1. Chapter 11
Stress,
Health, and
Human
Flourishing
PowerPoint®
Presentation
by Jim Foley

2. Stress and Health
Topics that hopefully won’t become stressors
 Stress: a Process of perceiving and responding to stressors
 Stressors:
 Catastrophes,
 Life Changes,
 Daily Hassles
 The stress response system: General Adaptation Syndrome
Psychoneuroimmunology:
 Stress and Illness
 Stress and AIDS, cancer, Heart Disease
 Personality Factors and stress: Type A, pessimism
 The role of hormones and inflammation

3. Health Psychology
 Emotions, as well as
personality, attitudes,
behaviors, and
responses to stress,
can have an impact on
our overall health.
 Health psychology
studies these impacts,
as part of the broader
field of behavioral
medicine.
 Topics of study in
health psychology
include:
 the phases of stress response
and adaptation
 how stress and health are
affected by
• appraisal of stressors
• severity of stressors
• personality types
• perceived control
• emotion or problem focus
• optimism
• social support
• exercise
• relaxation
• religious faith and
participation

4. Stress: A Focus of Health Psychology
 Many people report being affected by “stress.”
 Some terms psychologists use to talk about stress:
 a stressor is an event or condition
which we view as
threatening, challenging, or
overwhelming.
 Examples include poverty, an
explosion, a psychology
test, feeling cold, being in a
plane, and loud noises.
 appraisal refers to deciding whether
to view something as a stressor.
 stress reaction refers to any
emotional and physical responses to
the stressor such as rapid
Stress refers to the
process of appraising
and responding to
events which we
consider threatening
or challenging.

5. Clarifying the Components of Stress
 Stress isn’t something
that happens to you; it’s a
process in which you
participate.
 The process includes the
stressor (event or
condition), cognitive
appraisal, body response,
and coping strategies.
 The advantage of
breaking “stress” into
these components is that
we can see options for
altering each of these
different factors.
What could this
person do to
reduce his level
of suffering from
stress?

6. Appraisal:
Choosing How to View a Situation
Questions to ask yourself when facing a
possible stressor:
Is this a challenge, and will I tackle it?
Is it overwhelming, and will I give up?
There are few
conditions* that are
inherently and
universally stressful;
we can often choose
our appraisal and
our responses.
*extreme, chronic
physical threats or
challenges (such
as noise or
starvation)

7. Beneficial and Harmful Stress Effects
A brief experience of stress can be beneficial:
 improving immune system response
 motivating action
 focusing priorities
 feeling engaged, energized, and satisfied
 providing challenges that encourage growth,
knowledge, and self-esteem
Extreme or prolonged stress, causes problems:
 mental and physical coping systems become
overwhelmed and defeated rather than strengthened
 immune functioning and other health factors decline
because of damage
The key factor is whether there is a
chance for recovery and healing.

8. Stressors
There may be a spectrum of
levels of intensity and
persistence of stressors.
We can also see stressors as
falling into one of four*
categories:
 catastrophes.
 significant life changes.
 chronic daily hassles.
 low social status/power.
*the text focuses on the
first three.
Stressors refer to the events
and conditions that trigger
our stress response, because
they are perceived/ appraised
as overwhelmingly
challenging, threatening, and/
or harmful.

9. Catastrophic Events/Conditions
 Appraisal is not essential in a
catastrophic event. Most
people agree that the event is
harmful and overwhelming.
 Examples include
earthquakes, floods, hurricane
s, war/combat, and wildfires.
 It can be one single event or
chronic harmful conditions.
 Short-term effects include
increased heart attacks
on the day of the event.
 Long term effects include
depression, nightmares, a
nxiety, and flashbacks.
 Bonding: both the trauma
and the recovery are
shared with others.

10. Major Life Events/Changes
 Even supposedly “happy” life changes, such as
marriage, starting college or a new job, or the birth or adoption
of a child, can bring increased challenge and stress.
 Change is often challenging.
 New roles, new priorities, and new tasks can put a strain on
our coping resources.
 The challenge, and the negative impact on health, increases
when:
 the changes are painful, such as a death in family, loss of
job, or heart attack.
 the changes are in a cluster, and there are too many at once.

11. Chronic Daily Difficulties
Daily difficulties can be
caused by facing too many
tasks, too little time, and too
little control.
Daily difficulties can be
caused by the lack of social
power and freedom:
 being bullied
 living in poverty
 living under oppressive
political conditions

12. The Body’s Stress Response System
When encountering a sudden trauma or other stressor, our
body acts to increase our resistance to threat and harm.
Phase 1: The “fight or flight”
sympathetic nervous system
responds, reducing pain and
increasing the heart rate.
The core of the adrenal glands
produces norepinephrine and
epinephrine (adrenaline).
This system, identified by
Walter Cannon (18711945), gives us energy to act.
Phase 2: The brain sends
signals to the outer part of the
adrenal glands to produce
cortisol and other stress
hormones. These focus us on
planning adaptive coping
strategies and resisting defeat
by the stressor.
Hans Selye (1907-1982)
indentified this extended
“resistance” phase of the
stress response, followed by:
Phase 3: Exhaustion.

