8 Stress and Coping
Jining medical college
Department of Psychology
Ji Feng
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Contents
• 1.Concept of Stress
• 2.Physiological Reactions to Stress
• 3.Psychological Reactions to Stress
• 4.Sources of Stress
• 5.Coping with Stress
• 6.Stress and Illness
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Modern life
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Modern life
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Why we must study
stress?
• We live in a modern life. Everyone has stress.
• Stress can be positive and give you energy or it
can be unhealthy and cause health problems.
• Stress for short periods may not affect you but
stress over time can cause or make some
illnesses worse, such as heart disease, stroke,
high blood pressure, diabetes, irritable bowel
syndrome or asthma.
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Burnout
• Burnout: Job-related condition (usually in
helping professions) of physical, mental,
and emotional exhaustion
• Stress can cause disease
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What is Stress?
• Tiger
• exam
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8.1 Concept of Stress
• 8.1.1 Definitions of Stress
• Response
• Stimulus
• Cognitive appraisal
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Response
• One of the pioneers in stress research,
Hans Selye, defined stress as the
“nonspecific response of the body to any
demand made upon it” (Selye, 1979).
• By “nonspecific ” he meant that the same
pattern of responses could be produced
by any number of different stressful
stimuli
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Stimulus
• Within this framework, researchers have
studied catastrophic events such as
tornadoes, earthquakes or fires, as well
as more chronic stressful situation such
as imprisonment or crowding. They have
also studied the relationship between the
accumulation of stressful life event such
as job loss, divorce, or the death of a
spouse. (as we will see later)
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Cognitive appraisal
• Cognitive appraisal is an evaluative
process that determines why and to what
extent a person views a situation as
threatening.
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• 8.1.2 Cognitive Appraisal
• The Primary Appraisal
• The Secondary Appraisal
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(Folkman and Lazarus, 1984).
Stressor An event occurs.
What does this mean to me?
Primary appraisal Am I okay or in trouble?
Secondary How can I cope with this?
appraisal
Stress if I cannot cope.
Outcome
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• PRIMARY APPRAISAL
1. Irrelevant to me?
2. Relevant but not threatening
3. Stressful...relevant AND threatening
• SECONDARY APPRAISAL
The evaluation of personal resources to
cope with the threat...
“Can I deal...?”
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Stress
• Threats, challenges to people
• Responses to situations
• Process by which we appraise and cope
with environmental threats & challenges
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Stress is a process
Cognitive Physiological Heart disease
reaction Ulcers
Stressor appraisal Psychological Depression
Coping reaction Anxiety disorder
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8.2 Physiological Reactions
to Stress
• 8.2.1 Emergency Response
• 8.2.2 General Adaptation Syndrome
(GAS)
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Emergency Response
• Liver release extra sugar
• Fats and proteins change to sugar
• Metabolism increase
• Heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate
• Muscles tense
• Digestion decrease
• Endorphin decrease
• Surface blood vessels constrict
• Spleen release more red blood cells
• Bone marrow produces more white corpuscles
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Emergency Response
Stress center
hypothalamus
Autonomic nervous system Pituitary gland A
CTH
Adrenal medulla Adrenal cortex
epinephrine corticosteroids
Heart rate Metabolic processes
Blood pressure Liver release sugar
Liver release sugar Release other hormone
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General Adaptation
Syndrome (GAS; Selye)
• Series of bodily reactions to prolonged stress; occurs in
three stages
– Alarm Reaction: Body resources are mobilized to
cope with added stress
– Resistance: Body adjusts to stress but at a high
physical cost; resistance to other stressors is lowered
– Exhaustion: Body’s resources are drained and
stress hormones are depleted, resulting in
psychosomatic disease, loss of health, or collapse
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General Adaptation
Syndrome
Stress
Resistance
stage 1: stage 2:
stage 3:
Alarm Resistance
Exhaustion
Reaction (cope)
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8.3 Psychological Reactions
to Stress
• 8.3.1 Cognitive Impairment
• Attention: can’t concentrate on the task.
(tiger)
• Thinking: can’t organize our thoughts
logically, confusion (fire), poor problem solving
• Memory: can’t retrieve knowledge we had
learned well.
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• 8.3.2 Emotional Responses
• Anxiety
• Anger and Aggression
• Apathy and Depression
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Anxiety
• composite emotion.
• tension, apprehension, worry, and fear
• Normal anxiety
• Neurotic anxiety
• Cause by
1.unconscious conflict (Freud )
2.learned (behaviorist)
3.uncontrolled situation
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Anger and Aggression
• Whenever a person’s effort to reach a
goal is blocked. (frustration)
• Direct aggression
• Displaced aggression
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Fig. Frustration and common
reactions to it.
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Apathy and
Depression
• Frustration may cause apathy and
withdrawal
• Continued and not successful controlled
stressful situation may lead to depression.
