Class 5

Question 1

Understanding Stress: The Good, The Bad, and The Chronic

Answer 1

The sources distinguish between different types of stress based on their nature and duration.

• Eustress (Good Stress): This occurs when you face challenges that you have adequate resources to handle. It can lead to positive health outcomes and optimal arousal, which enhances performance at moderate levels.
• Distress (Bad Stress): This is the feeling of having insufficient resources to meet the demands of a situation, which can result in negative health consequences.
• Acute vs. Chronic Stress: Stress can be short-term (acute) or long-term (chronic). A key factor that can transform an acute stressor into a chronic one is rumination, which is the act of repetitively thinking about or dwelling on negative events.

Question 2

Common Sources of Stress

Answer 2

Stress can arise from various life situations and roles.

• Life Events: The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) is a tool used to quantify the general stress level in a person’s life over the past year by assessing both positive and negative life events. A score of 300 or more indicates a high risk of illness, 150-299 is a moderate risk, and below 150 is a low risk. However, a limitation of this scale is that it does not distinguish between positive and negative events.
• Job Stress: This occurs when work demands exceed an individual’s capabilities, resources, or needs. Common factors include high job demands, a lack of autonomy, and an imbalance between the effort put in and the rewards received.
• Caregiver Stress: This type of stress is characterized by relentless responsibility, constant vigilance, and frequent crises. It is becoming more common due to an aging population and the prevalence of chronic conditions. The strain of being a caregiver can even accelerate cellular aging.
• Sociological Stress: This refers to stress experienced due to one’s socioeconomic position. People with lower socioeconomic status (SES), racial and ethnic minorities, and those with lower education levels are often more susceptible to experiencing demands that outweigh their resources. The “Stroke Buckle” in the Southeastern U.S. is noted as an area where contributions of acute and chronic exposure to sociological stress lead to higher rates of heart attack mortality.

Question 3

Contributors to the Stress Experience

Answer 3

The way an individual experiences stress depends on a combination of their personality, the situation, and how they perceive it.

• Personality: Certain personality dimensions can make people more prone to stress. These include a Type A Personality, traits of anger, hostility, and aggression, and Negative Affectivity (NA), which is a tendency to experience negative emotions like anger and fear.
• Person-Situation Interaction: The Effort-Distress Model suggests that stress arises when events are seen as excessive or out of control. The stressfulness of a situation depends on both the available resources and how an individual uses them (e.g., being poor and living beyond one’s means).
• Appraisal: The process of appraisal is crucial in determining whether a situation is perceived as stressful.
  
  • Primary Appraisal: This is the initial determination of the magnitude and nature of a potential threat. For example, recognizing that an exam is worth 45% of a final grade.
  • Secondary Appraisal: This involves evaluating the resources available to cope with the threat. For example, realizing the exam is in two days and you haven’t studied, versus realizing it’s a month away and you’re already prepared.

Question 4

Coping with Stress

Answer 4

Coping involves the strategies used to manage stressful situations and the emotions they cause.

• Coping Types:
  
  • Problem-focused coping: Directly addressing the demands of the situation, such as borrowing a friend’s notes after missing a class.
  • Emotion-focused coping: Addressing the emotions that accompany stress, such as turning to friends for support or journaling.
  • Avoidant coping: Ignoring the problem and the resulting emotions. This strategy is associated with worse physical and mental health outcomes and substance-use disorders.
• Social Support: This is a social network where others provide care, help, and assistance. It can be categorized into four types:
  
  1. Emotional: Providing encouragement and empathy.
  2. Instrumental: Providing tangible goods and services.
  3. Informational: Providing information and resources.
  4. Appraisal: Helping someone identify a stressor and coping options.
• Models of Social Support:
  
  • Main Effects Model: Suggests social support is generally beneficial to health, regardless of stress levels.
  • Buffering Model: Proposes that social support specifically reduces the negative health effects of stress.
  • The sources also mention the “Tend & Befriend” theory, which suggests women are more likely than men to use social support as a coping mechanism.

Question 5

Stress, Health, and Well-being

Answer 5

Stress is identified as a major risk factor for several health issues.

• Mental Health: Stress is a significant risk factor for mood and anxiety-related disorders. In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), intrusive thoughts and rumination about a traumatic event can extend the duration of the stressor and multiply its impact.
• Sleep: Stress and sleep have a bidirectional relationship, meaning stress can disrupt sleep, and poor sleep can increase stress.
• Social Networking: Research indicates that online social networks generally do not provide the same social support benefits as in-person networks and do not contribute to perceived social support beyond one’s interpersonal connections. Furthermore, the use of online social networks has been associated with greater levels of stress and a lower quality of life, although online support communities may be an exception.