attitudes + beliefs + assumptions affect one another
