Transcript Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY (6th Ed)

Chapter 14
Stress and Health
James A. McCubbin, PhD
Clemson University
Modified by Pamela Hammond
Brantley County High School
What do you think?
 Take out a scrap piece of paper
 Brainstorm: Write down all of the things that
stress you out; free flow thought
 Rank your stressors from least to worst
Fact or Falsehood?
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F
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1. Half of all deaths in the United States are due to people’s behavior.
2. Cancer rates are higher among concentration camp survivors.
3. Compared to others, pessimists are more than twice as likely to develop heart
disease.
4. Writing about personal traumas in a diary reduces stress and the likelihood of health
problems during ensuing months.
5. Those who do not exercise are twice as likely as exercisers to report being not “too
happy.”
6. Religious faith and health show a strong positive correlation.
7. Smoking a cigarette takes 12 minutes off one’s life expectancy.
8. Genes influence one’s propensity to cigarette addiction.
9. It is possible for two people of the same height, age, and activity level to maintain
the same weight, even if one of them eats much more than the other does.
10. Most people who lose weight on a weight-loss program will eventually regain most
of it.
Answers:
All are true except number 2
Stress and Health
 Behavioral Medicine
 interdisciplinary field that integrates
behavioral and medical knowledge and
applies that knowledge to health and disease
 Health Psychology
 subfield of psychology that provides
psychology’s contribution to behavioral
medicine
Stress and Illness
 Leading causes of death in the US in 1900
and 2000
Stress and Illness
 Stress
 the process by
which we
perceive and
respond to
certain events,
called stressors,
that we appraise
as threatening or
challenging
Stress Appraisal
Appraisal
Response
Threat
(“Yikes! This is
beyond me!”)
Panic, freeze up
Challenge
(“I’ve got to apply
all I know”)
Aroused, focused
Stressful event
(tough math test)
Cerebral cortex
(perceives stressor)
Thalamus
Hypothalamus
Pituitary hormone in the
bloodstream stimulates
the outer part of the adrenal
gland to release the stress
hormone cortisol
Pituitary gland
Sympathetic nervous
system releases the
stress hormones
epinephrine and
norepinephrine
from nerve endings
in the inner part of
the adrenal glands
Adrenal glands
Stress and Illness
The body’s resistance to stress can
last only so long before exhaustion sets in
Stress
resistance
Stressor
occurs
Phase 1
Alarm
reaction
(mobilize
resources)
Phase 2
Resistance
(cope with
stressor)
Phase 3
Exhaustion
(reserves
depleted)
 General
Adaptation
Syndrome
 Selye’s concept
of the body’s
adaptive
response to
stress in three
stages
Three Stages of the General Adaptation
Syndrome
1) Alarm Reaction-general arousal
caused by:
2) Resistance-arousal subsidies
because of:
*increase of adrenal
*decrease in
glands
adrenal output
*reaction of
*counter reaction of
sympathetic
parasympathetic
nervous system
nervous system
If stressor is not
removed, organism If stressor is not
removed, organism
moves to:
moves to:
3) Exhaustion-general arousal of
Stage 1 reappears:
Powerful
parasympathetic
response opposes
arousal.
If stressor is not
removed in time,
death occurs.
Stressful Life Events
 Catastrophic Events
 earthquakes, combat stress, floods
 Life Changes
 death of a loved one, divorce, loss of job,
promotion
 Daily Hassles
 rush hour traffic, long lines, job stress,
burnout, AP Psychology…school in general
Stressful Life Events
 Chronic Stress by Age
Stress and the Heart
 Type A
 Friedman and Rosenman’s term for
competitive, hard-driving, impatient,
verbally aggressive, and anger-prone
people
 Type B
 Friedman and Rosenman’s term for
easygoing, relaxed people
 Quiz: Are you Type A or Type B? (14.8)
Personal Factors in
Reactions to Stress
 Gender differences
 Women more likely to have lasting
reactions to traumatic events; at more risk
for exposure
 Marriage and committed relationships have
health benefits
 Social buffer against stress
 Live healthier, longer lives on average
 Loss of spouse affects men more
 Maybe marriage is choice of healthier people
Personal Factors in
Reactions to Stress
 Gender differences
 Fight-or-flight important to both sexes
 Men more likely to use fight-or-flight
response
 Women more likely to tend-and-befriend
 Creates alliances for future if reoccurrence
 Average response to workplace stress
 Mothers more nurturing to children
 Fathers more grouchy or withdrawn
Personal Factors in
Reactions to Stress
 Ethnic differences
 Minority groups experience more stress
 Few advantages and opportunities
 Stressful interactions with majority culture due
to stereotypes, discrimination, prejudice
 Rapid acculturation of immigrant children clash
with family pressures to maintain old culture
(ie: language, customs)
Stress and the Heart
 Coronary Heart Disease
 clogging of the vessels that
nourish the heart muscle
 leading cause of death in many
developed countries
Stress and the Heart
Hopelessness
scores
3.5
3
Men who feel extreme hopelessness
are at greater risk for heart attacks
and early death
