02.01.

2012

Due to vastly improved medicine today we get different diseases and die in different ways than 100 years ago. WE ARE NOW LIVING WELL ENOUGH AND LONG ENOUGH TO SLOWLY FALL APART! Current diseases progress slowly cardiovascular, cancer, cerebrovascular diseases..these can be made worse by stress. (role of emotions on biology)
Health Psychology

what is stress?

Thus conditions of stress exemplify the vast connections between our mind and physiological mechanisms of our body. Until late 1970s, the field of medicine thought that the immune system had a mind of its own (independent!) and did not interact with any other part of the CNS. today, study after study shows that CNS, immune system and the endocrine system constantly are in communication with each other and are capable of modifying one another!

what makes something stressful? is it the event that is stressful? is it our perception of the event that is stress producing?

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Stress and Well-Being

Mark Twain: I am a very old man. Ive had lots of problems. Most of them never happened.

Health Psychology addresses factors that influence well-being and illness, as well as measures that can be taken to promote health and prevent illness
Stress can be a stimulus, a response, and an ongoing interaction between an organism and its environment

Stressors: a demanding or threatening situations Response to stressors Person-situation interaction

Stress and Well-Being

Stressors

Stress: a pattern of cognitive appraisals, physiological responses, and behavioral tendencies that occurs in response to a perceived imbalance between situational demands and the resources needed to deal with them

Stressors: stimuli that place demands on us and require us to adapt in some manner

Microstressors: daily hassles and minor annoyances

Traffic

jam, line at the grocery store, etc. of a loved one, serious illness, etc.

Major Negative Events: personal, negative events

Divorce, death

Catastrophic Events: tend to occur unexpectedly and affect large numbers of people

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Measuring Stressful Life Events

Life event scales: self-report measures that quantify the amount of life stress a person has experienced over a given period of time Some researchers include both positive and negative events Only negative life event changes consistently predict health and behavior problems

The Stress Response

The Stress Response

Stress response has cognitive, physiological, and behavioral components Cognitive Appraisal:
Appraisal of the nature and demands of the situation (primary appraisal) Appraisal of the resources available to cope with it (secondary appraisal) Judgments of what the consequences of the situation could be Appraisal of the personal meaning, or what the outcome might imply about us

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): a physiological response pattern to strong and prolonged stressors
Alarm Phase: activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the release of stress hormones by the endocrine system Resistance Phase: resources are mobilized (and being depleted) by stress hormones Exhaustion Phase: increased vulnerability to disease in weak body systems

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The Stress Response

Stress and Well-Being

Effects on psychological well-being are clearest among people who have experienced catastrophic life events

Holocaust survivors, war survivors, major national disasters, survivors of violent crimes

Stress can combine with other physical and psychological factors to influence physical illnesses
Physiological responses to stressors directly harm body systems Stress can cause people to behave in ways that increase the risk of illness

Stress and Well-Being

Stress and Well-Being

Stress can accelerate the aging process

Telomeres: structures found at the tips of chromosomes; shorten with repeated cell divisions

Stress can weaken immune system functioning

Possibly responsible for increased risk of illness

Eventually, telomeres become too short for the cell to divide, and the cell dies

Effects depend on the nature of the stressor and the specific immune functions of the body
Natural Immunity: occurs quickly and is relatively nonspecific in nature Specific Immunity: more targeted process; takes longer to occur

Telomerase: an enzyme that helps counter telomere shortening Chronic levels of stress damages the telomeres and lowers telomerase levels, which speeds the aging process

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Stress and Well-Being

Stress-Health Relations

Segerstrom & Miller (2004):

Specific stressors have different effects

Acute, time-limited stressors enhance natural immunity (but not specific immunity) Death of a spouse decreased resistance to pathogens; natural disasters did not Brief natural stressors (e.g., exams) increase vulnerability to viruses but not bacteria Chronic stressors (caring for an ill spouse, severe marital conflict, etc.) affect both kinds of immune functions Past stressors (5 years or more) have no effect

