Download Stress

What is Stress?
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Stress
Stress is a negative emotional experience
accompanied by predictable
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Biochemical changes
Physiological changes
Cognitive changes, and
Behavioral changes
That are directed either toward altering the
stressful event or accommodating to its
effects.
Body’s Job in Stressful Situation
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Conserve energy
Mobilize energy
Turn off projects planned for next few
hours
Turn off growth/reproduction
Turn off immune responses
Selye’s Model: General Adaptation
Syndrome
Theories of Stress
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Historically, two main theorists
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Selye
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Lazarus
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First, stressor, then stress
Integrationist or transactional approach
Selye’s Model
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Emphasized the physiology of stress
Most of his research was on nonhuman
animals
Didn’t address interpretation and
perception
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Lazarus’s Model
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Not the event that stresses, but the
understanding of the event
Defined stress as
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“a particular relationship between the person and
the environment that is appraised by the person
as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and
endangering his or her well-being”
Lazarus’s Model
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The
Transactional
Model of
Stress
Transactional Model — The experience of stress
depends as much on how an event is appraised as
it does on the event itself
Primary appraisal — Determination of an event’s
meaning
Secondary appraisal — Evaluation of one’s ability to
meet the demands of a challenging event
Cognitive reappraisal — Process by which events are
constantly reevaluated
Implications of Lazarus’s Model
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Other Models of Stress and Illness
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Diathesis-Stress Model — An individual’s
susceptibility to stress and illness is
determined by two interacting factors
Predisposing Factors (in the person)
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genetic vulnerability
acquired behavioral or personality traits
Situations or events are not inherently
stressful or unstressful
Cognitive appraisals are extremely
susceptible to changes in mood, health,
motivation
The body’s stress response is nearly the
same, whether a situation is actually
experienced or merely imagined
Other Models of Stress and Illness
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Tend-and-Befriend Theory — Theory that
females are more likely than males to
respond to stressors with behaviors that:
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Quiet, nurture, and care for offspring (tending)
Establish and maintain social networks
(befriending)
Precipitating Factors (from the
environment)
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traumatic experiences
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Sources of Stress
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Sources of Stress: Catastrophes
Major Life Events
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Social Readjustment Rating Scale — attempts to
quantify life events in terms of life change units
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September 11, 2001
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First systematic effort to link stress and illness
Faulted for subjectivity and failing to consider
individual differences in cognitive appraisal
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90% of Americans showed some signs of stress
35% of adults said that they had children who
showed signs of stress
December 26, 2004
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Thousands dead or missing
Sources of Stress
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Daily Hassles
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Daily Uplifts
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Concern about weight, health, appearance, too much
to do
Relating well with friends, completing a task, getting
enough sleep
Hassles have proven to be a better predictor of
health problems than major life events and the
frequency of daily uplifts
Environmental Stress: Noise
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Noise
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Basically, noise is just sounds that a person doesn’t
want to hear
Children living near airports have higher blood pressure
and stress hormone levels
Cohen, Glass, & Singer (1979) — Children who live in
noisy homes have more reading problems than children
who live in quieter homes
Because they are young, children are less able to tune
out extraneous sounds, thus making chronic noise more
disruptive
Environmental Stress: Crowding
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Calhoun (1970)
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Rats living in a progressively crowded environment
begin to engage in deviant behaviors
Population Density
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A measure of crowding based on the total number of
people living in an area of limited size
Crowding is not an inevitable consequence of density
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Crowding is a psychological event
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Sources of Stress: Crowding
Sources of Stress: Work
Research studies have linked crowding with
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Increased aggression
Withdrawal from interpersonal relations
Increased crime rates
Unwanted social interactions
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Dorm room studies
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Residents of traditional corridor rooms feel more
crowded, less in control, more competitive, and are
more easily annoyed than those in suite-type room
clusters
Overload
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People who feel they have to work too long
and hard at too many tasks feel more
stressed, have poorer health habits,
experience more accidents, and more
health problems
Role Overload
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Problem associated with juggling multiple roles
simultaneously
Burnout
