Chapter Notes

Nature, Types and Sources of Stress

Life constantly presents us with challenges, from everyday problems to major difficult circumstances. The way our body and mind respond to these challenges is called stress. While we often think of stress as negative, it's not always bad. In fact, a moderate amount of stress can be motivating and help us perform better.

However, too much stress can be harmful, just like too much electricity can damage an appliance.

• Eustress: This is the term for the level of stress that is good for you. It acts as a motivator and helps you achieve peak performance and manage minor crises.
• Distress: This is the negative form of stress that occurs when eustress becomes too much to handle. It causes wear and tear on our bodies.

Essentially, stress is the pattern of responses our body makes to any event that disturbs our balance (homeostasis) and goes beyond our ability to cope.

Nature of Stress

The word stress comes from the Latin word 'strictus', meaning tight or narrow, which reflects the physical feeling of tightness many people experience when stressed.

• Stressors: These are the events or conditions in the environment that cause stress. Examples include noise, crowding, a difficult relationship, or daily commuting.
• Strain: This is the reaction we have to external stressors.

Two Views on Stress:

1. Hans Selye's View: Known as the father of modern stress research, Selye defined stress as "the nonspecific response of the body to any demand". He believed that the body reacts with the same physiological pattern, regardless of the cause of the stress.
2. Lazarus's Cognitive Appraisal Model: This modern view argues that stress is not just about the event itself, but about how we perceive it. Our response depends on our cognitive appraisal of the situation and our ability to cope. Stress is an ongoing process between an individual and their environment.

Lazarus's Two-Level Appraisal Process:

1. Primary Appraisal: This is our initial assessment of a new or changing situation. We judge it as positive, neutral, or negative. If we see it as negative, we further appraise it for:
   • Harm: Damage that has already been done.
   • Threat: Possible future damage.
   • Challenge: The potential to overcome the event and even benefit from it.
2. Secondary Appraisal: If we perceive an event as stressful, we then assess our own coping abilities and resources. We ask ourselves, "Can I handle this?" These resources can be mental, physical, personal, or social. If we believe we have the resources to cope, we feel less stressed.

Stress Reactions:

When we experience stress, our bodies and minds react in several ways:

• Physiological Reactions: The hypothalamus activates two pathways. One involves the autonomic nervous system releasing hormones like epinephrine and norepinephrine (causing the fight-or-flight response). The second pathway involves the pituitary gland secreting cortisol to provide energy.
• Emotional Reactions: These include negative emotions like fear, anxiety, anger, or depression.
• Behavioural Reactions: Common responses are either confronting the stressor (fight) or withdrawing from it (flight).
• Cognitive Reactions: These include beliefs about the threat, its causes, and its controllability. It can lead to an inability to concentrate and repetitive, morbid thoughts.

Types of Stress

Stress can be categorized into three main, interrelated types:

• Physical and Environmental Stress:

  • Physical stresses are demands that change our body's state, such as physical overexertion, injury, lack of sleep, or a poor diet.
  • Environmental stresses are aspects of our surroundings like air pollution, crowding, noise, or extreme temperatures. Catastrophic events like earthquakes or floods also fall into this category.

• Psychological Stress:

  • These are stresses we generate in our own minds. They are internal and unique to each person. Key sources include:
    • Frustration: Occurs when our needs or goals are blocked.
    • Conflicts: Arise when we have to choose between two or more incompatible needs or motives (e.g., continue studies or take a job).
    • Internal Pressures: Stem from our own high expectations, like the belief "I must do everything perfectly."
    • Social Pressures: Result from excessive demands made on us by other people.

• Social Stress:

  • This stress is caused by our interactions with other people. Examples include the death of a family member, strained relationships, or trouble with neighbours. What is socially stressful varies from person to person.

Sources of Stress

Stress can arise from various events and conditions in our lives.

• Life Events: Major changes, whether planned (moving to a new house) or unplanned (a relationship breakup), can be stressful because they disrupt our routine. When several major life events happen in a short period, coping becomes difficult.

