Chapter 3: Stress and Its Effects (top 10 points) Carolyn Reyes

Chapter 3: Stress Carolyn Reyes

1. Stress is an everyday event. Every day we are faced with challenges that stress us out. There are major and minor stressors that we must face. The thing to remember is that research has shown that the routine hassles we face may have significant negative effects on our physical and mental health.

2. Type of stress: Frustration - This occurs in any situation in which the attempt at achieving some goal is interrupted or stalled somehow. You want something, but for one reason or another you can't have it.

3. Type of stress: Conflict - Conflict occurs when two or more incompatible motivations or behavioral impulses compete for expression.
Approach-Approach: A conflict where a choice must be made between two attractive goals.
Avoidance-Avoidance: A conflict where a choice must be made between two unattractive goals.
Approach-Avoidance: A conflict where a choice must be made to pursue a single goal that has attractive and unattractive aspects.

4. Type of stress: Change - Life changes are any noticeable alterations in one's living circumstances that require readjustment. Things such as a death, divorce, moving, getting married, having a baby, or getting a promotion. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, matter of fact many times it is a positive situation but no matter positive or negative the situation imposes a lot of change in a person's life.

5. Type of Stress: Pressure - This is expectations or demands that a person must do or behave a certain way. Two types of pressure: perform and conform. You are expected to get things done in a timely manner for school (perform). In public, you are expected to respect others and not be a danger or threat to those around you (conform).

6. Response to stress: Emotional - Emotions are powerful, largely uncontrollable feelings, accompanied by physiological changes. When we are stressed, we respond with emotions both positive and negative.
Negative -
Annoyance, anger, and rage
Apprehension, anxiety, and fear
Dejection, sadness, and grief
Positive -
Grateful, appreciative, and thankful
Glad, happy, and joyful
Hopeful, optimistic, and encouraged
Content, serene, and peaceful

7. Physiological responses - The "fight or flight" response: a physiological reaction to threat that mobilizes a person for attacking (fighting) or fleeing (flight) an enemy. This is an automatic response that occurs in the Autonomic Nervous System.

8. Behavioral responses - The major response we have to stress is coping. This is where a person learns to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress. There are healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms that a person can choose.
Healthy:
Seek help from others.
Study more when you get a bad grade.
Try looking at a situation from a different point of view.
Set smaller goals that lead up to the bigger goals you have in mind.
Unhealthy:
Blame someone else for your struggles.
Give up.
Get mad and blow up on someone else that has done you no wrong.
Ignore the situation.

9. Burnout: This typically refers to someone who experiences some form of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and a lowered sense of self-efficacy that is attributable to work-related stress. This happens when a person feels that they have to work very hard to meet the demands of their station at work in order to keep up and eventually it becomes to overwhelming. When this occurs many feel the need to quit, find a new job, or just feel lost.

10. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: PTSD - involves enduring psychological disturbance attributed to the experience of a major traumatic event. Many soldiers that have had to endure the war in Iraq, have come home with PTSD because of all the violence they had to witness and inflict upon others. PTSD occurs slightly more frequently in women, can be found in children, and may not surface until many months or even years after the trauma occurred.