Lecture 3 Flashcards
Coping, types of coping, effects of coping, compare direct effects model & stress-buffering hypothesis
Coping with Stress
What is Coping?
Coping: anything people do to reduce stress
Includes efforts to manage internal and external demands. Whether successful or not
It is not a single event — it’s multiple transactions with environment, and continuous appraisal and reappraisals
Stimulus — > appraisal (primary and secondary) —> demand is high, resources are low, you stress —> coping
Coping with stress
what are the 3 functions of Coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984)
Problem-focused coping: direct efforts to solve the problem
Changing the situation, or changing yourself
Emotion-focused coping: efforts to manage emotions
Denial, distancing, Freud’s mechanism, wishful thinking, self-care, social comparison
Relationship-focused coping: efforts to maintain and manage emotions
Empathy
Taking someone’s perspective
Withdrawal
Confrontation
Compromise
Any one strategies can have a mixed function, and “support” can be emotional or relationship-based
Coping with stress
What is Meaning-Focused Coping
Mean-focused coping: efforts to change the meaning of an event or situation
Beliefs, values and goals to motivate coping
Positive outcomes
Think about religious beliefs of the afterlife or sayings that “everything happens for a reason”, they’re ways of coping that try to give the situation new meaning; making meaning and purpose to something you don’t fully understand yet
coping with stress
compare Approach to Avoidance-coping
Approach Coping – Attempts to actively deal with the problem or manage the tension.
cognitive (e.g., trying to see the positive in the negative, seeing things differently) or behavioural (e.g., talking to a friend, looking up solutions )
Approach = fight
BENEFITS: Appropriate action—can release emotions, and reduce stress
COSTS: more distress, can cause rumination and worry — trying to not avail
Avoidance Coping – Attempts to distance oneself from the problem and not think about it.
cognitive (e.g., trying not to think about it, denial) or behavioural (e.g., drinking to reduce tension, physical distractions )
Avoidance = flight
BENEFITS: reducing short-time stress (dosing—small amounts of stress)
COSTS: greater than the benefits, emotional numbness, you don’t take action, ignoring things that bother you, possibly maladaptive behaviors like drug/drinking abuse
Better if the situation is uncontrollable — like if someone has died
Emotions are intense at the start, so dosing is good
coping with stress
What is the best way to cope?
Depends on personal attributes, abilities, contextual factors, social factors, controllability of the stressor, etc
The best indicator in research of effective coping is THE OUTCOME (of the behaviour)
Questions asked in research to be measured:
Was the goal accomplished?
Was the problem solved?
Was the challenge overcome?
Was there an impact on mood or health?
Daily process / daily diaries
Coping with stress
What is resilience?
positive adaptation for coping to a stressful situation
Recovery from stress/adversity without a lasting impact.
Coping is something either positive or negative
Don’t assume that there’s an outcome when it come stp coping
Coping isn’t always adaptive or maladaptive—depends on the person, situation, and the environment
Many ways to conceive resilience
We know that genes and biology play a role, but early life and environment also matters
EX. How a low level of extraversion is a risk factor of PTSD
EX. High openness predicts a level of resilience
Allostatic load, measuring resilience through a variety of ways
What is Major et al. Model of Resilience?
Involves high levels of 3 positive aspects of personality:
Self-esteem: as a state
personal control: how much perceived control you have
optimism: expecting positive events to occur or be plentiful in the future
High self-worth, preserved control, and maintained optimism during adversity
Similar to hardiness: people who are hardy are people who can resist any lasting impact of stress
Control (Perceived control), Commitment (being involved in life, having a sense of purpose, setting goals) Challenge (interpreting events as challenges rather than threats or demands)
Setting goals and committing to those goals, appraising things as challenges rather than threats
Discuss Activities of Daily Living (ADL)
Health in old age
Quality of life, ability to engage in everyday abilities (engaging in social relationships, making food, getting up for bed)
What does George Bonanno say about resilience?
In the just of feeling stressed and burned out—doesn’t necessarily mean that are not resilient
George Bonanno—we’re all pretty resilient, with loss and death
Populations of people who lose a spouse in old age, the majority return to baseline in 2-3 months
Measured in depression levels
This is problematic since it’s considering a very narrow definition of resilience
Risk of increasing a likelihood of a trauma by interfering too early
He criticized overconcern of people who have difficulty of events
How do health psychologists look at people
Resilience is measured in a trait-like measure
Significant loss in life, eventually recover without lasting impact, not resilient is in the minority, and we may focus on resilience too much and therapy may even hinder natural recovery
A controversial take in the mental health community
Coping with stress
How to manage stress?
