Lecture 12: Stress, Coping, Adjustment, Health Flashcards
What percentage of modifiable risk factors account for health care costs?
modifiable risk factors account for 22% of Health Care costs
What are the models of the personality illness connection?
- Interactional model
- Transactional model
- Health behavior model
- Predisposition model
- Illness behavior model
What is the interaction model?
- Objective events happen to a person, but personality determines the impact of events by influencing a person’s ability to cope (Personality moderates (influences) the relation between stress and illness by having an effect on coping)
- Coping response influences degree, duration and the frequency of a stressful event
- Simple and unidirectional
What is the transactional model?
Personality has three potential effects:
- Can influence coping (like in previous model)
- Can influence how a person appraises/interprets events
-Can influence events themselves
People don’t just respond to situations, they also create situations through choices and actions
What is the health behaviour model?
- Personality does not directly influence the relationship between stress and illness
- Instead, personality affects health indirectly, through health promoting or health degrading behaviors
What facets of conscientiousness predict health behaviour?
- Orderliness
- Industriousness
- Self control
What traits are predictive of risk taking/health behaviours?
- impulsivity
What is the predisposition model?
- Associations may exist between personality and illness because of a third variable that is causing them both
- – Association found between illness and personality because of some predispositions that underlies them both
What is the illness behaviour model?
Personality influences the degree to which a person perceives and attends to bodily sensation, the degree to which a person interprets and labels sensations as illness and illness behaviour
What is a common theme in models?
stress
What is stress?
- Subjective feeling in response to events that are perceived as uncontrollable or threatening. There is nothing inherently stressful in our environment. It is subjective
- Stress can lead to distress or eustress
- All animals have a stress response, which can be life saving in some situations
where does stress lie in our lives?
- Stress is not “out there” in our lives, representing something that happens to us
- Instead, stress lies in part in how we interpret and respond to those events
- Thus, stress lies “in between” the event and the person
What is a stressor?
- Stressors: Events (positive or negative) that lead to stress and have several common attributes
1) Produce a state of feeling overwhelmed or overloaded
2) Produce opposing tendencies in us, such as wanting and not wanting some activity or object
3) Perceived as uncontrollable
What is the stress response?
- Startle, heart beast fast, BP increases, sweaty palms and soles of feet- fight or flight response- increase in sympathetic nervous system
- General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS- Hans Selyes)
What is the general adaptation syndrome?
- Alarm stage: fight or flight response (sympathetic NS activated)
- If stressor continues, Resistance stage: body uses resources at above average rate, even though fight or flight response subsided
- If stressor is constant, exhaustion stage: more susceptible to illness because physiological resources are depleted (burnout, irritability, headaches, illness). Only remedied by rest or replenishing.
What are the types of stress and the associated symptoms?
- Acute stress (short lived). Symptoms: tension headaches, emotionally upset, agitated, restless, unprepared. (e.g., your car won’t start in the cold)
- Episodic (repeated) acute stress. Migraine headaches, unable to sleep, anxiety, rumination, gasto intestinal distress. (e.g., deadlines one after the other, work stressors)
- Traumatic stress (e.g., PTSD). Initially experienced as a massive acute stressor. Constellation of symptoms: can take up to 6 months for symptoms to manifest. Reexperiencing the trauma , intrusive thoughts, nightmares, leads to depression
- Chronic Stress- Day in - day out stressors (e.g., unhealthy relationship, traffic every day). Don’t have a clear onset but also don’t have a clear end in sight. More susceptible to diabetes or cardiovascular disease
What is primary appraisal?
- According to Lazarus (1991) in order for stress to be evoked, two cognitive events must occur
- Primary appraisal: person perceives an event as a threat to goals. If they don’t perceive it as such then they don’t get stressed. Is this threatening or bad for me? If yes, move to secondary appraisal. If answer is no –> no stress
What is secondary appraisal?
- Secondary appraisal: person concludes they do not have resources to cope with demands of threatening event. Can I manage? (resources, support, time, strength)
What is the general hypothesis about the role of positive emotions in coping with stress?
General hypothesis: positive emotions and appraisals may lead to a lowered impact of stress on health
What are the three coping mechanisms that are capable of generating positive emotion during stress?
- Positive reappraisal: person focuses on the good in what is happening; seeking opportunities for growth
- Problem focused coping: thoughts and behaviours that manage or solve an underlying cause of stress
- Creating positive events: creating positive time-out from stress and using humour (exercise, eating properly, laughing)
What is an attributional style
dispositional way of explaining bad events
Describe optimism as an attributional style
Expectation that good events will be plentiful, and bad events will be rare
What does optimism predict?
- Optimism predicts good health and health-promoting behaviours. These findings are correlational.
- Psychologists have tried to devise ways to increase optimism
What is the type a behaviour pattern?
- Collection of 3 sub traits (not necessarily a personality type): Competitive achievement motivation, Time urgency, Hostility and aggressiveness when blocked from goal
