The Psychology of Adjustment

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The Psychology of Adjustment

Lecture (3)

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Objectives

• Define Stress and describes its characters [intensity, chronicity, Controllability ……

• distinguish between primary and secondary appraisals of stress.

• Describe physiological response to stress

• List some negative effects of stress on health

• Classify coping methods into problem focused and emotion focused and give examples

• Classify coping methods into adaptive and maladaptive anf geive examples

• Identify positive methods to manage stress

• Identify harmful methods to manage stress

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Stress

• Stress is “any circumstances that threaten or are perceived

to threaten

one’s well-being and thereby make demand on one’s coping

abilities”.

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Stressors intensity/severity

• Stressors differ in their severity. They can range from microstressors to more severe stressors.

• Microstressors include the daily hassles and minor annoyances, such as:

– traffic jams, and – academic deadlines

• Severe stressors include:

– the death or loss of a loved one, – an academic or career failure, – a serious illness, or

– being the victim of a serious crime

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Stress severity

microstressors Severe stressors

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Stressors

• In addition to intensity or severity, other characteristics that make situations more or less stressful include:

– Duration

– Predictability – Controllability – Chronicity

• Events

over which a person has little or no control, which occur suddenly and unpredictably, and

which impact a person over a long period of time

seem to take the greatest toll on physical and psychological well- being.

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Cognitive Appraisal

• Not everyone feels the same degree of stress from the same event.

• We respond to situations as we perceive them.

• In general, cognitive appraisal is divided into two types or stages:

primary and secondary appraisal.

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Primary Appraisal

• During primary appraisal, the event or situation can be categorized as:

– irrelevant, – beneficial, or – stressful.

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Primary Appraisal

• Those events classified as stressful can be further subdivided into the categories of:

– Challenge (anticipating gain),

– Threat (anticipating harm or loss) and

– Harm/loss (damage has already occurred).

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Primary appraisal

Beneficial Irrelevant Stressful

Threat Challenge Harm/loss

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Secondary appraisal

• Secondary appraisal occurs after assessment of the event as a threat or a challenge.

• During secondary appraisal the individual now evaluates his or her coping resources and

options.

• In order for an event to be appraised as a

stressor, there must be a perceived mismatch between a situation's demands and one's

resources to cope with it.

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imbalance

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Cognitive Appraisal

• Distortions and mistaken appraisals can occur at any stage in the appraisal process, causing inappropriate stress responses.

• People may overestimate the difficulty of the demands, they may underestimate their own resources.

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Physiological Responses

Hans Selye described three stages the body uses to respond to stressors, called general adaptation

syndrome (GAS).

The general adaptation syndrome (GAS) consists of three phases:

• alarm,

• resistance, and

• exhaustion

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1. Alarm stage

• Body reacts with “fight-or-flight” response which is a physiological response to stress.

• Sympathetic nervous system is activated.

• Stress Hormones such as adrenaline,

noradrenaline and cortisol are released into the bloodstream to meet the threat or danger.

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fight-or-flight response

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2. Resistance stage

• Parasympathetic nervous system returns

many physiological functions to normal levels.

• Resistance can last for a relatively long time, but the body’s resources are being depleted.

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3. Exhaustion

• If stressor continues beyond body’s capacity, organism exhausts his resources.

• There is increased vulnerability to disease and, in some extreme cases, collapse and death.

• The weakest body system (e.g., cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal) will be the

one most affected.

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General Adaptation Syndrome

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Effects of stress on Health

Stress

Psychological

Physical Illness

Immune System Aging

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Physical illness

• Chronic stress may cause disease because

physiological responses to stressors can directly harm other body systems.

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Physical illness

Stress also cause people to behave in ways that increase the risk of illness, for

example smoking,

overeating, and other bad habits people use to cope with stress.

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Examples of diseases related to stress

• Mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and personality disorders

• Cardiovascular disease,

including heart disease, high blood pressure,

abnormal heart rhythms, heart attacks, and stroke.

• Obesity and other eating disorders

• Menstrual problems

• Skin and hair problems, such as acne, psoriasis, and eczema, and permanent hair loss.

• Gastrointestinal problems, such as GERD, gastritis, ulcerative colitis, and irritable colon

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Physical illness

• Sudden emotional stresses can trigger heart attacks, especially in people with heart diseases.

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Physical illness

• Stressful life events have also been linked to a higher risk of

developing cancer.

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Effects of stress on Health

• Stress can accelerate the aging process

• Stress can weaken immune functioning

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ADJUSTMENT /COPING

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Adjustment /Coping

• Coping can be defined as

thoughts and behaviors used by an individual to handle stressful situations.

• The psychological coping mechanisms are commonly termed coping strategies or coping skills.

