CHAPTER 13 - HEALTH, STRESS, AND COPING

Geoffrey Reed Study

* Reed and his associates asked 74 male AIDS patients about the extent to which they had accepted their situation and prepared themselves for the worst.

* Reed found that the men who had accepted their situation and prepared themselves for death died an average of nine months earlier than those who had neither accepted nor resigned themselves to their situation.

* A modern day example – Magic Johnson


HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY  – a field devoted to understanding psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond when they do get ill

* Physical illness has been associated with

o Characteristics such as anger, hostility, pessimism, depression, and hopelessness

o A lack of exercise, inadequate diet, smoking, and alcohol/drug abuse


STRESS – the process of adjusting to circumstances that disrupt or threaten to disrupt physical or psychological functioning

Psychological Stressors – events and situations to which people must adjust

* Positive Psychological Stressors

o Graduation
o Starting a new job
o Getting married
 
* Negative Psychological Stressors

o Catastrophic events – 



o Life changes/strains – 


o Chronic stressors – 


o Daily hassles – 



Stress Responses – responses people display in the face of stressors

* Physical stress responses

o Fight-or-flight syndrome – prepares body to face or to flee an immediate threat

o General adaptation syndrome (GAS) – sequence of physical responses to stress occurring in a consistent pattern and is triggered by the effort to adapt to an stressor

* Alarm reaction – 


* Resistance – 


* Exhaustion – 



* Psychological stress responses

o Emotional stress responses (fear or anger)


o Cognitive stress responses – reductions in ability to think clearly, remember accurately

* Ruminative thinking – 



* Catastrophizing – 


* Overarousal – 


o Behavioral stress responses – changes in how people look, talk, and act



STRESS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

* Burnout – 



* Post-traumatic stress disorder – 




STRESS MEDIATORS – AFFECT THE IMPACT OF STRESSORS ON INDIVIDUAL 

* How stressors are interpreted -


* Predictability and control -


* Coping resources and methods

o Problem focused - 


o Emotion focused - 


* Social support -



PROMOTING HEALTHY BEHAVIOR

* Changing Health Behaviors – Stages of Readiness

o Precontemplation -


o Contemplation -


o Preparation -


o Action –


o Maintenance - 



ADDITIONAL LEARNING OBJECTIVES

* Describe disease-resistant and disease-prone personalities. Define dispositional optimism. Discuss the quasi-experimental research on the relationship between personality and health. (see Stress, Personality, and Gender; see also Focus on Research Methods: Personality and Health)

* Define psychoneuroimmunology. (see Stress, Illness, and the Immune System)

* Describe the components of the immune system. Discuss the relationship among the immune system, the nervous system, the endocrine system, and stress. (see Stress, Illness, and the Immune System)

* Define hostility and outline the evidence relating hostility to heart disease. (see Stress, Illness, and the Cardiovascular System; see also Thinking Critically: Does Hostility Increase the Risk of Heart Disease)

* Define health promotion. Describe the four factors in Rosenstock’s health-belief model. Explain the role of self-efficacy in altering behavioral health risks. (see Promoting Healthy Behavior)