Stress and health psychology

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Overview
Source of stress
Coping with stress
How stress affects health
Staying healthy
Extreme stress
Stress
Stress: A state of psychological tension or
strain.
Health psychology: A subfield of
psychology concerned with the
relationship between psychological factors
and physical health and illness.
Sources of stress
Stressor: Any environmental demand that
creats a state of tension or threat and
requires change or adaptation.
Sources of stress
Change
Everyday hassles
Self-imposed stress
Stress and individual differences
Everyday hassles
Pressure: A feeling that one must speed
up, intensify, or change the direction of
ones behavior or live up to a higher
standard of performance.
Frustration: The feeling that occurs when a
person is prevented from reaching a goal.
Everyday hassles
Conflict: Simultaneous existence of
incompatible demands, opportunities,
needs, or goals.

Types of conflict
Approach/approach conflict
Avoidance/avoidance conflict
Approach/avoidance conflict

Approach/approach conflict
Approach/approach conflict : According to
Lewin, the result of simultaneous attraction
to two appealing possibilities, neither of
which has any negative qualities.


Avoidance/avoidance conflict
Avoidance/avoidance conflict: According
to Lewin, the result of facing a choice
between two undesirable possiblities,
neither of which has any positive qualities.
Approach/avoidance conflict
Approach/avoidance conflict: According to
Lewin, the result of being simultaneously
attracted to and repelled by the same goal.
Coping with stress
Direct coping
Defensive coping
Direct coping
Confrontation: Acknowledging a stressful
situation directly and attempting to find a
solution to the problem or to attain the
difficult goal.
Direct coping
Compromise: deciding on a more realistic
solution or goal when an ideal solution or
goal is not practical.
Withdrawal: Avoiding a situation when
other forms of coping are not practical.
Defensive coping

Defense mechanisms: Self-deceptive
techniques for reducing stress, including
denial, repression, projection, identification,
regression, intellectualization, reaction
formation, displacement, and sublimation.
Defense mechanisms
Denial: Refusal to acknowledge a painful
or threatening reality.
Repression: Excluding uncomfortable
thoughts, feelings, and desires from
consciousness.
Projection: Attributing ones repressed
motives, feelings, or wishes to others.
Defense mechanisms
Identification: Taking on the characteristics
of someone else to avoid feeling
incompetent.
Regression: Reverting to childlike behavior
and defenses.
Intellectualization: Thinking abstractly
about stressful problems as a way of
detaching oneself from them.
Defense mechanisms
Reaction formation: Expression of exaggerated
ideas and emotions that are the opposite of
ones repressed beliefs or feelings.
Displacement: Shifting repressed motives and
emotions from an orginal object to a substitute
object.
Sublimation: Redirection repressed motives and
feelings into more socially acceptable channels.
Staying healthy
Reduce stress
Adopt a healthy lifestyle
Reduce stress
Calm down
Reach out
Religion and altruism
Learn to cope effectively
Adopt a healthy lifestyle
Diet
Exercise
Quit smoking
Avoid high risk behaviors
Extreme stress
Unemployment
Divorce and separation
Bereavement
Catastrophes
Combat and other threatening personal
attacks
Posttraumatic stress
disorder(PTSD)
Psychological disorder characterized by
episodes of anxiety, sleeplessness, and
nightmares resulting from some disturbing
past event.
The end