Health, Stress & Coping

"To be totally without stress is to be dead." (Hans Selye, 1976)

A healthy lifestyle includes a fair amount of stress.

Body's stress reaction. Begins with ANS arousal. Short-term stresses of this sort rarely do any damage, however uncomfortable.

Stressors.

1. Lack of predictability

2. Much pressure

3. Lack of control or choice.

The unpredictable nature of one's work, for example. And, when activities must be speeded up due to deadlines, when extra work is added unexpectantly, or when a person must work near maximum capacity for long periods. And, more stress is felt in situations over which one has little control. Chronic stress at work can cause burnout. [Emotional "shocks" that are intense, repeated, unpredictable, uncontrollable, and linked to pressure --the stress will be magnified and damage is likely to result.]

Stressors appraised as a threat - What do we think and tell ourselves about stressors?

Threat has to do with one's idea of control.

One's personal sense of control in any situation comes from believing one can reach desired goals.

It is threatening for a person to feel that he or she lacks competence to cope with a particular demand.

A perceived lack of control is as important as actual lack of control in causing us to feel threatened.

An inability to control stressors is very similar to the conditions that cause learned helplessness.

FRUSTRATION
Frustration is a negative emotional state that occurs when one is prevented from reaching a goal. One of many causes of stress. It is not the same as anger. Caused by obstacles of many kinds. As the strength, urgency, or importance of a blocked motive increases, frustration increases. Motivation becomes stronger as we near a goal, at which point frustration can become more intense. Effects of repeated frustrations can accumulate until a small irritation sets off an unexpectedly violent response --the straw that broke the camels back. There are external and personal sources of frustration.

External source: Based on conditions outside of the individual that impede progress toward a goal: delay, failure, rejection, loss, and other direct blocking of motives --social (slow drivers, tall people in theaters, people who cut into lines) or nonsocial (stuck doors, a dead battery, rain on the day of the game) --flat tire, proposal rejected, bare cupboard, etc. Most apt, as humans, to refer to behavior of another human --highly sensitive to social sources of frustration.

Personal source: Based on personal characteristics and limitations even though failure may be attributed to external causes.

REACTIONS TO FRUSTRATION
[Getting through or around a barrier]

Persistence. To get around a barrier, to reach a goal. Can be very adaptive. Characterized by more vigorous efforts more variable responses

Escape or Withdrawal. May mean actually leaving a source of frustration (dropping out of school, quitting a job, leaving a marriage), or psychologically escaping (apathy, pretending not to care, or use of drugs)

Aggression. Most persistent and frequent response to frustration, but it is not the first or only reaction. Direct aggression is disruptive and generally discouraged - so - frequently displaced or redirected to whomever or whatever, rather than at boss or teacher...

Displaced aggression. Redirected at whomever or whatever is available and targets which tend to be safer or less likely to retaliate - rather than dangerously directed at the original source of frustration which would be expensive (loss of job, failure, etc.). Long chains of displacement sometimes occur. Psychologists attribute much hostility and destructiveness in our society to displaced aggression. When unemployment increases, so does child abuse.

Scapegoat. A person who has become a habitual target of displaced aggression. Correlation between the price of cotton and the number of lynching of Blacks in the South between 1880 and 1930.

CONFLICT
Conflict occurs whenever a person must choose between incompatible or contradictory needs, desires, motives, wishes, or external demands. (Choices such as college/work, marriage/single life, study/failure, etc..)

4 Basic forms of conflict:
1. APPROACH-APPROACH - Choose between 2 positive or desirable alternatives. Easiest conflict to resolve.

2. AVOIDANCE-AVOIDANCE - Choose between 2 negative or undesirable alternatives. Caught between "the frying pan and the fire." (dentist/tooth decay, study/failure, etc.) Not choosing may be impossible or equally undersirable. Difficult to resolve.

Reactions: Indecision, inaction, freezing, and leaving the field.

3. APPROACH- AVOIDANCE - Caught by being attracted to and repelled by the same goal or activity. Kept there by attraction, but negative aspects cause turmoil and distress. (Wanting to eat/overweight, Wanting a car/not wanting to make monthly payments, Wanting to be actor/stage fright, Making marriage plans/parents disapprove of partner, etc.)

Ambivalence. Mixed positive and negative feelings. Usually translated into partial approach --may spend time with girl everywhere but on a date (avoids unpleasant father). Difficult to resolve. The case with many important life decisions.

