PSYC412: Stress,health & Coping

Question 1

What is health?

Answer 1

A complete state of someone’s physical, mental and social well being.

Question 2

What was the historical view on health?

Answer 2

Physical health, such as acute infection caused bad health. (Dualism) mind and body are separate.

Question 3

Issues with historical view on health?

Answer 3

Reductionist, as a dualistic approach ignores links between mind and body and social implications.

Question 4

What is the bio psychological model?

Answer 4

1.biological (physical)
2.psychological
3.social (SES)

Question 5

What is the definition of stress?

Answer 5

Physical and emotional response to a stressor.

Question 6

What is a fight or flight response?

Answer 6

Perceived threat that leads to psychological arousal, resulting in attacking or fleeing. This leads to stress.

Question 7

What is the social readjustment rating scale (Holmes’s & Rahe 1967) SRRS

Answer 7

Number of points allocated to individual stressors and depending on how many of these stressors are present, the total point accumulated will determine the likelihood of illness.

Question 8

What is health inequality?

Answer 8

People living in different socio-economical environments have increased likelihood of having stressors in their lives.

Question 9

What is the social hierarchy model?

Answer 9

Low SES results in poorer health, whilst high SES results in better health.

Question 10

Why is low SES important in regards to health?

Answer 10

Low SES means more stressors are present, this leads to bad life habits that affect health and higher chances of chronic health conditions.

Question 11

What is chronic stress?

Answer 11

Stressors that last a long time

Question 12

Why is chronic stress bad for health?

Answer 12

Constant intake of adrenaline due to FOF response damages immune function and can lead to chronic health issues such as CHD.

Question 13

What causes Coronary heart disease?

Answer 13

Constant stress, leads to increase blood pressure and poor life habits such as an unhealthy diet. This causes tears in arteries that allows fatty deposits present in the blood to build up causing narrowing in the artery increasing the risk of blood clots.

Question 14

What is stress appraisal?

Answer 14

1.primary=is this stressful
2.secondary= can I deal with it

Question 15

Why may a stress response occur?

Answer 15

If the perceived demand of situation is greater that the resources needed to deal with it.

Question 16

What are the goals of coping

Answer 16

Reduce stress
Tolerate negative event
Improve health

Question 17

What are the three coping strategies?

Answer 17

1.Problem focused coping
2.Emotion focused coping
3.Emotional approach coping

Question 18

What is problem focused coping

Answer 18

Taking direct action to reduce stressor or increasing resources to help reduce stress. (Changing job or having a tone schedule)

Question 19

What is emotion focused coping?

Answer 19

Attempt to alleviate emotional tole by distracting or tolerating emotions caused by stressors. (Drugs, alcohol or forgetting about emotions).

Question 20

What is emotional approach coping?

Answer 20

Clarifying and focusing on working through emotions associated with stressors by finding ways to change or make progress.

Question 21

What is Terry and Hynes (1998) study look at?

Answer 21

Failed IVF treatment and which coping strategies worked best.

Question 22

How can we decide which coping strategy is best for stress?

Answer 22

Using questionnaires to tailor what approach is needed.

Question 23

What is type A personality?

Answer 23

1.competitive
2.achievement orientation
3.time urgent
4anger/hostility

Question 24

What is Type B personality?

Answer 24

1.non-competitive
2.low anger and hostility
3.low time urgency
4.laid back/easy going

Question 25

What was the western collaborative group study (Rosenman et al 1976 )

Answer 25

Prospective study with 3,500 males 39-59 that measured type A personalities and their medical health. After an 8.5 years follow up 71% of the candidates who suffered from CHD were type A personalities.

Question 26

What was the cardiac stress program suinn 1980)

Answer 26

A control group and a type A group went through anxiety training and found that type A had a much lower percentage of repeat episodes.

Question 27

Why was hostility an important aspect of type A personality?

Answer 27

The toxic component of type A personality that’s primary appraisal is threat which causes high stress levels, resulting in CHD, poor mental health and a compromised immune system.

Question 28

What is resilience?

Answer 28

Psychological resilience characterised by ability to bounce back from negative experiences.

Question 29

What are the 3 traits associated with resilience?

Answer 29

1.optimism
2.hardiness
3.Locus of control

Question 30

What is optimism?

Answer 30

Expecting good things to happen. Use problem and emotion coping correctly.accommodate stress and appraise stress as a challenge.

Question 31

What is internal locus of control?

Answer 31

Internal LOC success is determined by you in order to make things happen. Use both emotion and problem focus. Primary appraisal seen as a challenge.

Question 32

What is external LOC

Answer 32

External LOC success can only be achieved by external factors that they have no control over. Only uses emotional control due to the perception that they have no power to change external factors. Primary appraisal perceived as a threat

Question 33

What are the 3 main components of hardiness (Susan Kobasa 1970)

Answer 33

1.commitment
2.challenge
3.control

Question 34

What is commitment (hardiness)

Answer 34

Tendency to be involved in the world with a sense of purpose and meaning. Have an active approach in regards to life events.

Question 35

What is challenge (hardiness)

Answer 35

Believe change is normal and see it as an Opportunity for growth. See threats as a challenge to over come rather than a threat.

Question 36

What is control (hardiness)

Answer 36

Tendency to feel influential rather than helpless (internal LOC) stress is interpreted from self action rather than external factors. Transforming events into something consistent with their life plan.

Question 37

What is hardiness?

Answer 37

General tendency to approach experiences openly and cope with it in a manner that can enhance performance and health.

Question 38

What is social support?

Answer 38

Being told from others that we are valued and cared for. Quality over quantity. Allows for better coping with negative events reducing stress.

Question 39

What is invisible support?

Answer 39

Perception and knowledge that help is there if we need it.