If there is something you can do about the problem, then dealing with it and problem-solving is beneficial
More maladaptive if you deny and avoid the situation in most cases
Taking a hands-on approach is important
Processing and expressing your feelings (disclosure)
Rumination is one of the most maladaptive coping mechanisms
Just swirling a thought in your head over and over again
Engaging with positive emotions, and finding benefits and meaning (positive reappraisal)
Fighting against the stressor can make things worse—acceptance can alleviate that tension
Finding support and collaboration, as opposed to withdraw, is beneficials (empathy)
Also interacting with friendly animals and spending time in nature is beneficial to alleviate stress
EX. For hostile animals, kickboxing a kangaroo —> exercise + challenge mindset —> could be less stress
How to manage stress
Discuss Positive Appraisal
A highly adaptive strategy focused on gaining meaning from a stressful event
Involves deriving personally relevant positive meaning from an experience in the face of its negative qualities
Finding SOMETHING positive in the situation, not necessarily making the negative positive
Not that easy in most situations—genuinely and sincerely looking at a event differently
For most people, it takes a lot of time and inner work to reframely an event positively
There are some scenarios where the immediate positive reappraisal
Study on Older Adults
Lower anxiety and depression over time
Higher current positive positive emotions
Counseling and group therapy that aids and guides individuals to
Positive reappraisal—most likely to be the adaptive across all situations
How to manage stress
Discuss disclosure
An adaptive strategy in which a person describes their feelings about a stressful or traumatic experience
Similar to emotional expression; an important aspect of emotion regulation
Speaking to someone else about your emotions
Verbal or written
We see written disclosure is effective even if no one reads it (better than nothing)
But verbal disclosure is the most effective
Lack of disclosure tends to be maladaptive
Ideally we disclosure with the intent of resolving or working through things
Disclosure can have an impact on the other person involved as well
Cepeda et al, Cancer patients to write a story 20 minutes/week
Less pain and higher wellbeing when writing stories
It doesn’t take much to see an effect—even just writing for a short amount of time
Narrative therapy is effective because of disclosure
Disclosure could also be effective with non-human animals, like pets
Being on the other side, the listener:
We often support by adding our opinion and our persepective
We should just be there and listen—at least in the beginning
social context to stress
What is Tend-and-Befriend
People don’t always respond through fight-to-flight but also respond to stress with social behaviour
Resilience being stronger in numbers
Suggests this is a common response to stress, more commonly seen in females due to evolutionary roles and responsibility
Identifies a hormone, oxytocin to play a role in this
Released when stress is low (reward social behaviour) and high
lowers HR, BP, etc.; modulates HPA activity; increases social behaviours.
Counter physiological effects and becoming more trusting of other people
Some evidence saying that women have a higher level of oxytocin, thus making it seem like women use tend-and-befriend approach more
is released during/after childbirth, during breastfeeding, and in response to low-intensity stimulation (e.g., touch), mutual smiling, and sexual activity, the release of oxytocin in the infant and mother
Oxytocin released when bonding with a newborn is more common in mothers but also seen in fathers
Similar levels comparable to mothers experienced with gay men
Oxytocin reinforces that pro-social behaviour
plays a role in attachment, pair-bonding, trust, social recognition, and stress reduction; also out-group aggression
More likely to recognize familiar people
Can also increase aggression toward people who are different (protective response, hence out-group aggression)
Treatment in PTSD but is showing addictive qualities
Positive feelings in its way to lower heart rate and blood pressure, and moderates HPA axis
Surge in oxytocin —> inclination to interact with people
Oxytocin is being released to reinforce those social bonds—we are doing something good by engaging in these activities
Plays a role in attachment
To encourage attachment and bonding
Pair-bonding in adult relationships
Honeymoon is to be blamed in oxytocin
Short-term stress encounter: buffers epinephrine and cortisol
Makes us feel more aggressive to people in other groups—like being a parent protecting your own child
Oxytocin is released during stress and when we’re feeling lonely—causing us to seek out more relationships
social context to stress
What is the Stress Buffering Hypothesis?
Social support serves a protective function, a coping measure to cope with stress
When stress is high, social support reduces its impact on health
buffers the impact of stress and environmental demands on the individual
Looking for a moderation effect
In contrast with direct effect: regardless of stress, social support has direct impact on health, and benefits, regardless of stress there, are mediating variables at play of course that over time contribute to good health
Social support is a protective factor
Contrasting with eth direct effect model: social support affects health REGARDLESS of stress
This includes oxytocin
Quality of life is an indicator of health
Examining relationship as a
When stress is high = higher level of quality of life, as
Evidence of a buffering effect
Negative impact on health is being reversed
Impact of stress is mitigated as a function of social support
E.g., in couples coping with early-stage dementia
Gellert et al. (2018) relation of stress and quality of life
No significant difference when stress is low; social support does not matter when stress is low in quality of life
social context to stress
How does social support buffer trauma
Social support is a major protective factor following potentially traumatic events
Increase post-traumatic growth
Reduces the risk of harmful outcomes like PTSD and depression.
Enhances treatment
On gorillas: For most species, early life adversity compromises health throughout life, but this is not true of gorillas (Morrison et al., 2023)
High resilience in response to early life trauma
Explanation: gorillas increase their time around other gorillas, thus mitigating the trauma response not observed in other species
social context to stress
What are the types of social support?
