(Health Psychology) Chapter 5: Coping with Stress

What is the evidence that social support can be seen to help cope with stress?

Another important external factor in how we cope with stress is the degree of social support that we receive. Evidence for the effects of social support can be seen through: Faster recovery and fewer medical complications with social support present. Lower mortality rates at any age can be correlated with having a number of close social relationships. Less distress in the face of terminal illness when the patients perceive a strong network of social support.

Other types of coping tools and techniques include what?

Gratitude, humor, pets, spirituality, and meaning.

What do optimistic people tend to do with stress coping?

Optimistic people tend to cope more effectively with stress and tend to lead healthier, longer lives than their pessimistic counterparts.

Why are social people better off?

People with better social skills created stronger social networks and thus receive more social support.

Relaxation Therapies

Progressive muscle relaxation - a form of relaxation training that reduces muscle tension through a series of tensing and relaxing exercises involving the body's major muscle groups. Relaxation response - a meditative state of relaxation in which metabolism slows and blood pressure lowers. Ex., a quiet place in which distractions and external stimulation are minimized. Diaphragmatic breathing and visualization

What can be useful for coping with stressors?

Shopping can be a behavioral form of avoidance coping. Also called disengagement, this may be useful short-term strategy for ignoring or escape from a stressor, but it can also lead to higher stress - for example, in spending more than one can afford or buying things one does not really need.

How can SES be measured?

Socioeconomic effects on external validity can be measured through the four variables such as: social cohesion (trust and solidarity with neighbors), social control (confidence that neighbors would take action to maintain they well-being of the neighborhood), neighborhood problems (community wide stressors such as traffic noise), and neighborhood vigilance (a measure of feelings of threat and vulnerability in the neighborhood).

What is the negative stress cycle?

Stress leads to automatic thoughts. Automatic thoughts can either lead to attitudes, beliefs and assumptions OR it can lead to negative moods and emotions (psychological symptoms). Negative moods and emotions can lead to negative physical symptoms and/or maladaptive behavior. Fortunately, the vicious cycle can be interrupted at any point.

What impact does SES have with stress?

The lower socioeconomic status the more likely one is to have unhealthy days which is defined as the measure of physical, mental, and social well-being.

Stress Inoculation Training

a cognitive behavioral treatment in which people identify stressors in their lives and learn skills for coping with them so that when those stressors occur, the people are able to put those skills into effect. Divided into three stages: Reconceptualization Appraised meaning - how a particular stressor is cognitively perceived - for instance, as a challenge or threat. Skills acquisition Follow-through

Disengagement (Avoidance Coping)

a coping strategy aimed at distancing oneself from a stressful situation.

Problem-Focused Coping

a coping strategy for design directly with a stressor, in which we either reduce the stressor's demands or increase our resources for meeting its demands.

Meaning-Focused Coping

a coping strategy in which a person attempts to find meaning in a stressful situation or traumatic event, rather than trying to change the situation or event or alter the distress associated with it.

Emotion-Focused Coping

a coping strategy in which we try to control our emotional or response to a stressor.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

a form of therapy that focuses on using structured mediation to proof mindfulness - a moment-to-moment, nonjudgmental awareness. Mindfulness can be applied to a variety of activities, from silent meditation to taking a walk in nature to contemplating a work of art.

Cognitive Behavioral Stress Management (CBSM)

a multimodal intervention that combines relaxation ratingin, visualization, cognitive restructuring, reinforcement, and other techniques to help people cope with a range of stressors.

Dispositional Affect

a person's coping style or personality dimension consisting of a tendency toward chronic negative emotions and distress (negative affectivity), or positive emotions and subjective well-being (positive affectivity).

Direct Effect Hypothesis

a theory that social support produces its beneficial effects dugin both stressful and non stressful times by enhancing the body's physical responses to challenging situations.

Buffering Hypothesis

a theory that social support products its stress-busting effects indirectly by helping the individual cope more effectively. Ex., people with strong social support are less likely to ruminate.

Emotional Disclosure

a therapeutic activity in which people express their strong, often stress-related, emotions by writing or talking about the events that triggered the emotions. Expressive writing - a technique that promotes emotional disclosure through written journaling, about our feelings.

Repressive Coping

an emotion-focused coping style in which we attempt to inhibit our emotional responses, especially in social situations, so we can view ourselves as imperturbable. Leads to greater cortisol reactivity in people with cardiovascular disease, increasing events involving cardiovascular problems.

Emotional Cascade

becoming so focused on an upsetting event that one gets worked into an intense, painful state of negative emotion.

Rumination

repetitive focusing on the causes, meanings, and consequences of stressful experiences.

Vagal Tone and Coping with Stress

students with high vagal tone were less likely than students with a lower vagal tone to experience high levels of negative emotional arousal in response to everyday hassles and stress. Students with a high vagal tone were also more likely to rely on constructive coping measures.

Psychological Control

the belief that we make our own decisions and determine what we do and what others do to us.

Coping

the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional ways in which we manage stressful situations

Matching Hypothesis

the idea that social support is beneficial to the extent that it meets an individual's specific needs. Different stressful situation create different needs and the type of support offered may not be wheat is needed at the moment.

Emotional-Approach Coping (EAC)

the process of working through, clarifying, and understanding the emotions triggered by a stressor.

Resilience

the quality that allows some people to bounce back from difficult events that might otherwise disrupt their well-being. The capacity to make realistic plans and take steps to carry them out. A positive view of yourself and confidence in your strengths and abilities. Sills in communication and problem solving. The capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses.

Gratitude

the recognition of a positive outcome from an external source, including a sense of wonder and thankfulness or benefits received.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

the use of principles from learning theory to change unhealthily patterns of thinking and behavior.

Stress management

the various psychological methods designed to reduce the impact of potentially stressful experiences.

Regulatory Control

the various ways in which we modulate our thinking, emotions, and behavior over time and across changing circumstances.