4. DOUBLE APPROACH-AVOIDANCE - Each alternative has positive and negative qualities. Neither completely positive nor completely negative alternatives. More realistic. People in conflict are usually faced with several dilemmas at once, so several types of conflict are intermingled. Rarely clear-cut.

Vacillate - Waver between the alternatives. Feel ambivalent about each choice.

STRESS & HEALTH
Life Change Units (LCUs) - effect of life events. Not foolproof, and some studies fail to confirm its value. Dr. Thomas Holmes at Univ. of Washington confirmed that stressful events can reduce the body's natural defenses against disease. Stress, therefore, can increase the likelihood of illness. Disaster and sorrow often precede illness. Any major change in one's life (positive as well as negative) requires adjustment and may increase susceptibility to accidents and illness.

Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) A rating of the contribution of significant life events to susceptibility to illness.

Hassles (microstressors) Minor but frequent stresses. Major life changes often create a kind of "ripple effect." Countless daily frustrations and irritations spring from the original event.

Psychosomatic Disorders (psyche: mind; soma; body) Psychological factors are associated with actual damage to tissues of the body. (gastrointestinal and respiratory problems- ulcers and asthma; eczema or skin rash, hives, migraine headaches, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension or high blood pressure, colitis or ulceration of the colon, and heart disease are the major problems. Also muscle tension, headaches, neckaches, backaches, indigestion, constipation, fatigue, insomnia, and sexual dysfunction) It is estimated that at least half of all patients who see a doctor have a psychosomatic disorder or an illness that is complicated by psychosomatic symptoms.) Stress is not the sole cause. Also hereditary, specific organ weaknesses, learned reactions to stress, personality.

Hypochondriacs - imagine that they suffer from diseases.

Type A personalities - Run high risk of heart attack.

Type B personalities - Unlikely to have a heart attack.

Hardy personality - Unusually resistant to stress. Seem to hold a world view that included a sense of personal commitment to self, work, family, and other stabilizing values. They felt that they had control over their lives and their work. They had a tendency to see life as a series of challenges, rather than as a series of threats or problems.

General adaptation syndrome (G.A.S.)
Hans Selye, Canadian physiologist, notes that the first symptoms of almost any disease or trauma (poisoning, infection, injury, or stress) are almost identical. Body responds in the same way to any stress, be it infection, failure, embarrassment, adjustment to a new job, trouble at school, or a stormy romance. G.A.S. consists of 3 stages:

1. Alarm reaction - Body mobilizes its resources to cope with added stress.

2. Stage of resistance - First signs of psychosomatic disorders begin to appear. Body is better able to cope with the original source of stress, but its resistance to other stresses is lowered. (Animals placed in extremely cold environment become more resistant to the cold, but more susceptible to infection.)

3. Stage of exhaustion - Reached if stress continues - body's resources exhausted and the stress hormones are depleted. Unless a way of relieving stress is found, the result will be a psychosomatic disease, a serious loss of health, or complete collapse.

Immune system - Body's immune system is regulated, in part, by the brain. Because of this link, stress, upsetting thoughts, and emotions may affect the immune system in ways that increase susceptibility to disease. [Suppression of immune system response in rats given inescapable shocks --an effect not shown in rats given escapable shocks. Immune system weakened in students during stressful major exam times, etc.]

HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
Use of psychological principles to promote health and prevent illness . . . . Almost 50% of all deaths in US primarily due to unhealthy behavior or lifestyles. Health psychology aims to do something about it.

Behavioral medicine. Psychologists apply psychological knowledge to medical problems. Their interests include the control of pain, adjustment to chronic illness, adherence to doctors' instructions, psychosomatic disease, and similar topics.

Behavioral risk factors - increase the chances of accident, disease, and early death:

Untreated high blood pressure
Cigarette smoking
Abuse of alcohol or other drugs
Overeating
underexercise
Type A behavior
Driving at excessive speeds

Lifestyle - Risk factors make a difference (they add up)

Basic Health-Promoting Behaviors

1. 7-8 hours of sleep per night
2. At or near ideal weight for height
3. Never smoked cigarettes
4. Use alcohol moderately or not at all
5. Get regular physical exercise
6. Eat breakfast almost every day
7. Never or rarely eat between meals

Community health campaigns. Education projects designed to lessen a combination of major risk factors. Smoking has been called the largest preventable cause of death in the U.S. The single most lethal behavior risk factor.