Understanding Stress: Definitions, Causes, Effects, and Coping Strategies, Quizzes of Psychology

Download Understanding Stress: Definitions, Causes, Effects, and Coping Strategies and more Quizzes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! TERM 1 Stress DEFINITION 1 Both a physiological and a psychological reaction to stressors(circumstances that threaten or seem to threaten your well-being) Perception is key TERM 2 Stressor DEFINITION 2 Circumstances that threaten or that you perceive to threaten your well-being. TERM 3 Sources of stress DEFINITION 3 Pressure Frustration Life events Minor annoyances Intrapsychic conflict TERM 4 Pressure DEFINITION 4 Expectations or demands to behave in a certain way that carry the threat of negative outcomes if you don't behave in that way. Generally speaking, the more pressure there is, the more stress we experience. TERM 5 Frustration DEFINITION 5 Blocking of goal-directed behavior. Generally, the more frustrated we are, the more stress we experience. TERM 6 Life Events DEFINITION 6 Important events or changes in your life, including both negative (e.g. divorce, death of a loved one, etc.) and positive (e.g. getting married, a vacation, etc.) changes. Can cause stress because they disrupt things, and we like stability. Correlated with illness - the more they occur, the more often we get sick. TERM 7 Minor annoyances DEFINITION 7 Everyday hassles When they accumulate, stress may increase. Life events and minor annoyances may interact with each other and both cause increases in each other. For example, if you move to a new town, that's a major life event, and it brings with it other minor annoyances. Also, if you have a lot of everyday hassles, you will have fewer resources to deal with a major life event. TERM 8 Intrapsychic Conflict DEFINITION 8 2 or more motives compete with one another. If you satisfy one of these motives, the other one by definition cannot be satisfied. There are 3 different kinds: Approach-Approach Avoidance-Avoidance Approach-Avoidance TERM 9 Approach-Approach conflict DEFINITION 9 A type of intrapsychic conflict in which you must choose between 2 equally attractive alternatives. The conflict comes from the fact that once you choose A, you must give up any attractive qualities about B and live w/any unattractive qualities that A has. Ex: Choosing between 2 good colleges Becomes stronger the more important the choice is. Becomes stronger when the alternatives have different attractive qualities. TERM 10 Avoidance-Avoidance conflict DEFINITION 10 You must choose between equally unattractive options (e.g. choosing between getting braces or getting teeth pulled). TERM 21 Exhaustion stage DEFINITION 21 If your coping efforts are not effective and they don't make the stressor go away, then the stress continues and ultimately, your physiological resources will be depleted. Your physiological arousal MUST decrease, and you become exhausted. The longer the stress continues, the more prone to disease you are. TERM 22 Criticisms of Selye's model DEFINITION 22 There's evidence that the reaction might not be as general and automatic as Selye suggests. If you're looking at physiological threats to your survival, yeah, we'll definitely see GAS. However, there are considerable differences between individuals, esp. considering primary and secondary appraisal processes. Selye doesn't really take these psychological factors into account. TERM 23 Stress and Illness DEFINITION 23 There's a lot of data to support the idea that the more stress we have and the longer it persists, the more likely we are to become ill in some way (the range of illnesses is huge). Students after finals, and widows after their spouses' death, show impaired immune functioning. Similar immune functioning findings have been found with animals in the lab. The stress itself does not cause the illness - it just decreases your ability to resist it. TERM 24 Burnout DEFINITION 24 The physical, cognitive, and emotional exhaustion that results from role-related stress. Initially identified in terms of work-related stress. The stress usually builds/accumulates gradually until the person... Becomes VERY tired physically Becomes irritable and depressed Develops negative attitudes about himself Develops negative attitudes about the work TERM 25 Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) DEFINITION 25 Reaction to a single major stressor (in contrast to burnout, which accumulates) Occurs after the initial event has occurred Symptoms: Sleep disorders (nightmares, sleeplessness or a fear of going to sleep) Emotional disturbances (anxiety, depression, guilt, etc.) Flashbacks to the stressful event TERM 26 Coping strategies DEFINITION 26 Active efforts (i.e. they don't always work; they're just attempts) to master, reduce, or at least tolerate the demands created by stress. TERM 27 Maladaptive coping strategies DEFINITION 27 Could include aggression, becoming passive, self- anesthetization. TERM 28 Constructive coping strategies (characteristics) DEFINITION 28 Relevant to the stressor Reality-based (i.e. involve realistic primary and secondary