Stress Flashcards
Models of Stress
Physiological
Life Events
Transactional
Emphasis on Self Control
Physiological Model of Stress
Cannon (1932) Fight/Flight Response:
A physiological reaction to a threat where the ANS mobilizes the organism for attacking or fleeing an enemy.
Selye (1956) General Adaptation Syndrome:
Alarm: the organism recognizes a threat and mobilizes resources
Resistance: When the stress is prolonged, the organism copes with the stressor, adapts to it
Exhaustion: the organism’s resources are depleted and adaptation fails
Problems with Physiological Models of Stress:
Ignores Individual Variability and Physiological Factors
Individuals are described as passive as they respond automatically to their external world.
Both describe the physiological response to stress as consistent, regardless of the nature of the stressor.
Life Events Model of Stress
Examines stress and stress-related changes as a response to life experiences.
Holmes and Rahe (1967) Social Readjustment Rating Scale: Provides respondents with an extensive list of possible life changes or events. With 2500 soldiers, the higher their score on the SRRS, the more health issues they had.
Problems with Life Events Model of Stress:
The influence of an individual’s present state of mind on their retrospective ratings should be factored in.
The individual’s own rating of the event is not considered.
Transactional Model of Stress
Lazarus’s (1973) Model of Appraisal: Individuals are psychological beings who appraise the outside world, rather than simply passively responding to it.
Events appraised as stressful: lack of control, frustration, pressure, change etc
Eustress = Manageable stress, promotes personal growth Distress = Prolonged, uncontrollable stress
Emphasis on Self Control Model of Stress
People have characteristic ways of thinking about whether they can handle stressors in their lives such as sense-making and hardiness.
Hardiness = commitment, control and challenge
Stress Associated Diseases:
Headaches, weight gain, fatigue, anxiety, decreased sex drive, insomnia, substance abuse
Stress Management
A - Appraisals and Dispositional Protective Factors
B - Behavioural Coping Techniques
C - Cognitive Coping Techniques
Appraisal Coping Techniques:
Appraisals (how people perceive situations).
Primary appraisal process - is the environment psychologically threatening, harmful, or challenging to the person.
Secondary appraisal process - a complex evaluative process in which a person considers resources available to cope with the primarily appraised stressor.
Cognitive Coping Techniques:
CBT: Helps identify the situations that produce symptoms and alter the mental responses to these.
Meaning Making: Trauma creates distress by challenging people’s deeply held beliefs. To recover people must intrapsychically reconcile their preexisting worldviews.
Reframing: Creating a different way of looking at a situation, conflict, person, or relationship by changing its meaning, it’s a technique often used by therapists:
Cognitive Coping Techniques:
CBT: Helps identify the situations that produce symptoms and alter the mental responses to these.
Meaning Making: Trauma creates distress by challenging people’s deeply held beliefs. To recover people must intrapsychically reconcile their preexisting worldviews.
Reframing: Creating a different way of looking at a situation or relationship by changing its meaning.
