STRESS

AND HEALTH

Pham Tuong Van, MA

Dept. of Medical ethics and Social Medicine

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 1

 Overviews
Exercises, Funny stories &
OpJmisJc Thinkers
hLps://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=9mG--7tqjLo

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 2

 The child and his mother:
A curious child asked his mother: Mommy,
why are some of your hairs turning grey?
The mother tried to use this occasion to teach
her child: It is because of you, dear. Every
bad acJon of yours will turn one of my hairs
grey!
The child replied innocently: Now I know why
grandmother has only grey hairs on her head.

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 3

 Wrong email address:


A couple going on vacaJon but his wife was on a business trip so he went
to the desJnaJon rst and his wife would meet him the next day.
When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email.
Unfortunately, when typing her address, he mistyped a leLer and his note
was directed instead to an elderly preachers wife whose husband had
passed away only the day before.
When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the
monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the oor in a dead faint.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the
screen:
Dearest Wife,
Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
P.S. Sure is hot down here.

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 4

 Elephant:

The class teacher asks students to name an
animal that begins with an E. One boy says,
Elephant.
Then the teacher asks for an animal that begins
with a T. The same boy says, Two elephants.
The teacher sends the boy out of the class for
bad behavior. Acer that she asks for an animal
beginning with M.
The boy shouts from the other side of the wall:
Maybe an elephant!
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 5
 Why study health and stress?
How are they related? Stress is not a rare experience
but something that all people experience in varying
degrees every day. The aims of the lecture explore the
sources of stress in daily life, the factors that can make
the experience of stress easier or more dicult, and
how stress inuences our physical and mental health.
We will nish by discussing various ways to cope with
the stresses of everyday life as well as with the
extraordinary experiences that arise in life that have
the potenJal to induce stress.

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 6

 Learning objecJves
1. To understand the deniJon of stress
Stressors
Catastrophe events
2. To idenJfy the measurement of Stress
Major life changes (SRRS)
College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS)
Daily Hassles
3. To understand the coping strategies with stress
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 7
 Stress and Stressors
Stress: The term used to describe the physical, emoJonal,
cogniJve and behavioral responses to events that are
appraised as threatening or challenging.
Stressors: events that cause a stress reacJon
Distress The eect of unpleasant and undesirable
stressors.
Eustress The eect of posiJve events, or the opJmal
amount of stress that people need to promote health and
well being.
Catastrophe an unpredictable large scale event that
creates a tremendous need to adapt and adjust as well as
overwhelming feeling sochreat for (Wars,Katrina)

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 8
 Hans Selye:
Stress is the common denominator of
all adaptive reactions in the body.

Stress is the state manifested by a

specic syndrome which consists of all
the nonspecially-induced changes
within a biologic system
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 9
GAS :
GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME (HANS SELYE)

1 . A L A R M R E A C T I O N
Its function is to mobilize the bodys
resources. Epinephrine, norepinephrine, and
cortisol are released into bloodstream.
2. STAGE OF RESISTANCE
The body tries to adapt to the stressor.
Physiological arousal declines somewhat but
remains higher than normal.

3. STAGE OF EXHAUSTION
Prolonged physiological arousal produced by
severe long term or repeated stress is costly.
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 10
 As Process - TransacDon

Interactions and adjustments

between the person and the
environment.

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 11

 As Response strain
Physiological Changes

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 12

 STRESS MEASUREMENTS
1. PHYSIOLOGICAL AROUSAL
- BLOOD PRESSURE
- HEART RATE
- RESPIRATION RATE
- ASSESS THE SECRETION OF HORMONES

2.MEASURES OF ENVIRONMENTAL EVENTS
OR SITUATIONS
- Major Life event
- Daily Hassles
- Uplifts

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 13

 Physiological Factors: Stress & Health
Fight or Flight
SympatheJc nervous system
Heart rate increases
DigesJons slows or shuts down
Energy sent to the muscles
General AdaptaJon Syndrome (GAS)

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 14

 GAS

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 15

 General AdaptaJon Syndrome
(GAS)
Alarm body rst reacts to the stressor
Resistance As stress conJnues the body
seLles into sympatheJc division
ExhausJon bodys resources are gone,
exhausJon occurs.

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 16

 Major Life Changes
Social Readjustment RaJng Scale (SRRS)
Assesses the stress in a persons life over a 1 year
period.
College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS)
Assesses the stress in a college student live over 1
year period
Hassles Scale The daily annoyances of everyday life. -
misplace or losing things
- troublesome neighbors
Rate (0) no hassle to (3) extremely severe
Hassle varies by developmental stage

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 17

 Major life events

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 18

 College Undergraduate stress scale
(CUSS)

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 19

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 20
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 21
 Coping with stress
Coping strategies
Problem focused coping
EmoJon-focused coping

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 22

 Psychological Stressors: What Me
Worry?