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Coping

• Coping strategies can be divided into:

1. Positive techniques (adaptive or constructive coping)

2. Negative techniques (maladaptive coping or non-coping)

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1.Positive techniques (adaptive or constructive coping)

Example:

Anticipation )عقوتلا(:

– is when one reduces the stress of some difficult challenge by anticipating what it will be like and preparing for how one is going to cope with it

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2.Negative techniques (maladaptive coping or non-coping)

• A maladaptive coping technique will just reduce symptoms while maintaining the disorder.

• Maladaptive techniques are more effective in the short term rather than long term coping process.

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Coping strategies

Coping strategies can be divided into the three broad classes:

Problem-focused Emotion-focused Seeking social support Problem-focused coping

strategies attempt to confront and directly deal with the demands of the situation or to change the situation so that it is no longer

stressful.

Emotion-focused coping strategies attempt to manage the emotional responses that result from the stressful situation (rather than dealing directly with it).

Seeking social support, that is, turning to others for assistance and

emotional support in times of stress.

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Examples of Positive Emotion-focused coping

Acceptance (positive)

• Accept that it has happened and can’t be changed

• Learn to live with it Positive

reinterpretation &

growth (positive)

• I look for something good in what is happening.

• I try to see it in a different light, to make it seem more positive.

• I learn something from the experience.

• I try to grow as a person as a result of the experience.

Intellectualization (positive)

• Avoiding emotion by focusing on facts and logic.

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Examples of Negative Emotion-focused coping

Anxious avoidance (negative)

• Mentally or physically avoiding something that causes distress

Repression (negative)

• Subconsciously hiding uncomfortable thoughts

• pushing uncomfortable thoughts into the subconscious

Denial (negative)

• refusing to acknowledge that an event has occurred.

• claiming/believing that what is true to be actually false.

Dissociation (negative)

• One separates out of his memory things that he don't want to or can't deal with.

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Examples of Positive Problem focused

Planning • Make plan of action

• Try to develop a strategy of what to do Suppression of

Competing activities

• Suppressing one’s attention to other

activities in which one might engage, in order to concentrate more completely on dealing with the stressor.

Active coping • Taking action, exerting efforts to remove or circumvent the stressor

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Stress management

Factors contribute to stress management

• Adequate nutrition,

• Exercise,

• Sleep

• Relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation

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Unhealthy ways of coping with stress

• Smoking

• Drinking

• Sleeping too much

• Overeating or undereating

• Using drugs

• Taking your stress out on others!

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Quizzes

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Short Notes

• Define Stress

• Define Coping

• Enumerate three Positive coping techniques

• Enumerate three Negative coping technique

• Give three Examples of some diseases related to stress

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1. Which is a positive technique in coping:

A. anticipation B. avoidance

C. denial D. dissociation

E. repression

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2. A student fails an exam. He views it as an opportunity to deepen his learning and

study hard for his re-sit. This type of coping is _______.

A. Intellectualization.

B. anticipation C. active coping D. denial

E. avoidance

F. Positive reinterpretation & growth

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3. A man hears that his wife has been killed, and yet refuses to believe it, still setting the table for her and keeping her

clothes and other accessories in the bedroom

E. avoidance

F. Positive reinterpretation &

growth

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4. A person told they have cancer asks for details on the probability of survival and the success rates of various drugs

E. avoidance

F. Positive reinterpretation

& growth

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5. I dislike another person at work. I avoid walking past their desk, this

type of coping is _______.

E. avoidance

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6. Man, with the terminal illness might choose to join a support group for the

terminally ill. This type of coping is _______.

B. seeking social support C. active coping

D. denial E. avoidance

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7. Informed that he has a terminal illness, a man might decide that nothing can be

done about the situation and simply accept this unwelcome reality

D. denial E. avoidance

F. Positive reinterpretation & growth G. None of the above

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8. man with the terminal illness might choose discontinuing medical treatment and keeping the illness a secret, even from

close family members

D. avoidance

E. Positive reinterpretation & growth

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9. Person choose going directly to another person to work out a misunderstanding

A. intellectualization.

D. avoidance

E. positive reinterpretation & growth

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10. A student decides to deal with anxiety about an upcoming test by going to a party

and forgetting about it.

D. avoidance

E. Positive reinterpretation & growth

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11. Interpreting the situation as either benign, neutral/irrelevant, or threatening

occur in ______

A. Primary appraisal B. Secondary appraisal

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12. The individual evaluates his or her coping resources and options in _____:

A. Primary appraisal B. Secondary appraisal

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13. “fight-or-flight ” physiological response occur during ______

A. Alarm stage

B. Resistance stage C. Exhaustion stage

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14. Stress hormones released in response to stress include ______

A. Cortisol and adrenaline

B. Estrogen and progesterone C. Growth hormone

D. Insulin

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15. increased vulnerability to disease and occur in _______

A. Alarm stage

B. Resistance stage C. Exhaustion stage

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16. _____ is defined as thoughts and

behaviors used by an individual to handle stressful situations:

A. Coping

B. Psychology C. Resistance

D. Problem solving