Stress, Coping, and Health
The Relationship
Between Stress and Disease
• Contagious diseases
vs. chronic diseases
– Biopsychosocial model
– Health psychology
• Health promotion and
maintenance
– Discovery of
causation, prevention,
and treatment
Stress: An Everyday Event
• Major stressors vs. routine hassles
– Cumulative nature of stress
– Cognitive appraisals
Major Types of Stress
• Frustration: blocked goal
• Conflict: incompatible
motivations
– Approach-approach
– Approach-avoidance
– Avoidance-avoidance
• Change: having to adapt
– Social Readjustment
Rating Scale
– Life Change Units
• Pressure
– Perform/conform
Overview of the Stress Process
Responding to Stress Emotionally
• Emotional
Responses
– Annoyance, anger,
rage
– Apprehension, anxiety,
fear
– Dejection, sadness,
grief
– Positive emotions
• Emotional response
and performance
– The inverted-U-
Responding to Stress
Physiologically
• Physiological Responses
– Fight-or-flight response
– Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome
• Alarm
• Resistance
• Exhaustion
Responding to Stress Behaviorally
• Behavioral Responses
– Frustration-aggression
hypothesis
– catharsis
– defense mechanisms
• Coping
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Reappraisal
Confronting problems
Using humor
Expressing emotions
Managing hostility
Effects of Stress:
Behavioral and Psychological
• Impaired task
performance
• Burnout
• Psychological
problems and
disorders
• Positive effects
Effects of Stress: Physical
• Psychosomatic diseases
• Heart disease
– Type A behavior - 3
elements
• strong competitiveness
• impatience and time
urgency
• anger and hostility
– Emotional reactions and
depression
• Stress and immune
functioning
– Reduced immune activity
Factors Moderating the Impact of
Stress
• Social support
– Increased immune functioning
• Optimism
– More adaptive coping
– Pessimistic explanatory style
• Conscientiousness
– Fostering better health habits
• Autonomic reactivity
– Cardiovascular reactivity to stress
Firefighter Specific Stressors
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Reliance on teamwork
Low job control
Sleep disturbances/Shift work
Boredom
Coworker conflict
Management-Labor conflict
Second jobs
Marital/Family spillover
Firefighter Stress Reactions
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Apprehension/Dread
Intrusive thoughts
No hope
Sleep difficulties
Gastrointestinal symptoms
Throat and mouth symptoms
At-Risk Firefighters
• Research reveals 2 distinct profiles for at-risk
firefighters
– Profile 1 (somaticizers) Reported greater frequency
and intensity of physical symptoms
• Head/neck/facial tension
• Gastrointestinal distress
• Cardiopulmonary complaints
– Profile 2 (psychological stress) Reported higher levels
of
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Apprehension/dread
Anger
Generalized anxiety
Agitated depression
Implications for treatment
• Identify high-risk firefighters
– No penalty or stigmatization
• Potential interventions
– Psychoeducation
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Work redesign
Coping skills training
Relaxation training
Conflict-resolution training
Leadership training
Sleep hygiene education
Coping Skills
• Problem-focused coping
– Taking direct action
– Planning
– Suppression of competing
activities
– Restraint coping
– Seeking social support
• Emotion-focused coping
– Focusing on and venting
emotions
– Behavioral disengagement
– Mental disengagement
– Positive reappraisal
– Denial
– Acceptance
– Turning to religion