• Hassles: These are the minor, annoying stresses of daily life, such as traffic jams, quarrelsome neighbours, or water shortages. While they seem small, the cumulative effect of daily hassles can significantly impact our psychological well-being.

• Traumatic Events: These are extreme events like fires, accidents, robberies, or natural disasters. The effects can be long-lasting, causing symptoms like anxiety, flashbacks, and intrusive thoughts. Professional help is often needed to cope with severe trauma.

Effects of Stress on Psychological Functioning and Health

Prolonged stress can have significant negative effects on our emotional, physical, cognitive, and behavioural well-being.

• Emotional Effects: People under stress are more likely to experience mood swings and erratic behaviour. This can lead to a vicious cycle of decreasing confidence and more serious emotional problems like anxiety and depression.

• Physiological Effects: Stress causes the body to produce hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. In the short term, this helps us function under pressure. However, long-term exposure to these hormones is damaging and can lead to increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and a slowed digestive system.

• Cognitive Effects: High levels of stress can lead to mental overload, making it difficult to make sound decisions. This can result in poor concentration and reduced short-term memory capacity.

• Behavioural Effects: Stress can lead to unhealthy behaviours like eating less nutritious food, increasing caffeine intake, or turning to smoking, alcohol, or other drugs. It can also cause disrupted sleep patterns, increased absenteeism from work or school, and reduced performance.

Stress and Health

There is a strong link between stress and physical health. Chronic stress can lead to physical and mental exhaustion, a state known as burnout.

• Physical exhaustion shows up as chronic fatigue, weakness, and low energy.
• Mental exhaustion appears as irritability, anxiety, and feelings of helplessness.

Stress is believed to play a role in 50-70% of all physical illnesses, including cardiovascular disorders, high blood pressure, ulcers, asthma, and headaches.

General Adaptation Syndrome

Hans Selye studied how the body responds to prolonged stress and identified a three-stage pattern he called the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).

1. Alarm Reaction Stage: When a stressor is present, the body's adrenal-pituitary-cortex system is activated. Hormones are released, preparing the individual for a "fight or flight" response.
2. Resistance Stage: If the stress continues, the body enters the resistance stage. It tries to cope with the threat and uses its resources cautiously.
3. Exhaustion Stage: Continued exposure to the stressor drains the body's resources. The physiological systems become ineffective, and susceptibility to stress-related diseases like high blood pressure increases.

Stress and the Immune System

The field of Psychoneuroimmunology studies the links between the mind, the brain, and the immune system. Stress can weaken the immune system, making us more vulnerable to illness.

• The immune system uses white blood cells (leucocytes) to identify and destroy foreign bodies (antigens) like viruses.
• Key leucocytes include T cells (destroy invaders), B cells (produce antibodies), and natural killer cells (fight viruses and tumours).
• High levels of stress have been found to reduce the effectiveness of natural killer cells.
• Negative emotions associated with stress, such as depression and anger, are linked to poorer immune function.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle is the overall pattern of decisions and behaviours that affect a person's health. Stress can lead to an unhealthy lifestyle.

• Stressed individuals are more likely to have poor nutritional habits, sleep less, and engage in health-risking behaviours like smoking or alcohol abuse.
• Conversely, health-promoting behaviours like a balanced diet, regular exercise, and positive thinking can enhance health and act as a buffer against stress.

Coping with Stress

Coping is the dynamic, situation-specific reaction to stress. It involves the thoughts and actions we use to resolve problems and reduce stress. How we cope, rather than the amount of stress we face, often determines our well-being.

Endler and Parker identified three main coping strategies:

• Task-oriented Strategy: This involves directly dealing with the stressful situation. It includes gathering information, making a plan, and acting to solve the problem.
• Emotion-oriented Strategy: This focuses on managing emotions. It can involve efforts to maintain hope, control feelings, or vent anger and frustration.
• Avoidance-oriented Strategy: This involves denying or minimizing the seriousness of the situation. People might watch TV or call a friend to distract themselves from stressful thoughts.

