Health Psychology Flashcards
Stress
- Psychological Effect; all in your head
- An unpleasant state of arousal in which people perceive the demands of an event or situation as taxing or exceeding their ability to satisfy those demands
Causes of Stress
- Crises and Catastrophes
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Major Life Events (graduation, having babies, divorce, buying a new house)
- Microstressors (little annoyances)
- Burnout
Stress and It’s Effect on the Body: General Adaptation Syndrome
Three-stage process (alarm, resistance, and exhaustion) by which the body responds to stress
Stress and Its Effect on the Body: Fight-or-Flight Response
- General adaptation syndrome is designed through evolution to help mobilize a “fight-or-flight” response in acute emergencies only (run away from the bear, pumping oxygen and nutrients into your blood stream to either run away or fight your stressor)
- The response gets activated often in humans and for prolonged periods of time because of continued daily stress (your body can only resist for so long, then you start to become exhausted)
- Results in illness, anxiousness, compromised immune system, hypertension, ulcers, etc.
Stress and the Heart
- Coronary heart disease: narrowing of blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle
- Causes by hypertension, smoking, high cholesterol, and psychological stress
- Stress causes the body’s heart to work harder and longer
- Stressed people also tend to engage in unhealthy behaviors which damage the heart
Stress and the Immune System
- Stress also weakens the immune system and makes us more susceptible to illness and infection.
- Negative emotional states–>unhealthy behaviors and stress hormones–>weakened immune system–>Illness
Resisting Stress and Illness
-Some people show greater resiliency against stress and illness than others
Resisting Stress and Illness: Hardiness
(Kobasa) -Look for individual differences in resiliency-a personality trait of hardiness
Hardiness: Commitment
A sense of purpose regarding one’s work, family, and other domains (getting out of bed to do something meaningful) (high in commitment-high in hardiness-there’s meaning to your life)
Hardiness: Challenge
An openness to new experiences and changes (how open are you to those changes?)
Hardiness: Control
The belief that one has the power to influence future outcomes (self-efficacy and locus of control) (You can get things done, you’re able to influence what happens to you)
Resisting Stress and Illness: Be optimistic!
- Always look on the bright side of life!
- People with an optimistic disposition tend to show greater resiliency against stress and illness
Resisting Stress and Illness: Biological Optimists
Optimists exhibit a stronger immune response than do pessimists
Resisting Stress and Illness: Behavioral Optimists
Optimists are more open to new experiences, more likely to see future outcomes as under their control, more active copying styles
Resisting Stress and Illness: Unrealistic Optimism
- Optimistic views should not be grossly unrealistic
- People who are unrealistically optimistic about their situation can experience greater depression if negative events do occur.
- The lows can seem even lower
Coping with Stress: Problem-Focused Coping
- Efforts to alter a stressful situation or resolve the source of the stress. (Trying to get the stressor out of your life, eliminate this stressor)
- Confronting a stressor head on:
- Doing poorly at school? Hire a tutor!
- Rocky marriage? See a marriage counselor!
- Problems at work? Confront your boss or get a new job!
Coping with Stress: Emotion-focused coping
-Efforts to reduce the distress caused by stressful situations
-Can suppress unwanted negative thoughts
-Distraction
Does have the potential to backfire (Don’t think of a white bear)
-Can confront the distressing feelings: Opening up to others (psychologists, therapists-venting)
Coping with Stress: Proactive Coping
- Up-front efforts to warm off or modify the onset of a stressful event (cut off stress before it starts)
- Having financial and material resources (people with money aren’t usually as stressed because they don’t have to worry about medical bills, they know they can pay them)
- Social support: Those with more social support and social relationships are healthier and less prone to stress and illness (having friends and family make stressful events seem less stressful)
- Religious Support: Religion tends to fill people with hope and optimism (which has positive effects on health) (Personal relationship with God)
Loneliness
- Can have negative effects on an individual:
- Depression
- Low self-esteem
- Self-blame
- Decreased resiliency to stress and illness (lonely people don’t have the social support network, they have no one to lean on or no one to fight for them)
“Aloneness”
Loneliness does not coincide with “aloneness”
-One can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely (and experience the negative side effects of loneliness)
Gender Differences in Feeling Alone
- Women feel lonely when they lack close one-on-one relationships
- Men feel lonely by a lack of group interactions
