Test #5 Applying Social Psychology Flashcards
stress
negative feelings and beliefs that arise when you unable to cope the demands of the situation
stress and subjectivity
what causes one person stress can differ from another
life events inventory
a tool that measures the relative severity of stressful life events
distress
negative stressors
eustress
positive stressors (wedding or nation planning)
catastrophes
large scale disasters
associated with physiological and mental stress that can lead to negative health outcomes
63% increase in suicides after earthquakes
63% increase in violence after eruption
life stresses
things that commonly occur but still tends to be significant, most are due to the connection of another person like a death
everyday stresses
common, daily things, like traffic.
interpersonal conflict
while smaller they can be worse because they add up leading to worse health outcomes
how to respond to stress
resilience: having small increases in stress, then coming back to the baseline
hostility: becoming aggressive due to a stressor. correlation between racism and heart disease
stress and imunne response
there is a correlation between stress and an immune response
stone (1994) had participants keep a diary then coded for stressful events, also had them take a daily saliva sample. found that on the days that people recorded stress there was a decrease in immune response in their saliva
stress and cancer
chronic stress/ long lasting stress is correlated to cancer more so than acute stress.
rats are more likely to row tumors if they were shocked daily
male employees who had lower self esteem and depression were more likely to die from cancer
cognitive appraisal
looking at stress as if the cognitive resources of an individual can meet the demands of a situation
primary step - the stage where we determine if it is positive negative or neutral, if negative is it harmful threatening or challenging?
secondary step - looking to see if you have the resources to cope with the event, if there is a gap between the resources and demands you will experience stress, the larger the gap the more stress
internal locus of control
feeling like you have control over yourself and the situation at hand. those who feel more of an internal locus of control have better outcomes with mental illness (specifically breast cancer and heart issues)
external locus of control
feeling like you don’t have control over yourself or the situation. more correlated with stress. people are showing increases in external control
longer and Rodin (1976)
had participants in nursing homes choose to either watch a movie or have a plant in their room. the other group was assigned. those who chose died 15% those who did not choose had 30% death
shulz (1976)
also took place in nursing homes where participants could choose when people could visit them or not. the group who once had control over visiting time but then lost it had worse health outcomes
cultura differences in control
individual cultures care more about having internal locus of control than collectivist cultures
problem focused coping
attempting to solve the issue or problem that is causing the stress
emotion focused coping
focusing on the consequences of the stress, using mental/behavioral methods to cope with the feelings that come from stress. people with an external locus of control associate more with emotion focused because they don’t feel like they’re able to solve the problem.
positive strategy in coping
trying to increase the positive emotionality
neutral strategy in coping
shutting down to feel nothing
sharing strategy in coping
sharing the experience you’re having to help cope
proactive coping
engaging with the event before it happens, either eliminating - preventing the event from happening at all, or decreasing - decrease the effects or ramifications of the event, I can’t stop the exam so I am proactive by studying to decrease the negative outcomes
social support and coping
because we are such social creatures one of the key ways we cope with stress is to reach out to closely affiliated others
received social support
the actual support that is provided to a person, important when reacting to a stressful event
perceived social support
the amount of support an individual believes is available to them, important for our day to day mental health. everyone is going to experience stressful events in their life, the idea that in the future I can experience help but I have the resources to help me when I get to that point helps my mental health
instrumental social support
receiving tangible material support or resources like borrowing dollars from a friend
informational social support
advice
emotional social support
helping to deal with our emotional needs, generally we look to this the most followed by informational then instrumental
health outcomes and social support
physical and mental health increase when we have social support. spending any time in isolation in jail increased death in the next five years
social interventions
generally it is people who we are closely affiliated with who might engage in an intervention and try to help us change unhealthy behavior
people have a colloquial understanding of interventions but this can apply to any kind of unhealthy behavior, it does not need to be formulaic or defined.
interventions with more social support tend to be more successful
biopsychosocial model
in order to understand health we must understand the biological, psychological and social components of a person. A lot of our health behaviors are socially defined.
one reason people may perform unhealthy behaviors is social pressure
study looked at people in Tanzania regarding having tan skin. Many women incorrectly assumed that other women thought it was attractive and the many thought others thought that protecting from sun damage was not important. when researches corrected these beliefs women were more likely to wear protective clothing and not be in the sun as much getting tan. (social desirability bias)