Stress2 Flashcards
• Primary appraisal: How significant is this event? – Positive, neutral, negative (harm, loss or challenge) • Secondary appraisal: Do I have the resources to cope with it? • Reappraisal
appraisal view of stress developed by Lazarus
Process of managing demands that are appraised as taxing/exceeding the person’s resources
• efforts are
–action-oriented or problem-focused
–intra-psychic or emotion-focused
Coping with Stress
– Doing something constructive about events that are appraised as negative (harmful, threatening, challenging)
– Change the source of the stress
• Example: Work-related problems
problem focused coping
– Regulating emotions that are experienced because of the stressful event
• Example: Health problems
– Some situations must simply be accepted
– Ruminating: negative recurrent thoughts
• Detrimental to health
emotion focused coping
• Social coping
– Seeking support and help from others
• Meaning-focused coping
– Often associated with positive well-being
• Proactive coping
– Anticipate problem and take steps to avoid it
– Ideal but can expend effort that isn’t necessary
• Religious coping
other strategies of coping
– Provides a belief system that lessens distress
– Enables people to find meaning in stressful events
– Provides a source of social support
Believe in God: 96%
– Pray: 80%
– Say religion is important in personal life: 71%
– Attend religious services at least once/month: 55%
Religion helps coping
– Beneficial long term effects on immune functioning follow emotional disclosure • Interventions employ written exercises to encourage emotional expression • Interventions improved health among – AIDS patients – Breast cancer patients – Asthma patients – Rheumatoid arthritis patients
disclosure
Active coping • Planning • Positive reframing • Acceptance • Humor • Religion • Using emotional support • Using instrumental support • Self-distraction • Denial • Venting • Substance use • Behavioral disengagement • Self-blame
brief cope
• Microscopic view of coping is taken because
– Recent research questions whether general coping styles measured at trait level predict how people behave in specific situations
• Flexible copers cope especially well with stress
– Shift strategies with demands of a situation
Specific Coping Strategies
- To reduce harmful environmental conditions
and enhance the prospects of recovery - To tolerate or adjust to negative events or
realities - To maintain a positive self-image
- To maintain emotional equilibrium
- To continue satisfying relationships with others
Coping Efforts Center on 5 Tasks
coping is a dyname …
– A set of responses
– Not a one time action
– Transactions between person & environment
– Many actions/reactions to stressful
circumstances
– Emotional reactions are part of coping
Coping encompasses
– Health and energy – Positive belief – Problem-solving skills – Material resources – Social skills – Social support
lazarus and folkman coping resources
– General propensity to deal with stressful events in a particular way
• Avoidance vs. Confrontation
Coping Style
– Do you minimize or repress the stress?
– Do you gather information and take direct action?
– Avoidance is a minimizing style
– Confrontation is a vigilant style
Avoidance vs. Confrontation
– General expectations that outcomes will be positive
• Promotes active and persistent coping efforts
• Helps people use resources effectively
• Has clear health benefits
– Study with veterans - Linked to higher levels of pulmonary function in older men
– Better postsurgical quality of life and faster rate of recovery
Dispositional Optimism
– Belief that one can determine one’s own behavior, influence one’s environment, and/or bring about desired outcomes
• Perceptions of control in work life and general
tasks of living
– Less likely to adopt health-compromising behaviors
– More likely to cope successfully with stress
Perceived control
• High Self Esteem – Students became less upset in response to exam stress – More robust findings at low levels of stress • Conscientiousness – Correlated with living to an old age – May practice good health behaviors • Hardy personality – Commitment, control, challenge – Hardiness contributes to resilience • Cheerful people – Die earlier (less careful)
Internal Resources:
Additional Coping Resources
– Introverts
– High in neuroticism (emotional instability)
– Low mastery or self-efficacy
– Lacking social skills
• Poor Health associated with
Personality Traits and Coping Styles are____
Resources
internal
– Time – Money, standard of living – Education, a decent job – Absence of other life stressors – Presence of positive life events – Support from children, friends, family
External Resources
– Being able to experience positive emotions even in the context of intensely stressful events
(posttraumatic growth)
Method of coping that resilient people draw from
• Information from others – That one is loved and cared for – Esteemed and valued – Part of a network of communication – And of mutual obligation
social support
• Tangible assistance
– Providing material support, services, money, goods(Food for the bereaved)
• Informational support
– Providing knowledge(Explaining a medical procedure )
• Emotional support
–Providing reassurance, warmth, nurturance
• Invisible Support
– When one receives help from another, but is unaware
of it, that help is most likely to benefit the self
• Perceiving that one has support
– Helps provide the health benefits (physical and mental) of social support
types of social support
• Feel guilty about using another’s time &
resources
• May threaten self-esteem because you feel
dependent on others
• Unsupportive others
Costs of Social Support
• Acute stress paradigm
• The biologic responses to stress are subdued
when:
– A companion is present
– There is a belief that support is available
– Contemplating typical sources of support
– In the presence of a pet
• Calming effects are greater when they come
from a friend than a stranger
Effects onPhysiological/Neuroendocrine Response
• Social support
– Lowers the likelihood of illness
– Speeds recovery from illness
– Reduces the risk of death from serious illness
• High quantity and high quality of relationships
– Associated with lower mortality rates
– High levels of social support associated with more
adherence to medical regimens
• Social influences may adversely affect health
– If the peer group engages in health-compromising
behaviors (smoking, alcohol)
Effects on Illness and Health Habits
Social support is associated with better
adjustment to chronic diseases like:
– Herpes
– Myocardial infarctions
– Multiple sclerosis
Biopsychosocial pathways
Social support has beneficial effects on ___,__,__
cardiovascular, endocrine,and immune system functioning
• Social support moderates the effects of stress
on health and well-being
-Predominantly seen when social support is measured as perceived emotional support (more specific)
Stress Buffering Hypothesis
• Negative events
– More stressful than positive events
• Exception: Among people who hold negative
views of themselves
– Positive life events have a detrimental effect on health
• People with high self-esteem
– Positive life events are linked to better health
Dimensions of Stressful Events
More vulnerability to stress occurs in ___-life
domains than in one’s peripheral life domains
central
whether ppl adapt to stress depends on …
type of stressor, subjective experience of stress, and which indicator of stress is considered
• Evidence for both – Habituation AND – Chronic Strain • Immune system compromised by long-term stress
Physiological Adaptation
• Decreases in performance • Decreases in attention span • Believed to be produced by residual – Physiological – Emotional – Cognitive draining
Aftereffects of Stress
