week 7 - stress and coping

Question 1

what is a stressor and stress?

Answer 1

• Stressor: is the factor that triggers stress
• Stress: negative emotional experience accompanies by predictable behavioural, psychological and physical alleviation/accomodation
• Result of ones evaluating their appraisal and how much recourses they have to cope with the stress

Question 2

What are the diff. Types of stress?

Answer 2

Eustress: positive attribution to stress - e.g. feeling high in energy and excited
Distress: -ive attribution to stress - negative emotions
Acute: immediately feel stress
chronic: long-term stress

Question 3

What are some examples of acute stressors?

Answer 3

getting stuck in a traffic jam
preparing for exam
fighting with spouse

Question 4

Can acute stress turn into chronic stress? Why/why not?

Answer 4

if acute stress is frequent then it can turn into chornic stress

Question 5

What is hassles? What type of stress is it?

Answer 5

• Hassles is stressors that happen on a day-to-day basis
• Considered a acute stress
• But when hassles accumulate -> can lead to chronic stress -> physical health affected

Question 6

what is threat, primary appraisal and secondary appraisal?

Answer 6

threat: event or situation perceived as harmful - threat to your self esteem, threat to your uni work, threat to your family relationship etc..
primary appraisal: where the indivisual evalutes whether r not the threat is relevant to them -> i.e. if this event is stressful or not
secondary appraisal: where the indivisual evaluates if they have enough resources to cope with the stressful event

Question 7

what is anticipated stresss? is it important?

Answer 7

• Not just stress occurring NOW in someones life
• Anticipating stress can be more stressful than actual occurrence of that event/stuation
• Important to consider as it can also have negative impact on someones physical health

Question 8

what are the three general responses to stress?

Answer 8

1. fight or flight
2. tend - i.e. protect for offspring
3. befriend - seek out social support

Question 9

what is the general adaptation syndrom model?

Answer 9

• old model in which describes the different stages an indivisual experiences when they are experiencing stress

Question 10

what are the 3 different stages to the general adaptation syndrom model?

Answer 10

stage 1: alarm reaction
- this is when body percieves the threat and pumps up the body with adrelaline/noradrenaline to mobilise internal resources
- helpful in the short term - allows your body to have a flight or fright mode
stage 2: resistance stage
- body maintains the high levels of stress hormones in body
- body is stll chewing up eneergy to pump your body up
- sendschemicals throughout the body to keep you alert and keep muscles prone
- immune system affected
stage 3: exhaustion
- when your body is exhausted from chewing up high amounts of energy
- depletion of adaptive hormones
- immune system fatigued, concentration fatigue, muscle fatigue
- this stage is when indivisual gets sick

Question 11

what are the two ways your body can react to stress?

Answer 11

1. fast way
   - when acute stress percieved throgh amygdyla - where the stress does not have to be deeply thought about through the frontal cortex
   - instantaneous response to the stress
   - e..g walk along when you see snake - body reacts to it instantly
2. slower way (but only by milliseconds)
   - eyes, ears, senses percieve stimuli/event associated with threat
   - passes through frontal coretx: mind interpretes the stimuli as a threat to the body
   - sends signals through the hypothalamum and rest of the body to pump the body up for the percieved threat

Question 12

do the two ways (fast and slow way) of your mind interpreting stress result in a different result of percieving stress?

Answer 12

• both fast (through amygdyla) and slow way (thorugh frontal cortex) results in the same chemicals/hormones running through the body
• only difference is the speed of the response
• different interventions for the different responses to stress

Question 13

which one of the following DOES NOT happen when the body experiences stress?

1. pupils dialate
2. dry mouth
3. food movement increases in bowl
4. output of digestive enzymes in stomach decreases
5. muscles become more stress and trembling occurs

Answer 13

FALSE: 3. food movement increases in bowl

- food movement in bowl actually decreases when body is experiencing acute lvls stress

Question 14

what are the two types of responses to stress the body experiences?

Answer 14

psychological sresponse:sympathetic nervous system and neuroendocrine responses, immune system responses
behavioural response: changes in health practises, changes in adhereance to medical advice

Question 15

what are the consequences of long term stress?

Answer 15

long term stress has been studied to significantly increase the risk of chronic illnesses

Question 16

specifically which chronic illnesses is highly associated with long term stress?

Answer 16

coronary heart disease (CHD)

- higher lvls stress (long term) -> increase risk of angina heart disease by 70%

Question 17

What is the relationship between health and stress? what is the link between stress and health?

Answer 17

• relationship between stress and health is studied to be through immune system and process of infammation
• ppl who experience stress and chronic stress have change in immune system
• short term (acute) stress–> strengthens your immune system
• long term (chronic) -> weakens immune system
• intense -> strengthens and weakens immune system same time
• process of stress influencing immune system increase inflammation
• current studies show inflammation is a causal factor in many chronic diseases

Question 18

what factors all influence the onset of developing chronic diseases?

Answer 18

• genetic predisposition - father/parents who have have CHD
• age - more time for modifiable risk factors develop as you age
• lifestyle - smoke, PA, diet, OH consumption
• stress: independant factor from all these factors - stress increases change of immune system -> inflammation -> higher risk of developing chronic diseases

Question 19

Is stress an independant factor in the development of chronic diseases? Explain in terms of CHD

Answer 19

• stress independant factor -> i.e. with all other factors being equal (age, lifestyle, genetic predisposition) - stress has significant impact on development of chronic diseases ( atherosclerosis - CHD)
• stress influence immune system -> increase inflammation
• higher risk of atherosclerosis (CHD)

Question 20

what is atherosclerosis and what disease is it related to?