Vulnerability Factors: personal and environmental factors that make people more reactive to stressful events Protective Factors: personal and environmental resources that help people cope more effectively with stressful events

Stress-Health Relations

Stress-Health Relations

Social Support:
May enhance immune system functioning May decrease psychological distress Greater sense of identity and meaning, which results in greater psychological well-being Reduced exposure to other risk factors, such as loneliness Can increase feelings of control over stressors Can reduce the risk of people coping with stressors in maladaptive ways

Physiological Reactivity:
Catecholamines and cortisol mobilize the fight or flight response Effects of cortisol last longer, may be more damaging

Cortisol:

reduces immune system functioning, creates fatty deposits in the arteries that lead to heart disease Catecholamines: increases immune system functioning; created during physical exercise

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Stress-Health Relations

Stress-Health Relations

Type A Behavior Pattern: individuals who tend to live under great pressure and demand much of themselves and others
High levels of competitiveness, ambition, aggressiveness, and hostility Type A individuals have double the risk for coronary heart disease

Coping Efficacy and Control:

Coping Self-Efficacy: the belief that we can perform the behaviors necessary to cope successfully
Specific

to the particular situation

Optimism and Positive Attitudes:

Optimists are at lower risk for anxiety, depression, and many illnesses People with positive attitudes live an average of 7.6 years longer (Levy et al., 2002)

Increased risk is driven by negative emotions, such as anger, cynical hostility, and overreaction to stressful events

Stress-Health Relations

Stress-Health Relations

Finding Meaning in Stressful Life Events:

Finding personal meaning in catastrophic events can lessen effects of stress Beliefs that events were due to Gods punishment, demonic forces etc. result in more stress

Characteristics of Resilient Children:

Adequate intellectual functioning Social skills Self-efficacy Faith (optimism and hope) Relationship with at least one caring, pro-social adult

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Coping With Stress

Problem-Focused Coping: strategies that attempt to confront and directly deal with the demands of the situation or to change the situation so that it is no longer stressful Emotion-Focused Coping: strategies that attempt to manage the emotional responses that result from it Seeking Social Support: turning to others for assistance and emotional support in times of stress

Coping With Stress

Coping With Stress

Holahan & Moos (1990):

Problem-focused coping and seeking social support are more often associated with favorable adjustment to stressors
Most

successful in controllable situations

Emotion-focused strategies can involve avoiding feelings or blaming others; these strategies predict depression and poorer adjustment
Other

emotion-focused strategies are more helpful, especially when the situation is uncontrollable

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Coping With Stress

Coping With Stress

Disclosing trauma can enhance immune system functioning, lower stress, reduce depression, and help the individual cope with stress more effectively Bottling up feelings can have a negative impact on health

Gender Differences In Coping:

Men are more likely to use problem-focused coping as their primary strategy Women are more likely than men to seek social support and use emotion-focused coping

Coping With Stress

Coping With Stress

Gender Differences in Coping:

Men favor fight or flight Women favor tend and befriend

Cultural Differences in Coping:

Tend: nurturing activities designed to protect the self, offspring, and significant others Befriend: the creation and maintenance of social networks

North Americans and Europeans favor problemfocused coping Asians favor emotion-focused coping and social support

Tend and befriend pattern may be the product of biological mechanisms underlying attachment and care giving (e.g., reproductive hormones)

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Coping With Stress

Coping With Stress

Cognitive Restructuring: a technique used to systematically detect, challenge, and replace irrational ideas
Self-Instructional Training: a technique in which people learn to talk to themselves and guide their behavior in ways that help them cope more effectively

Somatic Relaxation Training: provides a means of voluntarily reducing or preventing high levels of arousal

Goal is to condition relaxation so that it can be easily reproduced in stressful situations

Cognitive Relaxation: a peaceful, mindclearing state produced through meditation

Coping With Stress