2. Fight Or Flight Phenomenon
Cannon, 1939: stress as a "fight or flight"
phenomenon ... helps us to mobilize energy to
either defeat the stressor or to get away from it
Modern stress has more social or psychological
stressors than physical stressors
An ego-related stressor cannot be reduced by using a
physical response (e.g. fight)
May also continue over a longer time than a physical
stressor
An imagined stressor is impossible to fight via physical
means
3. Good And Bad Stress
Hans Selye, 1956: stressors are part of normal
daily life and can be divided into the good and the
bad:
Eustress
Action-enhancing stress which can help in sport or in
motivating someone to get moving
Distress
Either over-reaction or under-reaction, but always associated
with confusion, lack of concentration and psychological
anxiety
4. Eustress is the action-enhancing stress that
gives athlete the competitive edge
EustressEustress DistressDistress
Optimal StressOptimal Stress
Health and
Performance
7. Catastrophes
Are large-scale events
that disrupt the lives
of many people and
strain or overwhelm
community services.
Examples include
natural disasters
such as hurricane,
floods, and famine
Meteor Collision
8. War is a man made disaster – water and sanitation, electricity,
food stores, and food supply routes are destroyed
9. Major Life Changes
Are milestone events in a person's life,
which cause substantial change in one's
daily routine.
Examples include graduating from college,
changing jobs, getting married or divorced,
breaking up a long-term relationship, having
a family member diagnosed with a chronic
disease, death of a loved one, moving,
becoming a parent, and so on.
12. Daily Hassles
Are annoyances encountered in daily life.
Examples include traffic problems,
differences in lifestyles between roommates,
deadlines, expectations of parents or teachers,
bills and money problems, bad weather, car
problems, and so on.
13. Daily hassles are not necessarily encountered everyday but
represent disruptions of or annoyances to one's daily routine
15. Intervening Psychological Factors
The way individuals perceive stressors can
influence physiological reactions and subsequent
development of real physical illness.
Some examples of factors that influence how
people perceive stress, which in turn affect
health, include
Perceived Control
Type A Personality
Social Relationships
Lifestyle and Habits
17. The Triune Brain
The Thinking Brain
Intellectual
Abstract imagery
The Emotional Brain
Emotional
Dream imagery
Metaphoric imagery
The Physical Brain
Physical input/ output
Concrete imagery
18. Emotions, Thoughts And Beliefs
Emotions
Usually the result of thoughts
e.g. anger, fear, joy, guilt, jealousy, love, courage, sadness
Thoughts
Conscious thought operates as a control system
e.g. focus on some goal leads to action for accomplishment of the
goal
Conscious mind chooses behaviors in order to handle overload
e.g. withdrawing from a situation which is too difficult
e.g. being depressed or miserable
Beliefs
Beliefs are thoughts which endure over time
Learned early in life from others
Help to what we do and how we evaluate what we do
20. Optimistic Explanatory Style
Perceived control lead to longer life (Seligman's
study of baseball players) and greater job success
(Seligman's life insurance salesman study)
Attributions (explanations about past events) &
optimism or expectations about the future
Global, stable & internal dimensions
Positive events with global stable, & internal attributions +
negative events with specific, unstable, and external
attributions seem to promote optimism
21. Perceived Control
Attribution
Internal or external
Stable or unstable
Global or specific
Locus of control
Internal or external
23. Pessimistic Explanatory Style
Seligman's executive
monkey, dog, rat studies
Lack of control led to
ulcers, failure to learn in
new situation when
control was possible
Loss of perceived control
leads to learned
helplessness
24. Coping Styles
Emotional-based coping
Focus on emotions due to stress
i.e. stress reaction
Problem-based coping
Focus on the events causing stress
i.e. stressors
What happen in learned helplessness?
Pessimism no action
GAS: alarm resistance exhaustion
25. Characteristics of a Type A
Behavior Pattern
Hurry sickness
A sense of time urgency; trying to accomplish too much in too
little time.
Quest for numbers
Preoccupied with ratings, being better than others, earning more
money, etc.
Insecurity of status
Strong need for "objective" measure of self-worth, pursues
achievement to get admiration from others.
Aggression & hostility
Competes with or challenges others continually; struggles to
beat others, quick-tempered and angry
26. Type A personality individual is preoccupied with ratings,
being better than others, earning more money, etc.
27. Aggressive or Passive
Aggressiveness
Demanding
Does not consider the other person's self esteem
Belittles the other person (e.g. they are "dumb" for not
agreeing)
Usually results in counter-aggression
Communication usually blocked ... everyone leaves dissatisfied
Non-assertiveness = NOT saying what you feel ... being
passive
Might sit back and hope that others will notice their needs
Might use manipulation
28. Practice Assertiveness
Being assertive (Albert & Emmons, 1995)
OK to say no ... no guilt
OK to change your mind
OK to take your time before doing something
OK to ask for further instructions
OK to demand respect
OK to do less than you can do
OK to express your feelings
OK to feel good about yourself ... whenever ...
wherever
30. Psychosocial Factors
Relations between people and other people
Same events interpreted differently by
different individuals
Adaptation
Overload
Frustration
Deprivation
Trauma
31. Social Readjustment Rating Scale
(Holmes & Rahe)
Concept of a "life change unit" (LCU) which could be
large (e.g. death of a spouse = 100 LCU's) or small (e.g.
