CHAPTER 13
Stress!
Chapter Overview
Stress!
Oh No!--Understanding
Stress
•Conceptualizing Stress
•Stress and You
Phew!--Managing Stress
•Modifying Your Environment
•Altering Your Lifestyle
•Using Stress for Personal Growth
Yikes!--Reactions to Stress
•Physiological Stress Reactions
•Psychological Stress Reactions
•How Do You React to Stress?
Chapter Summary
Oh, No! – Understanding Stress
• Conceptualizing Stress
• Stress and You
Yikes! – Reactions to Stress
• Physiological Stress Reactions
• Psychological Stress Reactions
• How Do You React to Stress?
Chapter Summary cont’d
Phew! - Managing Stress
• Modifying Your Environment
• Altering Your Lifestyle
• Using Stress for Personal Growth
Oh, No! – Understanding Stress
Statistics on Stress:
• Over half of all Americans view job stress
as a major problem.
• Three of every five doctors’ visits are
stress-related.
• One-fourth of American workers think they
are on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
Stress is taking a toll on us!
Oh, No! – Understanding Stress cont’d
Conceptualizing Stress
Stress may be viewed in many ways.
• Stimulus-based:
Stressors--the variety of external and internal stimuli
that evoke stress.
• Behavior-based:
Stress--the patterns of responses an individual makes to
events that disturb his or her equilibrium or when
stressors exceed our coping abilities.
Our perceptions of stress are important. One person’s
stress is another’s challenge!
Oh, No! – Understanding Stress cont’d
Conceptualizing Stress
Types of Stress
• Distress: When stressful events have a harmful
effect.
• Eustress: Good stress (i.e., stress that
invigorates us).
• Hyperstress: Excessive stress.
• Hypostress: Insufficient stress (boredom sets
in).
Oh, No! – Understanding Stress cont’d
World Trade Center
9/11/01
Conceptualizing Stress
Life-Events Approach:
• Major life events such as death of a family
member or divorce are stressors.
• The more distressing the life events, the more
likely an individual is to develop a stress-related
illness.
Problems with life-events approach:
• Does not take individual differences in coping
ability or in perceptions into account.
• Does not take into account everyday stressors,
such as losing one’s keys.
Oh, No! – Understanding Stress cont’d
Conceptualizing Stress
Daily Hassles Approach:
• Multiple daily hassles (e. g., stuck in traffic) have a major
impact on our health and our moods.
• College students: hassles about grades and tests;
middle-aged people: health and money.
• People who suffer frequent or intense daily hassles also
experience negative physical and psychological
consequences.
Oh, No! – Understanding Stress cont’d
Conceptualizing Stress
Chronic vs. Acute Approach to Stress:
• Chronic Stress: The perception of global or generalized
and pervasive stress.
• Acute Stress: Stress that is momentary and a response
to imminent danger and which is relieved when the
danger disappears.
• Most health experts consider chronic stress to be the
most harmful and damaging to health.
Oh, No! – Understanding Stress cont’d
Stress and You
• How you perceive a stressor (as more or less stressful)
plays a major role in your relationship to stress.
• Women and young people report more stress….
• Personality factors contribute to stress: neuroticism,
Type A personality (people who are competitive,
argumentative, time-urgent, ambitious, and impatient as
well as hostile).
• Minority group members who perceive themselves
objects of discrimination may also experience distress.
Oh, No! – Understanding Stress cont’d
Stress and You
Situations (rather than personal characteristics)
also cause stress.
Situations that:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Place too many demands on us
Take control out of our hands
Are unpredictable
Are void of social support
Produce role conflicts (e.g. between home and work)
Are dangerous or unpleasant
Yikes! – Reactions to Stress
Physiological Stress Reactions:
Hans Selye has identified three progressive stages of
stress reaction (the general adaptation syndrome):
• Alarm: The initial stage of the emergency where the
body attempts to restore or maintain its normal
functioning.
• Resistance: The second stage in which the body
attempts to resist the stressor.
• Exhaustion: The final stage where the body is unable to
continue resisting and breaks down.
Yikes! – Reactions to Stress cont’d
Physiological Stress Reactions:
Some scientists speak of the fight or flight response:
• Fight signifies confronting the stressor.
• Flight means fleeing from the stressor.
Most physiologists believe that the parts of the body crucial
to managing stress are:
• Amygdala: A part of the brain that directs signals and
triggers alarms.
• Pituitary gland: The master gland of the endocrine or
hormonal system.
Yikes! – Reactions to Stress cont’d
Physiological Stress Reactions:
McEwen (2005) focuses on
• allostasis – achieving stability through changes via a
process that maintains balance among physiological
factors essential for life, AND
• allostatic load – the cumulative changes that reflect the
cost to the body of adapting repeatedly to the demands
placed upon it.
• In the short run, allostasis protects us; over the long run,
excessive load can cause physiological damage!
Yikes! – Reactions to Stress cont’d
Psychological Stress Reactions:
…are typically shaped by learning.
Most stressors evoke anxiety – the vague, unpleasant
feeling that something bad is about to happen.
… we cope by using (ego) defense mechanismsunconscious mechanisms for protecting us from
awareness of anxiety in the face of threat.
For example:
• Repression--where unacceptable thoughts are excluded
from consciousness, or
• Projection--attributing our own unacceptable thoughts
or feelings to others.
Yikes! – Reactions to Stress cont’d
How Do You React to Stress?
Each of us reacts differently.
Some individuals use:
• emotion-focused coping, where the individual
tries to alter his or her emotional reaction to
stress; others utilize
• problem-focused coping, where the individual
attempts to change the environment or find a
solution.
Yikes! – Reactions to Stress cont’d
How Do You React to Stress?
• Some are better able to cope with or manage
stress than others. They possess
psychological hardiness–an attitude that
allows certain people to make the most of a
situation.
• Some possess resilience–positive growth or
positive adaptation following brief periods of
stress after some stressful disruption or extreme
adversity (i.e., they bounce back from
unfortunate circumstances).
Phew! – Managing Stress
Modifying the Environment:
Basic ways to modify what goes on around you include:
• Assertiveness--directly expressing your feelings and
rights.
• Withdrawal--removing yourself from the situation.
• Compromise--adjusting or modifying opposing ideas or
behaviors. This may include conformity, negotiation, or
substitution.
Different people are comfortable with different approaches;
each approach may not work in all situations.
Phew! – Managing Stress
cont’d
Altering Your Lifestyle:
• Build up your stress tolerance – the degree of
stress you can handle or how long you can put up
with a demanding task without acting in an
irrational or disorganized way.
• Develop the ability to function well despite anxiety.
For example, maintain your physical fitness.
• Change your pace of life. Our pace has become
faster every generation.
Firefighters and others
who confront stress daily
have learned to build
stress tolerance!
Phew! – Managing Stress cont’d
Altering Your Lifestyle:
• Rearrange your life to prevent stress. For
example, get up early enough to avoid rushing.
• Take time to relax every day.
• Develop and maintain a good sense of humor.
Phew! – Managing Stress cont’d
Using Stress for Personal Growth:
• Stress management is a personal matter.
Only you know what you can tolerate and
how best to manage stress.
• Stress and your reactions to it can provide
opportunities for personal growth.
• Remember that failures and
disappointments can be blessings in
disguise.
Phew! – Managing Stress cont’d
Make stress work for you; stress
need not always be distressing!