Lazarus and Folkman described coping as a dynamic process and divided it into two types:

• Problem-focused Strategies: These strategies aim to attack the problem itself. They involve behaviours designed to gain information, alter the stressful event, or change one's beliefs about it.
• Emotion-focused Strategies: These strategies aim to limit the emotional disruption caused by an event, with little effort to change the event itself (e.g., "I did some things to let it out of my system").

Stress Management Techniques

Since stress is a major factor in many physical and mental health issues, learning to manage it is crucial.

• Relaxation Techniques: Active skills like deep breathing and muscle relaxation can reduce symptoms of stress and lower the risk of illnesses like high blood pressure.
• Meditation Procedures: Meditation involves refocusing attention to bring about an altered state of consciousness, making the meditator unaware of outside stimulation.
• Biofeedback: This procedure uses technology to monitor physiological responses like heart rate. By getting feedback, a person can learn to control these responses and reduce stress.
• Creative Visualisation: This technique uses imagery and imagination to deal with stress. By creating a quiet, relaxed state, a person can visualize a positive outcome, which helps build confidence.
• Cognitive Behavioural Techniques: These techniques aim to change how we think about stress. Stress inoculation training, developed by Meichenbaum, helps people replace negative, irrational thoughts with positive, rational ones.
• Exercise: Regular physical activity provides an outlet for physiological arousal. It improves heart and lung function, lowers blood pressure, and boosts the immune system.

Promoting Positive Health and Well-being

Managing stress effectively is like being immunized against its dangers. Certain personality traits and life skills can help us not just survive, but thrive.

Stress Resistant Personality

Researcher Kobasa found that people who experience high levels of stress but low levels of illness often share three characteristics, known as hardiness.

The "three Cs" of hardiness are:

1. Commitment: A sense of personal involvement and purpose in what you are doing (work, family, hobbies).
2. Control: A belief that you have control over your life and its outcomes.
3. Challenge: Viewing changes in life as normal and as opportunities for growth, rather than as threats.

Life Skills

Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that help us deal with the demands of everyday life. These skills can be learned and improved.

• Assertiveness: The ability to communicate your feelings, needs, and thoughts clearly and confidently, including the ability to say "no."
• Time Management: Planning and prioritizing your time to do things you value and achieve your goals.
• Rational Thinking: Challenging distorted or negative thoughts and replacing them with positive, rational ones.
• Improving Relationships: Developing key communication skills like listening, expressing yourself clearly, and accepting others' opinions.
• Self-care: Keeping yourself healthy, fit, and relaxed through proper breathing, a balanced diet, and a positive environment.
• Overcoming Unhelpful Habits: Recognizing and changing habits like perfectionism (needing everything to be just right), avoidance (refusing to face an issue), and procrastination (putting things off).

Factors for Positive Health

Positive health is a state of complete physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being, not just the absence of disease. Several factors act as stress buffers and promote positive health:

• Diet: A balanced diet can improve mood, energy levels, and immune function, making you better equipped to handle stress.
• Exercise: Regular exercise is one of the most effective ways to manage stress and improve both physical and mental well-being.
• Positive Attitude: This includes having a realistic perception of reality, a sense of purpose, tolerance for others, and a sense of humour.
• Positive Thinking: Optimism, the tendency to expect favourable outcomes, is linked to better health. Optimists tend to use problem-focused coping and seek help, while pessimists are more likely to give up.
• Social Support: This is the feeling of being cared for, loved, and valued by a network of people. Social support can come in three forms:
  • Tangible Support: Material aid like money, goods, or services.
  • Informational Support: Advice and information about stressful events.
  • Emotional Support: Reassurance that you are loved and cared for.

Resilience and Health

Resilience is the ability to "bounce back" from stress, adversity, and trauma. It is a dynamic process of maintaining positive adjustment under challenging conditions. Resilient individuals have feelings of self-worth, problem-solving skills, and a belief that their life has purpose.

Resilience is often described in terms of three resources:

• I HAVE (social strengths): People around me I can trust.
• I AM (inner strengths): I am respectful of myself and others.
• I CAN (problem-solving skills): I can find ways to solve problems.

A child needs a combination of these strengths to be truly resilient.