violation of the law = 11 LCU's)
Any kind of change (good news or bad news) requires
adaptation
NB: of course, bad news is generally harder to take because it
involves fear, self doubt and other emotions
There are individual differences in the perception of
events (e.g. good or bad news):
Since novelty is stressing, having had an experience before
helps one to adapt to it again
However, some events are stressing regardless of previous
experience (e.g. moving)
32. LCU – Life Events Of A College Student
100100 – Death of a close family member
80 – Jail term
63 – Final year or first year in college
60 – Pregnancy (to you or caused by you)
53 – Severe personal illness or injury – 53
50 – Marriage
45 – Any interpersonal problems
40 – Financial difficulties
40 –Death of a close friend
40 – Arguments with your roommate (> EOD)
33. LCU – Life Events (2)
40 – Major disagreements with your family
30 – Major change in personal habits
30 – Change in living environment
30 – Beginning or ending job
25 – Problem with your boss or professor
25 – Outstanding personal achievement
25 – Failure in a course
20 – Final exams
20 – Increase or decrease dating
20 – Change in working conditions
34. LCU – Life Events (3)
20 – Change in your academic major
18 – Change in your sleeping habits –
15 – Several-day vacation –
15 – Change in eating habits
15 – Family reunion
15 – Change in recreational activities
15 – Minor illness or injury
11 – Minor violations of the law
35. Interpreting The Scale
Predictor of physical and mental illness for
a-two year period after the accumulation of
the stressors
i.e. Total LCU in 12 months
Level of life change stress
Low: < 150
Moderate: 150 – 300
High: > 300:
36. Frustration
When we are prevented from achieving our goals,
we become frustrated
Discrimination
Bureaucracy
Socioeconomic factors
Responses to frustration
Anger and aggression
Nervous and hormonal response (i.e. the stress
response)
37. Overload
Demands > capacity
Can arise from a variety of sources:
Time pressures
Too much responsibility/accountability
Lack of support
Expectations which are too high
38. Occupational Overload
Sources of occupational overload
Responsibility/accountability
Lack of managerial/subordinate support
Unreasonably high role expectations
Air traffic controllers
Example too much occupational overload
Stress-related diseases - hypertension, peptic ulcers,
diabetes
Grayson, 1972: 32.5% suffering from gastrointestinal
ulcers
40. Academic Overload
Demands on teachers (Cooper, 1995)
Research, community service, teaching,
advising, parent-student counseling, etc.
Demands on students
Competition for entry into university (then
entry into graduate school)
Admissions tests
Need for mental health counseling in educational
institutions
41. Deprivational Stress
Boredom
Could be due to monotonous tasks, unchallenging
work
Boredom and depression are major adolescent health
problems
Loneliness
Not enough care and attention to children stimulus
deprivation
Lynch, 1977: rate of heart disease, cancer and auto
accidents higher in single, widowed and divorced
individuals. Unmarried men 45-54 years = 123%
higher death rate than married men
42. Bioecological Factors
Interpreted more or less the same by
different people
Time and body rhythm
Eating and drinking habit
Drugs
Noise pollution
Climate and altitude
44. Physiological Reaction
When people experience stressors, the typical
physiological reaction is a "fight-or -flight
response."
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is
activated, arousing the body to either escape from
or defend against the stressor.
With mild stressors, the "fight-or-flight" response
includes release of excitatory neurotransmitters
and hormones, increased heart rate and blood
pressure, more rapid and shallow respiration, and
perspiration on brow or palms.
45.
46. Psychosomatic Health
Control of the stress response
Autonomic nervous system
Endocrine system
Control of health and disease
Immune system
Neuropeptide system
47. Sympathetic Nervous System
Initiation of the stress response
“Fight or flight" energizing
increased HR
increased stroke volume
constriction of blood vessels in gastrointestinal tract
deeper and faster breathing
pupil dilation
adrenalin release from adrenal glands
fatty acid release from liver
epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine release
49. Parasympathetic Nervous System
Relaxation and termination of the stress
response
slow down HR
expansion of most blood vessels ... increased
gastrointestinal activity
bronchial constriction
pupil constriction
salivary increase
50. Autonomic Control of the Stress
Response
Hypothalamus coordinates the body's response to sight,
sound, touch, smell and taste
i.e. the fact of the reaction
Limbic system defines the sensation as being either
pleasurable or not pleasurable
i.e. the direction of the reaction
RAS defines the degree to which something is either
pleasant or unpleasant
i.e. the degree of the reaction
Cortex either boosts the present state, or attenuates it
i.e. on the basis of what is reasonable or how it is related to
other memories
51. The Adrenal Glands
Adrenal Medulla
Neuronal stimulation from hypothalamus
Secretes epinephrine (adrenalin), norepinephrine, dopamine
Adrenal Cortex
Stimulated by ACTH
Secretes glucocorticoids (cortisol):
Increases energy availability via gluconeogenesis in the liver
Suppress immune system
High levels of fatty acids contribute to atherosclerosis
Secretes aldosterone:
Sodium and water retention ... better heat/waste dissipation
Problem - increased blood volume and BP ... more work for
the CV system
52. General Adaptation Syndrome
Alarm Phase
Initial response to a
stressor
Increased ACTH
from pituitary gland
Stimulation of
adrenal glands
Fight or flight
response
Generalized stress
arousal
Resistance Phase
Channeling of
arousal response to a
specific organ
Decreases in ACTH
Arousal of a specific
organ system ...
eventual fatigue and
malfunction
Adaptation to stress
eventually becomes
a disease in itself
53. General Adaptation Syndrome
Exhaustion Phase:
Specific organ
system involved in
the resistance phase
breaks down
Increased ACTH
again
Exhaustion,
malfunction or death
54.
55. Responses To Stress
Body
Psychosomatic illness
e.g. essential hypertension, tension headache
Mind
Mental illness
e.g. depression, anxiety etc
Behavioral
Ineffective coping styles
e.g. conduct problem, drug addiction