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Heart attack
Low risk
Death
Moderate risk
High risk
Stress and the Heart
Stress and Disease
 Psychophysiological Illness
 Psychosomatic
 “mind-body” illness
 any stress-related physical illness
 some forms of hypertension
 some headaches
 distinct from hypochondriasis-misinterpreting normal physical
sensations as symptoms of a disease
Stress and the
Immune System
 Lymphocytes
 two types of white blood cells that are
part of the body’s immune system
 B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow
and release antibodies that fight bacterial
infections
 T lymphocytes form in the thymus and,
among other duties, attack cancer cells,
viruses, and foreign substances
Stress and the
Immune System
 Stress does not directly cause disease
 When energy is diverted from immune system
activities and directed toward stress-response
system  vulnerability to infection and
disease increases
 Acceleration of AIDS
 Rapid spread of cancerous cells
Stress and Disease
 Negative emotions and health-related consequences
 Mind and body interact; everything psychological is
simultaneously physiological
Heart
disease
Persistent stressors
and negative
emotions
Unhealthy behaviors
(smoking, drinking,
poor nutrition and sleep)
Release of stress
hormones
Immune
suppression
Autonomic nervous
system effects
(headaches,
hypertension)
Promoting Health
 Coping with stress
 Problem-focused coping: when we feel a
sense of control and think we can change the
situation
 Change the stressor or the way we interact with
that stressor
 Emotion-focused coping: when we feel we
have no or little control over the situation
 Avoid or ignore a stressor
 Meet emotional needs
Perceived Control
 Health consequences of a loss of
control
 Higher than normal susceptibility to
infections, cardiovascular disease, and
possibly, a shorter life span
 Diminished immune system responses
Explanatory style
 Optimists, more than pessimists, feel they
have more control over stressor





Cope better with stressors
Better moods
Stronger immune systems
Live longer
Laugh more, less sarcastic
Promoting Health
 Modifying Type A life-style can reduce
recurrence of heart attacks
Percentage 6
of patients
with recurrent 5
heart attacks
(cumulative 4
average)
3
Control patients
Modifying life-style
reduced recurrent
heart attacks
2
Life-style modification patients
1
0
1978
1979
1980
Year
1981
1982
Social Support
 Supportive family members, friends,
companionable pets help people cope
with stress
 Fosters stronger immune systems
 Lowers blood pressure
 Nursing homes
 Therapy pets
 People feel loss of control, die sooner
Promoting Health
 Social support across the life span
Percentage
with high
support 100%
90
80
70
60
50
12-14
18-19
15-17
25-34
20-24
45-54
35-44
Age in years
65-74
55-64
75+
Promoting Health
Depression 14
score 13
No-treatment
group
12
11
10
Relaxation
treatment
group
9
8
7
6
Aerobic
exercise
group
5
4
3
Before treatment
evaluation
After treatment
evaluation
 Aerobic Exercise
 sustained
exercise that
increases heart
and lung fitness
Promoting Health
 Biofeedback
 system for
electronically
recording,
amplifying, and
feeding back
information
regarding a subtle
physiological state
 blood pressure
 muscle tension
Life events
Personal appraisal
Challenge
Threat
Personality type
Hostile
Depressed
Pessimistic
Easy going
Non depressed
Optimistic
Personality habits
Smoking
Sedentary
Poor nutrition
Nonsmoking
Regular exercise
Good nutrition
Level of social support
Close, enduring
Lacking
Tendency toward
Health
Illness
Promoting Health
 Predictors of mortality
1
Relative
risk 0.8
of dying
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Not smoking Regular exercise Weekly religious
attendance
Women
Men
Promoting Health
 Religious Attendance
Promoting Health
 The religion factor is multidimensional
Healthy
behaviors
(less smoking,
drinking)
Religious
involvement
Social support
(faith
communities,
marriage)
Positive
emotions
(less stress,
anxiety)
Better health
(less immune system
suppression, stress
hormones, and suicide)
Promoting Health
 Complementary and Alternative
Medicine
 unproven health care treatments not
taught widely in medical schools, not
used in hospitals, and not usually
reimbursed by insurance companies
Subfields of Alternative Medicine
Alternative systems of
medical practice
Health care ranging from self-care according to folk principles,
to care rendered in an organized health care system based on
alternative traditions or practices
Bioelectromagnetic
applications
The study of how living organisms interact with electromagnetic
(EM) fields
Diet, nutrition,
life-style changes
The knowledge of how to prevent illness, maintain health, and
reverse the effects of chronic disease through dietary or
nutritional intervention
Herbal medicine
Employing plan and plant products from folk medicine traditions
for pharmacological use
Manual healing
Using touch and manipulation with the hands as a diagnostic
and therapeutic tool
Mind-body control
Exploring the mind’s capacity to affect the body, based on
traditional medical systems that make use of the interconnectedness of mind and body
Pharmacological and
biological treatments
Drugs and vaccines not yet accepted by mainstream medicine