Most common: **Emotional and Esteem **support
Being there and listening, and being empathetic
positive regard make the other person feel good about themself (esteem)
Tangible and instrumental support
Helping out with chores, giving people rides to the doctor
receiving material aid, assistance from others, pragmatic
Informational support: getting advice & information from others
Companionship support: one’s overall evaluation of available support, availability of others to spend time with
Relies on global evaluation of one’s social network
The availability of other people to spend time with
Also consider: Invisible support: doing things without the other noticing (doing things for others without them knowing), less direct advice (talking about something rather than straight-up advice)
EX Spouse doing chores to support or help their spouse
Sense control not reduced
Seeing others constantly do things for you may feel like you need help, lack of autonomy and creating dependency
Which support is best?
Very subjective on the situation and person
*Across situations, emotional support is the most effective, taking the time to listen *
social context of stress
Discuss the bad kinds of social support
Protective buffering: keeping information from someone to protect them; avoiding the potential for negative interaction.
Correlational research
Not necessarily will create problems in the individual, but the more protective buffering occurs, the worse it would be
Solicitousness: expressing concern; helping without request
Problematic for both people involved
Both reduce the sense of autonomy for the person receiving it
Could also just be annoying
Can feel patronizing and condescending
Can be difficult for the receiver because it may make it difficult to engage in periods of recovery
Stop thinking about the stressor—reminded when someone asks “how’s the situation”
Can feel like one person is parenting and the other is being coddled
Why problematic?:
Possibility of being seen as needing help, dependent on others
Disrupts the relationship, and reduces the sense of autonomy, why should someone else withhold information on you?
Back to the idea of sense of control
Social context of stress
Quality vs. quantity
social support and network
QUALITY: Social Support – Functional content and quality of social relationships
QUANTITY: Social Networks – Number of social relationships; degree of social integration
Diverse types of social roles
Most research has found that quality matters more to health, but quantity DOES still matter
Quality over quantity
**Cohen et al. (1997) **examined the role of social network diversity (# of different types of relationships) in contracting a cold
Looking at their life event stress played a role
Study looked at a similar kind of life event stress
How many types of relationships they had (parent, friend)
People with low social network diversity had 4x more likelihood to catch a cold (4 types or less)
People with higher social network diversity had higher likelihood to resist cold (6 types or more)
Having people available helps resists poor health outcomes and disease
What about social media and online social networks?
Social Media Networks:
Use of social media can make people feel lonely, frustrated and anger
Typically negative feelings
Increasing depression over time
Negative body image—more likely as a result of frequent visual use
Sharing photos and selfies
More for young women
Narcissism
Evidence of casual effect
Increasing social media use —> higher scores of self-report narcissism
Extreme effects
More depression, anxiety and psychological distress from using social media
FOMO— social comparisons make people feel like they’re being left out
Isolated and anxious
Many studies will use Facebook
But some will use Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, etc.
Idea: Social Media is making us antisocial
Takes time away from real or physical relationships
Social media will polarize us
Social media might also make us feel smaller and overwhelmed—seeing other people with so many opinions and ideas
And then you might start withdrawing
Critical of the self-help section—but not an other help section
More emphasis on the indivdiual, rather than our relationships
Research
30-40% of participants report interacting less with family and friends
You also become less empathetic—you don’t need to see the emotional responses from people when you text
Limiting social media is also associated with decreased loneliness
Health risk of loneliness/ aka the social context
Meta Analysis on Loneliness and Isolation
29% of premature death with moderate-high loneliness
Social isolation: 26%
Living alone; 32%
Loneliness and isolation becomes stressful
Social support can help buffer the stress on your health
Increased risk of other health problems
EX. Covid-19 and feelings of isolations
Especially for teens and young people
Because they were at a time where social relationships are important
Main point: we are quick to blame everything on the pandemic
But loneliness, sadness and depression were already on the rise before the pandemic happened
Ask ourselves “what is it that we’re doing wrong that populations around the world are displaying these behavior”
Describe the importance of healthy relationships to social support and stress
The health benefits of committed relationships, relationship satisfaction and social connectedness have been well-documented in research (POSITIVE, net benefit)
EX Harvard Study on Adult Development
300 undergrads in 1990s
Still following them
Longest running study for a while
Our relationships and the quality of those relationships that matter more than anything else—exercise, diet, genes and health
Ability to maintain relationships is key
interspecies support as social support
What is the Human-aminal interaction (HAI)
interacting with animals is associated with health benefits; specifically with friendly animals, and mostly with dogs, cats and horses
Physiological: reduced blood pressure; improved cardiovascular health; enhanced immune system functioning; improved pain management; lower cortisol output
Some people suggests that living with pets can contribute to a healthier microbiome in terms of bacteria
Looking at either pet owners, or observing and measuring from people in labs who interact with animals
Psychosocial: improved mood; reduced aggression; increased trustworthiness and trust of others; reduced impact of stress.
Other people trust you more and you to others, broader pro-social effect
Animals tend to evoke more positive emotions—thus it can also affect our relationships better
Helps also with PTSD, expressing emotions and relating emotionally
Can help overcome some of that emotional illness
HAI vs. human interaction
People who were pet owners but were alone responded better than a person who was with another person
The presence of the pet reduced the stress for than the presence of the spouse
Discussion: What support do animals provide?
Unconditional love
Also tangible and instrumental support—like service dogs who help retrieve objects
Oxytocin and dopamine