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Job-related state of physical and
psychological exhaustion
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Depersonalization
Emotional exhaustion
Reduced personal accomplishment
Jobs that involve responsibility for other
people are associated with higher levels of
burnout (nurses, firefighters, air traffic
controllers)
Job-related stress costs American industry more
than $300 billion annually
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Absenteeism
Reduced productivity
Worker compensation benefits
People who handle money, work at night, and
those who work in the inner city are most likely
to report job-related fear
Homicide is leading cause of workplace death
among women
Role Overload in Working Parents
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Scarcity Hypothesis
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Enhancement Hypothesis
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Because time is limited, multiple roles are damaging
The benefits of meaningful work in enhancing self-esteem
outweigh the costs
Among both men and women, those who balance vocational,
marital, and parental roles generally are healthier and happier than
those who function in only one or two of these roles
What matters most is not the number of roles a parent occupies, but
the quality of her experience in those roles
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Other Sources of Job-Related Stress
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Lack of control over work
The paradox of choice
Role ambiguity or conflict
Shiftwork
Job loss
Discrimination and Gender harassment
Inadequate career advancement
Retirement
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Sources of Stress: Social Interactions
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Loneliness
Interpersonal Conflict
Caregiving
Psychoneuroimmunology
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Subfield of health psychology that
emphasizes the interaction of
psychological (psycho), neuroendocrine
(neuro), and immunological processes
in stress and illness
Immune System
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Protects body from invaders
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Performs housekeeping
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History of Psychoneuroimmunology
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1975 Robert Ader & Nicholas Cohen at
University of Rochester
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1981 David Felten at Indiana University
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Bacteria, viruses, fungi
Removing worn-out & damaged cells
Patrolling for mutants
Made up of the lymphatic system
How Does Stress Make You Sick?
Classic conditioning of immune function
Discovered network of nerves leading to blood
vessel and immune system cells
Ader, Cohen, & Felten wrote first book on
subject in 1981
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How Does Stress Make You Sick?
Psychoneuroimmunology Evidence
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Tumor cells grow more rapidly in animals
exposed to electric shock, loud noise, or other
stressors
Immunosuppression has been linked to
divorce, bereavement, unemployment, exam
periods, occupational stress, and stressful
bouts of exercise
Stress & Immune function:
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Stress & the Immune System
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Stressors can be short-term
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Or long-term
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making speech
Significant stressors, effects over time
Smaller stressors spread out
Even after controlling for confounding factors such as
smoking and substance abuse.
The effect of stress has been investigated for the most
part as a main effect, however other studies also show
that it may interact with other factors (e.g. personality) in
its effect on illness.
Mood & the Immune System
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Negative emotions induced by stress also impact the
immune system.
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Sick people are 3 times more likely to die as a result of their illness
if they are depressed, in comparison to those who are ill and not
depressed.
Cancer patients who are depressed have lower natural
killer cell activity (NKCA) in comparison to their nondepressed counterparts. These findings come from 2
types of studies:
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1) studies following cancer-free people over time, measuring
their mood and possible cancer onset;
2) studies following individuals already diagnosed with cancer
and monitoring how their mood is associated with cancer
progression.
Taken from J.L.Jarry’s (2002) Health Psychology slides at U.of T.
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Effects on Immune Function
Coping with Stress
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Optimism
Approach vs. Avoidance
Problem-focused vs. emotion-focused
Mindfulness
Disclosure
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Other factors including, anxiety, sleep deprivation, abortion,
divorce, family illness, unemployment, personality, coping
style, psychiatric illness, and war have also been shown to
impact immune function. (summarized by Reilly & McCabe, 1997).
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Conversely, the immune system and disease can be
positively influenced by relaxation, humor, hypnosis,
meditation, and positive attitudes. These techniques induce
a physiological “relaxation response” (as opposed to the
stress “fight-or-flight” response), reducing blood pressure,
respiratory rate, heart rate, etc.
Social Support & the Immune System
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Additionally, emotional and instrumental support
have been shown to be related improved immune
function.
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Theorell et al. (1995) found that HIV-positive men
with low levels of social support had a more rapid
decline in T-helper cell counts over a period of 5
years than did HIV-positive men with high levels
of social support.
What does this mean for health practice?
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Therapeutic interventions such as
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Hypnosis
Psychotherapy
stress management
Have all demonstrated effects on
improving health…
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This is the focus of this class
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