Pressure psychological experience produced by urgent demands or
expectaJons for a persons behavior.
FrustraJon psychological experience produced by the blocking of a
desired goal or fulllment of a perceived need.
Internal want to be astronaut but gets car sick External losses,
rejecJon, failure, delays
Uncontrollability degree of control over event or situaJon + control = -
stress
- control = + stress
Aggression an acJon meant to harm or destroy
Displaced aggression taking out ones frustraJon on some less
threatening or more available target
Escape or Withdrawal leaving the presence of stressor
Fantasy (psychological withdrawal)
Drug abuse Apathy

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 23

 Coping with stress
Are behavioral and psychological acJons
taken to master, tolerate, reduce and
minimize the eects of stressors
Problem-focused coping
Involves working to change or eliminate the
stressor itself
EmoJon-focused coping
Involves changing the way a person feels or
emoJonally reacts to a stressor
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 24
 General AdaptaJon Syndrome (GAS)

General AdaptaJon Syndrome (GAS)
Alarm body rst reacts to the stressor
Resistance As stress conJnues the body
seLles into sympatheJc division
ExhausJon bodys resources are gone,
exhausJon occurs.

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 25

 Psychoneuroimmunology

Immune system cells, organs and chemicals
that responds to aLacks from diseases, infecJons
and injuries.
Psychoneuroimmunology The study of the
eects of psychological factors such as stress,
emoJon, thoughts,
and behaviors on the immune system.
Heart ; Diabetes; Cancer
Natural Killer (KT) Cell immune system cell
responsible for
suppressing viruses and destroying tumor cells.
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 26
Stress and Coronary Heart Diseases

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 27

 Health Psychology and Stress
Health Psychology how physical acJviJes,
psychological traits & social relaJonships
aect overall health and rate of illnesses.
Clinical and Counseling Psychologists work
with Medical Doctors in Hospitals and Clinical
Serngs.
Health Psychologists: Teaching and
Researching

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 28

 QuesDons
What health issues might arise in the college
or university serngs that could have a
posiJve or negaJve impact on your
psychological and physical well-being?

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 29

 CogniJon, Personality and Stress

CogniJve Factors in Stress: Lazaruss CogniJve
Appraisal approach: Richard Lazarus
developed cogniJve-meditaJonal theory of
emoJons, in which the way people think
about and appraise a stressor is a major factor
in how stressful that parJcular stressor
becomes

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 30

Lazarus's CogniJve Appraisal Approach

Primary Appraisal 1st step in assessing stress;
EsJmate the severity of stressor &
Classifying is as either threat or a challenge
Secondary Appraisal 2nd step is assessing a
threat;
EsJmate resources for coping with threat

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 31

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 32
 Personality Factors
and Stress
Type A AmbiJous, Jme conscious, extremely
hard working, and tends to have high levels of
hosJlity and anger as well as being easily
annoyed
Type B Relaxed and laid-back, less driven and
compeJJve than Type A and slow to anger
Type C Pleasant but repressed person, tend to
internalize anger and anxiety and who nds
expressing emoJons dicult
The Hardy Personality Thrives on stress but
lacks anger and hosJlity
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 33
 If Life gives you lemons,

Type A people get enraged and throw the lemons
back, having a minor heart aLack while doing so.
Type B people gather all the lemons and make
lemonade.
Type C people dont say anything but fume inside
where no one can see
Type H people gather the lemons, make
lemonade, sell it, turn it into a franchise business,
and make millions!
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 34
 COPING

Coping is the process by which people

try to manage the perceived
discrepancy between the demands and
resources they appraise in a stress
situation.

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 35

 Function of coping
Emotion-focused coping: Aimed
at controlling the emotional response
to the stressful situation.
Problem-focused coping: Aimed
at reducing the demands of the
stressful situation or expanding the
resources to deal with it.
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 36
 Method of coping: Skills and strategies

Direct action- Doing something specifically and

directly to cope with a stressor
Seeking information- Acquiring knowledge about
the stressful situation.
Turning to others- The person seeks help,
reassurance, and comfort from family, friend, and
others.
Resigned acceptance- The person comes to
terms with the problem situation and accept it as it
is.
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 37
 Emotional discharge- An expression of feelings
or reduce the tension when under stress.

Intrapsychic process- Uses cognitive strategies

to reappraise a stressful situation.

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 38

 Coping resources
Social support
Structural measure
Functional measure
Emotional support
Instrumental support
Information support
Esteem support

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 39

 The hardy personality (Kobasa 1969)

Commitment: Refers to the persons sense of

purpose and involvement in the event, activities,
and others in his/her life.
Control: Refers to the persons belief that he/she can
influence event in his/her life.

Refers to the expectation that change rather than

stability is normal in life and that change in the form
of life events can be a positive phenomenon providing
and opportunity for growth rather than a threat to
security.
5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 40

Applying Psychology to Everyday Life

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 41

 Exercises
Exercising for Mental Health

Release endorphins, dopamine, serotonin
ReducJon of heart disease, cancer, and
weight, also reduces anxiety and depression

Thank you for your aLenJon!

5/20/14 Pham Tuong Van, MA 42