introduction on stress

1. Stress
By
Rubab Safdar Hussain

2. Introduction:
• According to, “Hans selye” repeatedly posited the existence of
general life stressors of importance for many, if not all, disease.
Example of his general stressors were heat, cold and hunger.
• “Walter B. Cannon”, whose work on emotions and physiological
reactivity antedated Selye’s studies, produced evidence concerning
the specificity of stresses on body systems. He illustrated that the
sound of barking dog was a specific stress that caused a cat to cease
digestion for almost one hour.

3. Definition:
• “Relationship between the person and the environment that is
appraised as exceeding the person’s resources and endangering the
person’s well being.”
• According to Hans Selye “Stress as the nonspecific response of the
body to any demand made upon it.”
• According to Kasl “Stress is basically a general term that links the
environmental demands and the person’s capacity to meet those
demands.”

4. Types of Stress:
• According to “Selye” there are two types.
1. Distress or damaging stress:
It include extreme anxiety, sorrow and pain.
2. Eustress or stress that protects health:
It include motivating energy, such as happiness, hopefulness and
purposeful movement.

6. Cont.…
• According to “Lazarus”, there are several types of stress.
1. Work stress
2. Family stress
3. Chronic stress
4. Acute stress
5. Daily hassles
6. Trauma
7. Crisis

7. Cont.…
• Work and Family stress interact, family being the background for
work stress, and work the background for family stress.
• Chronic stress occurs in stable conditions and from stressful roles.
• Acute stress is provoked by time, limited events that are threatening
for a relatively brief period.
• Daily hassles is a source of stress that include irritating, frustrating
and distressing demands that people face on a day-to-day basis.

8. Cont.…
• Trauma is a normal reaction to a traumatic event such as a natural
disaster, motor vehicle accident, plane crash, violent crime, or
terrorist attack.
• Crisis “People are in a state of crisis when they face an obstacle to
important life goals—and obstacle that is, for a time, insurmountable
by the use of customary methods of problem-solving.”

9. Stress Response:
• There are two types of stress responses.
1. Physiological Responses
2. Emotional Responses

10. Physiological Responses:
• Physiological changes are automatic and not under control.
• Their intensity will depend on the appraised risk of the situation.
• Both of the immune system and sympathetic nervous system are
implicated in the stress response.
• The locus cells in the brain initiated the stress response by responding
to the appraisal with the neither release of nor-epinephrine.
• It stimulate the sympathetic nervous system responds by discharging
almost as a complete unit, causing excitatory effects in some organs
and inhibitory effects in others.

11. Cont.…
• This mass discharge activates large portions of the system and is
called a sympathetic alarm reaction or the fight or flight response.
Sympathetic Responses:
• Increased arterial pressure.
• Increased blood flow to active muscle concurrent with decreased blood flow to
organs that are not needed for rapid motor activity, such as the gastrointestinal
tract and kidneys.
• Increased rater of cellular metabolism through out of the body.
• Increased blood glucose concentration.

12. Cont.…
• Increased glycolysis in the liver and in muscle.
• Increased muscle strength.
• Increased mental activity.
• Increased rate of blood coagulation.
• Negative moods also adversely affect the immune system.
• Academic examinations, job strain, care giving for a family member
and daily hassles elevate white blood cell counts and lower these for
T, B and NK cells.

14. Emotional Responses:
• An Emotional Response is the reaction of the body to a situation
primarily given by an outer influence such as other individuals,
groups, things or entities. But the Emotional Response is only one
variant of this spectra of emotions.
• Strong emotional responses are made up of many components. These
may include hurt, confusion, anger, fear, surprise, or embarrassment.
We react to strong emotional responses in a variety of
ways, some helpful, and others not.
• Lazarus defines emotions as organized psychological reactions.

15. Cont.…
• According to Lazarus, emotions are categorized as:
1. Negative emotions: These occur when there is a threat to delay in,
or a conflict between goals: anger, fright, anxiety, guilt, shame,
sadness, jealousy and disgust.
2. Positive emotions: These occur when there is movement toward or
attainment of a goal: happiness, pride, relief and love.
3. Borderline emotions: These are somewhat ambiguous: hope,
compassion, empathy, sympathy, and contentment.
4. Non emotions: Include confusion and excitement.