appraisals of the stressor, and don't involve self- deception) Emotion-focused (attempts to alleviate at leasts ome of the negative emotional response because some of it can get in the way of other constructive coping). TERM 29 Approach-based strategies DEFINITION 29 Directly confront the problem TERM 30 Avoidance-based strategies DEFINITION 30 Oriented towards reducing tension by avoiding the problem (i.e. if I don't think about it, it won't bother me). There might be withdrawal or denial of the situation involved. TERM 31 Approach-based vs. Avoidance-based coping DEFINITION 31 Approach-based strategies generally reduce the effects of stress, both on psychological adjustment and health. Avoidance-based strategies are associated with continuing stress. Caveat: It depends on how controllable the stressors are. If the stressor is controllable, approach-based strategies are associated with a reduction in the likelihood of depression. If the stressor is uncontrollable, then problem solving won't get you anywhere, so there's no reduction in the likelihood of depression. TERM 32 Learned helplessness DEFINITION 32 If you come to accept that your coping strategies aren't reducing or eliminating stress, you will develop learned helplessness, because negative outcomes will come at you regardless of your behavior. You stop trying and give up and become depressed. TERM 33 Seligman's research on learned helplessness DEFINITION 33 Escape conditioning "Yoked" 2 dogs: One dog could escape when he was shocked, but the other could only escape when the other dog had escaped, and therefore didn't have control where he could escape the shock. Outcome: the dogs who had been "yoked" and conuldn't control outcomes developed learned helplessness TERM 34 Overeating as a response to stress DEFINITION 34 People overeat in response to stress because: It reduces mental alertness (b/c your body is focused on digesting the food). The hypothalamus plays a role both in controlling eating and in stress and fear reactions - the combo makes you want toeat when you're stressed. TERM 35 Aggression as a response to stress DEFINITION 35 Frustration-Aggression hypothesis: Frustration is a source of stress. If the goal is important and aggression is seen as instrumental in removing frustration, you will aggress. TERM 46 How does social support lessen risk for the negative effects of stress? DEFINITION 46 Direct effect: By providing the stressed individual additional resources to deal with the stress (e.g. through instrumental support) Buffering effect (indirect): By actually reducing the amoutn of stress in a person's life. The person feels more secure, and is less threatened when stressful events occur. TERM 47 Effects of stress on the immune system DEFINITION 47 Stress can weaken immune functioning. Work by Glaser and Keicolt-Glacer has shown that reduced immune system effectiveness is one possible reason. They found that immune system effectiveness was reduced during the exam periods of med students. Stress hormones can suppress the activity of specific immune system cells. Fibers extending INCOMPLETE TERM 48 resilience DEFINITION 48 The ability to tolerate, and even thrive in, highly stressful circumstances. Characteristics: Individual: Good intellectual functoning; appealing, sociable, easygoing disposition; self-efficacy, self-confidence, high self- esteem; talents; faith Family: Close relationship to caring parent figure; authoritative parenting; socioeconomic advantages; connections to extended supportive family networks Extrafamilial: bonds to prosocial adults; connections to prosocial organizations; attending effective schools. TERM 49 protective factors that promote resilience DEFINITION 49 Social support Coping self-efficacy: the belief that we can perform the behaviors necessary to cope successfully Perceived control Optimism and positive attitudes Ability to engage in both emotional expression/trauma disclosure, as well as suppression Finding meaning in stressful life events Coping strategies TERM 50 Personal resources and happiness DEFINITION 50 Health -> not necessarily Wealth: Not having enough may cause unhappiness; once you have adequate levels, further increases don't do much. Wisdom -> intelligence bears little relation to happiness, but education level does have a weak positive relation Relationships -> researchers consistently find that happy people have more satisfying social relationships, and that married people are significantly happier on average than single or divorced people. Account for only ~15-20% of total variability TERM 51 Biological and psychological processes and happiness DEFINITION 51 There might be a biologically based set point, as supported by identical and fraternal twin studies. Hedonic treadmill:capacity to adapt to both good & bad. Cognitive processes: having a sense of meaning in life; religiosity; downward comparison (seeing ourselves as better off than the standard for comparison) Personality factors: sociability, optimism, curiosity, altruism, and oppenness to new experience Cultural factors: In individualistic societies, individual happiness is more important.