Health and Stress
Psych 1
Marina Sangkavichai
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 Health
Psychology: Uses behavioral principles
to prevent illness and promote health
 Lifestyle Diseases: Diseases related to
health-damaging personal habits
 Stress: the term used to describe the
physical, emotional, cognitive, and
behavioral responses to events that are
appraised as threatening or challenging.
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 Distress:
the effect of unpleasant and
undesirable stressors
 Eustress: the effect of positive events, or the
optimal amount of stress that people need to
promote health and well-being
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 Behavioral
Risk Factors: Behaviors that
increase the chances of disease, injury, or
premature death
 What do you think are some behavioral
risk factors that increase your chances of
getting ill?
 Disease-Prone Personality: Personality
type associated with poor health; person
tends to be chronically depressed,
anxious, hostile, and frequently ill
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100
Death of a spouse
29
Change in responsibilities
73
Divorce
29
Son/daughter leaves home
65
Marital separation
29
Trouble with in-laws
63
Detention in jail or other
institution.
28
Outstanding personal achievement
63
Death of a close family
member
26
Partner begins/stops work
53
Major personal injury or
illness
26
Starting or finishing school
25
Change in living conditions
50
Marriage
24
Revision of personal habits
47
Fired from work
23
Trouble with boss
45
Marital reconciliation
45
Retirement
20
44
Change in health or
behavior of family member
Change in working hours or
conditions
20
Change in residence
40
Pregnancy
20
change in schools
40
Sex difficulties
19
Change in recreational habits
39
Gain new family member
19
Change in church activities
18
Change in social activities
17
Major purchase such as a new car
16
Change in sleeping habits
39
Major business
readjustment
38
Change in financial state
37
Death of close friend
36
Change to a different line
of work
15
Change in number of family
gatherings
35
Change in number of
arguments with partner
15
Change in eating habits
31
Taking on a new mortgage
13
Vacation
30
Foreclosure on a mortgage
or loan
12
Christmas or holiday observance
11
Minor violation of the law
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 Score
of 150-300 you have a 50% chance of
developing a stress related illness within two
years
 Score
of 300 plus, you have an 80% chance of
developing a stress related illness within two
years
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 Burnout:
Job-related condition (usually in
helping professions) of physical, mental, and
emotional exhaustion



Emotional Exhaustion: Feel “used up” and
apathetic toward work
Cynicism: Detachment from the job
Feeling of reduced personal accomplishment
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 Problem-Focused
Coping: Managing or altering
the distressing situation/Is there something you
can do about it? Something specific in order to
solve the problem?
 Emotion-Focused Coping: Trying to control
one’s emotional reactions to the situation/Can
you look at this problem or issue in a different
way?
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 Describe
problem focused coping and
emotion focused coping. Give examples of
each. ( personal experience )
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Aggression: Any response made with the
intention of harming a person, animal, or object
 Displaced Aggression: Redirecting aggression to a
target other than the source of one’s
frustration/Unemployment one of the factors
correlated with high rates of child abuse.
 Scapegoating: Blaming a person or group for
conditions they did not create; the scapegoat is
a habitual target of displaced aggression

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 Escape:
May mean actually leaving a source
of frustration (dropping out of school) or
psychologically escaping (apathy)
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 Conflict:
Stressful condition that occurs when
a person must choose between contradictory
needs, desires, motives, or demands
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 Approach-Approach
Conflicts: Having to
choose between two desirable or positive
alternatives (e.g., choosing between a
new BMW or Mercedes)
 Avoidance-Avoidance
Conflicts: Being
forced to choose between two negative or
undesirable alternatives (e.g., choosing
between going to the doctor or
contracting cancer)

NOT choosing may be impossible or undesirable
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 Approach-Avoidance
Conflicts: Being
attracted (drawn to) and repelled by the
same goal or activity; attraction keeps
person in the situation, but negative
aspects can cause distress/loving your
house but hating the mortgage payment.
Asking yourself isn’t really worth it?
 Ambivalence: Mixed positive and
negative feelings; central characteristic
of approach-avoidance conflicts
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 Feelings
of tension, uneasiness,
apprehension, worry, and vulnerability

We are motivated to avoid experiencing anxiety
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 State
of feeling despondent defined by
feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness


One of the most common mental problems in the
world
Some symptoms: Loss of appetite or sex drive,
decreased activity, sleeping too much
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
One method to combat learned helplessness and
depression/You must feel you have control over
what happens to you and that you can make a
difference for yourself
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 You
have a consistently negative opinion
of yourself
 You engage in frequent self-criticism and
self-blame
 You place negative interpretations on
events that usually would not bother you
 The future looks grim
 You can’t handle your responsibilities and
feel overwhelmed
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 Type
A Personality: Personality type with
elevated risk of heart attack; characterized
by time urgency and chronic anger or
hostility

Anger may be the key factor of this
behavior
 Type
B Personality: All types other than Type
A’s; unlikely to have a heart attack
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 Personality
type associated with superior
stress resistance
Sense of personal commitment to self
and family
 Feel they have control over their lives
 See life as a series of challenges, not
threats, or obstacles necessarily
 Sense of humor
 Lighthearted

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 Use
of behavioral strategies to reduce stress
and improve coping skills
 Progressive Relaxation: Produces deep
relaxation throughout the body by tightening
all muscles in an area and then relaxing them
 Guided Imagery: Visualizing images that are
calming, relaxing, or beneficial
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 It’s
important to use positive coping
statements internally to control fear and
anxiety; designed to combat:

Negative Self-Statements: Self-critical thoughts
that increase anxiety and lower performance
 Coping
Statements: Reassuring, selfenhancing statements used to stop negative
self-statements.
 I am studied, I will do well
 I am confident and can get through this!
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 Mental
exercise designed to focus
attention and interrupt flow of thoughts,
worries, and analyses
 Concentrative Meditation: Attention is
paid to a single focal point (i.e., object,
thought, etc.)

Produces relaxation response and thus works to
reduce stress
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 Mantra:
Word(s) or sound(s) repeated silently
during concentrative meditation
 Relaxation Response: Occurs at time of
relaxation; innate physiological response that
opposes fight or flight responses
 End of Lecture
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