1. Chapter 14 Stress And Health Slides prepared by: Melissa S. Terlecki, Cabrini College PSYCHOLOGY Schacter Gilbert Wegner

2. PSYCHOLOGY Schacter Gilbert Wegner 14.1 Sources of Stress: What Gets to You

3. Stress Stress: the physical and psychological response to internal or external stressors. stressors: specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten the person’s well-being. chronic stressors: a source of stress that occurs continuously or repeatedly. Health psychology: the subfield of psychology concerned with ways psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illness and the maintenance of health.

4. Table 14.1: College Undergraduate Stress Scale (p. 429)

5. Questions Where are you on the stress scale? What are some examples of environmental factors that cause chronic stress?

6. Culture and Community: Can Being a Target of Discrimination Cause Stress…? In a study of those who reported falling victim to discrimination following immigration, it was found they also reported more stress (including worry, anxiety, and other physical symptoms). In analyzing cause and effect, it appears that discrimination is the root.

7. Perceived Control Over Stressful Events Stressors challenge individuals to take some action to eliminate or overcome the stressor. Studies of perceived control show that loss of control underlies stressors.

8. Perceived Control (p. 431)

9. Questions Why is the ability to control the source of stress so important?

10. PSYCHOLOGY Schacter Gilbert Wegner 14.2 Stress Reactions: All Shook Up

11. Physical Signs of Stress During stress, catecholamines, biochemicals that indicate the activation of emotional systems, increase. Flight-or-fight response: an emotional and psychological reaction to an emergency that increases readiness for action. Stress activates a response through the HPA axis. General adaptation syndrome (GAS): a three- stage physiological response that appears regardless of the stressor that is encountered. alarm phase, resistance phase, and exhaustion phase.

12. Figure 14.1: HPA Axis (p. 433)

13. Figure 14.2: Selye’s Three Phases of Stress Response (p. 434)

14. Questions How does the body react to a fight- or-flight situation? What are the three phases of GAS?

15. Stress, the Immune System, and Cardiovascular Health Immune system: a complex response system that protects the body from bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances. lymphocytes: white blood cells that produce antibodies that fight infection. Chronic stress can be a major contributor to coronary heart disease, along with atherosclerosis. Type A behavior pattern: the tendency toward easily aroused hostility, impatience, a sense of time urgency, and competitive acheivement strivings.

16. Figure 14.3: Hostility and Coronary Heart Disease (p. 436)

17. Questions How does stress affect the immune system? How does chronic stress increase the chance of a heart attack? What causal factor most predicts heart attacks?

18. Psychological Reactions Primary appraisal is the interpretation of a stimulus as stressful or not. Secondary appraisal involves determining if the stressor is something one can handle (perceived as a threat or challenge). Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): a disorder characterized by chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and avoidance of things that call the traumatic event to mind. reduced hippocampal volume. Burnout: a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion created by long-term involvement in an emotionally demanding situation and accompanied by lower performance and motivation.

19. Figure 14.4: Hippocampal Volumes of Vietnam Veterans and Their Identical Twins (p. 437)

20. Questions What is the difference between a threat and a challenge? What structure in the brain might be an indicator for susceptibility to PTSD? Why is burnout a problem especially in the helping professions?

21. PSYCHOLOGY Schacter Gilbert Wegner 14.3 Stress Management: Dealing with It

22. Mind Management Repressive coping: avoiding situations or thoughts that are reminders of a stressor and maintaining an artificially positive viewpoint. Rational coping: facing a stressor and working to overcome it. acceptance, exposure, and understanding. Reframing: finding a new or creative way to think about a stressor that reduces its threat. Stress inoculation training (SIT): a reframing technique that helps people to cope with stressful situations by developing positive ways to think about the situation.

23. Questions When is it useful to avoid stressful thoughts and when is avoidance a problem? What are the three steps in rational coping? How has writing about stressful events shown to be helpful?

24. Body Management Relaxation therapy: a technique for reducing tension by consciously relaxing muscles of the body. relaxation response: a condition of reduced muscle tension, cortical activity, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure. Biofeedback: the use of an external monitoring device to obtain information about a bodily function and possibly gain control over that function. Studies show aerobic exercise to be associated with psychological well-being.

25. Biofeedback To Reduce Stress (p. 441)

26. Questions What do meditation, hypnosis, yoga, and prayer have in common? How does biofeedback work? What are the benefits of exercise?

27. Situation Management and Social Support Situation management involves changing your life situation as a way of reducing the impact of stress on your mind and body. Social support: aid gained through interacting with others. women and the tend-and-befriend response is related to oxytocin. Humor may help us cope with stress.

28. Questions Why is the hormone oxytocin a health advantage for women? How does humor mitigate stress?

29. PSYCHOLOGY Schacter Gilbert Wegner 14.4 The Psychology Of Illness: When It’s in Your Head

30. Recognizing Illness and Seeking Treatment People differ in the degree in which they attend to and report bodily symptoms. differences in the areas of the brain activated during pain experiences. Psychosomatic illness: an interaction between mind and body that can produce illness. somatoform disorders: the set of psychological disorders in which the person displays physical symptoms not fully explained by a general medical condition. hypochondriasis: a psychological disorder in which a person is preoccupied with minor symptoms and develops an exaggerated belief that the symptoms signify a life-threatening illness.

31. Figure 14.5: The Brain in Pain (p. 445)

32. Questions What is the relationship between pain and activity in the brain? How can hypersensitivity to symptoms undermine health?

33. On Being a Patient Sick role: a socially recognized set of rights and obligations linked with illness. malingering: feigning medical or psychological symptoms to achieve something they want. Physician empathy and motivation for the patient to follow prescribed regimen of care is needed for effective medical care. compliance deteriorates when treatments are frequent and/or numerous, inconvenient, or painful.

34. Figure 14.6: Antacid Intake (p. 448)

35. Questions What benefits might come from being ill? Why is it important that a physician be empathetic?

36. Hot Science: Why Sickness Feels Bad: Psychological Effects of Immune Response Misery is part of the sickness response: a coordinated adaptive set of reaction to illness by the brain. The immune response to infection activates white blood cells that eat microbes and release cytokines. Stress and depression can also elicit the sickness response.

37. PSYCHOLOGY Schacter Gilbert Wegner 14.5 The Psychology Of Health: Feeling Good

38. Personality and Health Personality characteristics of individuals with better health include: optimism (those who expect the best), hardiness (those who are thick-skinned and stress-resistant; show a sense of commitment, believe in control, and accept challenges).

39. The Polly Anna Club (p. 450)

40. Questions Who’s healthier, the optimist or the pessimist? Why? What traits define hardiness?

41. Health-promoting Behaviors and Self-regulation Self-regulation: the exercise of voluntary control over the self to bring the self into line with preferred standards. requires inner strength and willpower, and may relate to strategy. Americans may have a restraint problem when it comes to eating. Risk takers exhibit an illusion of unique invulnerability and impulsivity when it comes to sexual behavior. Smoking is physiologically and behaviorally addictive, and difficult to give up during stress.

42. Questions Why is it difficult to achieve and maintain self-control? Why is exercise a more effective weight loss strategy than dieting? Why does planning ahead reduce sexual risk taking? To quit smoking forever, how many times do you need to quit?

43. Where Do You Stand: Consider Yourself Warned Following 9/11, the Homeland Security Advisory System was created. Color codes gauge the danger of a terrorist attack. has never decreased below “yellow”. does it keep Americans under constant stress? Are there too many warnings in our culture?