Answer 20

• atherosclerosis related to CHD
• atherosclerosis is when build up of tissue in aterties
• tissue build up increases and hole in arteries decreases
• heart becomes depleted of oxygen
• particularly becomes worse when PA, smoking

Question 21

What is the difference between emotion focussed and problem focussed coping strategies? s.33-34

Answer 21

emotion focussed strategies: including decrease the amount of stress you are feeling emotioanlly by relaxation methods, talking to people for support, go for a run, positive reappraisal (eliminating the negative impacts associated with it and try to get positive meaning out of it -> personal growth)
problem focussed strategies: fixing the problem that is making the situation stressful to reduce overall stress
-> i.e. if you have an exam Friday but you have to work thursday - might ask work mates to swap shifts with you so you can focuss on revision night before

Question 22

What is the difference between maladaptive and adaptive emotion focussed coping strategies?

Answer 22

maladaptive: only temporarily reduces the level of stress but it comes back after
- > getting drunk before the exam to reduce level of stress you are feeling about studying/exam
adaptive: strategies that permenantly reduce or eliminate the levels of stress
- > making a study plan for the upcoming exam
- > doing PA/yoga/meditation to reduce overall lvls of stress

Question 23

What is the most common maladaptive coping strategy we tend to use? s.35

Answer 23

• avoidance of the stressor - proven to not to work

Question 24

what is a NON-effective way of coping with stress?

Answer 24

• avoidance coping strategies are proven to not be effective

Question 25

Give examples of behavioural, physical and cognitive avoidance coping strategies?

Answer 25

behavioural avoidane: not calling your friend after youve had a fight to avoid the confrontation
physcially avoidance: not going to lectures after you’ve missed the first 3 as you think it will be too hard to catch up on the work
cognitive avoidance : distract yourself - spend doing computer games, going on facebook

Question 26

what type of coping strategy is mostly correlated to enhanced health outcomes in chronic illness?

Answer 26

• problem-focussed coping strategies

Question 27

Is Social support important in managing stress?

Answer 27

• social support is very important

- those ppl having social support - less stress + less impact of stress on physcial health

Question 28

based on the renal nurse study - out of all nurses studies, which were the ones who best coped with stress? what coping strategies did they use?

Answer 28

• used emotional distancing coping method to reduce stressor
• > emotionally distance themselves from workplace, patients they worked with
• > stil cognitively had empathy for clients - they were able to emotionally distance themselves so they wouldnt get sucked into the stressful event (patients giving them a hard time)
• > were able to see it as a event without taking it personally and getting emotionally attached to it

Question 29

in the renal nurse study - why is balancing their level of coping strategy so important?

Answer 29

• the study showed nurses who were fully engaged in their coping strategy -> i.e. not caring about their work at all and distant themselves completely from patients had a higher level of burnout
• balancing the level of detachement allowed nurses to work with both patients and staff -> developing resiliance

Question 30

what is the important message from the renal nurse study?

Answer 30

• although developing coping strategies is good, ability to have emotion is very importnat
• > ability to compartmentalise the situation will lead to a better outcome.

Question 31

what is instrumental, informational and emotional social support?

Answer 31

instrumental social support: practial help where indivisuals come and help the patient fix something/do something
informational social support: gathering information to help you cope with whatever you are going through
emotional social support:

Question 32

out of all the types of social support, which one educe stress levels the most and therefore reduce risk of developing chronic diseases?

Answer 32

• emotional social support
• feel that someone undertansds you, empathatic towards you
• reduces the risk of developing chronic disease

Question 33

what are the two hypothesis developed on why emotional social support reduces stress -> reduces development of chronic disease?

Answer 33

hypothesis 1: social support reduces the risk of illness
- increases motivation to engage in health promoting behaviours
hypothesis 2: social support reduces the liklihood of adverse events
- e.g unemployment

Question 34

give an exmaple of social support intervention aimed at men?

Answer 34

• mens shed movement
• highly effective as men are more likely to not have social support groups-> higher risk chronic diseses
• MSM aims at seetingg up sheds for men to come together to engage in activties - building things
• becomes a hub for health promotion - guest speaker,s GP, nurses to come and do check ups
• integrating health care in social acceptable environment for men

Question 35

what are some expamples of stress management? partiularly CBT and mindfullness stress based reduction>

Answer 35

MSBR: involves focussing your attention on what you are observing
- involves training brain muscles on what YOU want to focus on rather than the more obvious salient stressors around you
- leanring to observe without judgement - i.e. allows you to accept the stress as it is
example: choose a stimuli and focus on it -> when brain starts to wonder and think about other things -> refocus your brain to concentrate on the stimuli and pay attention to it without judgment
CBT:
- abdominal breathing
- muscle relaxtion
- cognitive restructuring - get people to see things from a different perspective

Question 36

what is post traumatic growth?

Answer 36

refers to when people experience intense traumatic events - they gain something positive out of it
- examples: increase in relationships between friends/family, personal growth, enhanced appreciattion for things

Question 37

what are some predictors of post traumatic growth?

Answer 37

1. social support
2. problem focussed coping
3. self-esteem, self -efficacy, optimism

Question 38

what does post traumatic growth say about stress>

Answer 38

not all stress results in negative health effects

- there is scope for good outcomes to come from stress

Question 39

Does the way you VIEW stress influence health outcomes of an individual?

Answer 39

• Yes, studies show the way ppl VIEW stress influences health outcomes
• Ppl who viewed stress as healthy /no health issues associated = lowest risk of dying
• Ppl who viewed stress as unhealthy/risky = highest risk of dying
• Ppl blood vessels got smaller when stress perceived as bad
  
  • Stress perceived good = blood vessel size increased