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Learned Helplessness
(Seligman)
• Learned inability to overcome obstacles and
avoid harmful stimuli;
• learned passivity
– Occurs when events appear to be uncontrollable
– May feel helpless if failure is attributed to lasting,
general factors
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Fig. 15.6 In the normal course of escape and avoidance learning, a light dims shortly before the
floor is electrified (a). Since the light does not yet have meaning for the dog, the dog receives a
shock (non-injurious, by the way) and leaps the barrier (b). Dogs soon learn to watch for the
dimming of the light (c) and to jump before receiving a shock (d). Dogs made to feel “helpless”
rarely even learn to escape shock, much less to avoid it.
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8.4 Sources of Stress
• 8.4.1 Conflict
• 8.4.2 Life Changes
• 8.4.3 Daily Hassles
• 8.4.4 Social & cultural sources of stress
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8.4.1 Conflicts
• Approach-Approach Conflicts: Having to
choose between two desirable or positive
alternatives
• Avoidance-Avoidance Conflicts: Being forced
to choose between two negative or undesirable
alternatives
• Approach-Avoidance Conflicts: Being
attracted and repelled by the same goal or
activity
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Fig. Three basic forms of conflict. For this woman, choosing between pie and ice
cream is a minor approach-approach conflict; deciding whether to take a job that
will require weekend work is an approach-avoidance conflict; and choosing
between paying higher rent and moving is an avoidance-avoidance conflict. 32
8.4.2 Life Changes
(P101)
• Social Readjustment Rating Scale
(SRRS)
• Assesses impact of major life changes
– e.g., death, marriage, divorce, loss of job
– make person more vulnerable to disease
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STUDENT STRESS RATING SCALE
The following are events that occur in the life of a college student. Place a
check in the left-hand column for each of those events that has happened to
you during the last 12 months.
1. Death of a close family member - 100 points
2. Jail term - 80 points
3. Final year or first year in college - 63 points
4. Pregnancy (to you or caused by your) - 60 points
5. Severe personal illness or injury - 53 points
6. Marriage - 50 points
7. Any interpersonal problems - 45 points
8. Financial difficulties - 40 points
9. Death of a close friend - 40 points
10.Arguments with your roommate - 40 points
11. Major disagreements with your family - 40 points
12.Major change in personal habits - 30 points
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13.Change in living environment - 30 points
14.Beginning or ending a job - 30 points
15.Problems with your boss or professor - 25 points
16.Outstanding personal achievement - 25 points
17.Failure in some course - 25 points
18.Final exams - 20 points
19.Increased or decreased dating - 20 points
20.Changes in working conditions - 20 points
21.Change in your sleeping habits - 18 points
22. Several-day vacation - 15 points
23.Change in eating habits - 15 points
24. Family reunion - 15 points
25. Change in recreational activities - 15 points
26. Minor illness or injury - 15 points
27.Minor violations of the law - 11 points Score: __________ 35
INTERPRETING YOUR
SCORE
● Less than 150 points: relatively low stress level in
relation to life events
● between150 - 300 points: borderline range
● Greater than 300 points : high stress in relation to life
events
● Note: From Girdano, D.A., Everly, G. S., Jr., & Dusek, D.
E. (1990). Controlling stress and tension (3rd edition),
ENnglewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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8.4.3 Daily Hassles
• Minor but frequent stresses
• annoying events in everyday life
– e.g., too many interruptions, arguments
– cumulative effect on health
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8.4.4 Social & cultural
• Social conditions that promote stress
– e.g., poverty, racism, crime
• Culture clashes lead to stress
– e.g., refugees, immigrants
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8.5 Coping with Stress
• 8.5.1 Emotion-focused Coping
Defense Mechanisms
• 8.5.2 Problem-focused Coping
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8.5.1Freudian Defense Mechanisms
• Defense Mechanisms: Habitual and unconscious (in
most cases) mental processes designed to reduce
anxiety
– Work by avoiding, denying, or distorting sources of threat or
anxiety
– If used short term, can help us get through everyday situations
– If used long term, we may end up not living in reality
– Most operate unconsciously
– Protect idealized self-image so we can live with ourselves
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Some Examples
• Denial: Most primitive; refusing to accept or
believe reality; usually occurs with death and
illness
• Repression: When painful memories, anxieties,
and so on are unconsciously held out of our
awareness
• Reaction Formation: Impulses are repressed
and the opposite behavior is exaggerated
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• Projection: When one’s own feelings,
shortcomings, or unacceptable traits and
impulses are seen in others; exaggerating
negative traits in others lowers anxiety
• Rationalization: Justifying personal actions by
giving “rational” but false reasons for them
• Displacement: A motive that cannot be gratified
in one form is directed into a new channel.
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8.6 Stress and Illness
• 8.6.1Ulcers
• 8.6.2 Heart Disease
• 8.6.3 The Immune System
• 8.6.4 Stress-resistant Individuals
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