13. General Adaptation Syndrome [GAS]
(Identified by Hans Selye):
Our stress response system defends, then fatigues.

14. Effects of Prolonged Stress
 The General Adaptation Syndrome
[GAS] works well for single
exposures to stress.
 Repeated and prolonged
stress, with too much Phase 3
time, leads to various signs of
physical deterioration and
premature aging:
 the production of new neurons
declines
 neural circuits in the brain break
down
 DNA telomeres (chromosome
tips) shorten,  cells lose ability
to divide,  cells die,  tissue
stops regenerating,  early
aging and death

15. Female and Male Stress Response
 In response to a stressor such
as the death of a loved
one, women may “tend and
befriend”: nurture themselves
and others, and bond together.
 The bonding hormone
oxytocin may play a role in this
bonding.
 Women show behavioral and
neurological signs of becoming
more empathetic under stress.
 Men under stress are more
likely to socially withdraw and
numb themselves with
alcohol.
 Men are also more likely to
become aggressive under
stress.
 In either case, men’s behavior
and brains show LESS
empathy and less tuning in to
others under stress.

16. Studying the Stress-Illness Relationship
 How does stress increase our
risk of disease?
 This is the subject of a new field
of study:
psychoneuroimmunology, the
study of how interacting
psychological, neural, and
endocrine processes affect
health.
 Psychologists no longer use the
term “psychosomatic” because it
has come to mean an imagined
illness.
 We now refer to
psychophysiological illness, a
real illness caused in part by
psychological factors such as the
experience of stress.

17. How the
immune
system
works, befor
e stress
plays a role:

18. Stressors
Stress Increases
The Risk of Illness
Here we see psychoneuroimmunology in action:
 psychological factors, such as
appraisal, thoughts, and
feelings.
 neurological factors, such as
brain signals engaging the
stress response system.
 immunology, such as stress
hormone exposure which
suppresses the immune
system.
Appraisal
Thoughts
Feelings
Brain signals
Hormonal action
Immune
suppression
Risk of illness

19. Psychoneuroimmunology Example:
The Impact of Stress on Catching a Cold
In a group
exposed to
germs, those
experiencing
stress were
more likely to
catch a cold.
This tradeoff between
stress response and
immune response may
help our bodies focus
energy on managing
stress.

20. Stress, AIDS, and Cancer
AIDS = Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome
Cancer: the stress link is
not as clear
 Because the stress response  Stress may weaken the
suppresses the immune
body’s defenses against
response, exposure to
the replication and
stress obviously worsens
spread of malignant cells.
the development of AIDS in
those exposed to HIV.
 Reducing stress slows the
progression of AIDS.
This does NOT mean that stress
causes cancer or AIDS.

21. Stress and Heart Disease
In coronary heart/artery disease, the
blood vessels that provide oxygen and
nutrients to the heart muscle itself
become clogged, narrowed, and closed.
Clogging of the coronary artery
Many factors contribute
to heart disease.
 Biological: genetic
predisposition to high
blood pressure and
high cholesterol
 Behavioral: smoking,
inactivity, and high-fat
diet
 Psychological: chronic
stress, and personality
styles that worsen the
experience of stress

22. Type A PersonalityStressHeart Disease
 People with a type A
personality are
impatient, verbally
aggressive, and always
pushing themselves and
others to achieve.
 People with a type B
personality are more
relaxed and go with the
flow.
 In one study, heart attacks
ONLY struck people with
Type A traits.
 Accomplishing goals is
healthy, but a compulsion
to always be working, with
little time spent “smelling
the flowers,” is not.
Also a problem: ANGER.
To reduce anger-related stress:
defuse anger with exercise,
talking, forgiveness, NOT
“letting it out” (catharsis) by
screaming, punching.

23. Pessimism and Heart Disease
It can be helpful
to realistically
anticipate
negative events
that may happen,
and to plan how
to prevent or
cope with them.
Pessimism refers to the
assumption that
negative outcomes will
happen, and often facing
them by complaining
and/or giving up.
Men who are generally
pessimistic are more
likely to develop heart
disease within ten years
than optimists.

24. Depression and Heart Disease
 Why does depression
appear so often with
heart disease? Does one
cause the other?
 One possible answer is
that the two problems
are both caused by
chronic stress.
 There may be an
intervening variable:
excessive inflammation.

25. Health Consequences of Chronic Stress:
The Repeated Release of Stress Hormones
 The stress hormone cortisol
helps our bodies respond to
brief stress.
 Chronically high cortisol levels
damage the body.

26. Coping with Stress
and Promoting Health
How to go from coping to
thriving
 Problem-focused and
emotion-focused coping
 Perceived control and
learned helplessness
 Benefits of Optimism, Social
support
 Reducing stress effects with
Aerobic Exercise
 The power of Faith
communities
 Complementary and
Alternative Medicine

27. Promoting Health
Some ways to
reduce the health
effects of stress
include:
 address the
stressors.
 soothe
emotions.
 increase one’s
sense of control
over stressors.
 exchange
optimism for
pessimism.
 get social
support.
Ways that help some people to reduce
levels of stress, and to improve health:
 aerobic exercise
 relaxation and meditation
 participation in communities of faith
 alternative medicine

28. Coping with Stress
Problem-focused coping
means reducing the
stressors, such as by
working out a conflict, or
tackling a difficult
project.
 Risk: magnifying
emotional
distress, especially if
trying to change
something that’s difficult
to change (e.g. another
person’s traits).
Emotion-focused coping
means reducing the
emotional impact of
stress by getting
support, comfort, and
perspective from others.
 Risk: ignoring the
problem.
 We might focus on this
style of coping when we
perceive the stressor as
something we cannot
change.

29. Learned Helplessness vs.
Personal Control
Experiment by
Martin Seligman:
Give a dog no
chance of escape
from repeated
shocks.
Result: It will give
up on trying to
escape pain, even
when it later has
the option to do
so.
Normally, most creatures
try to escape or end a
painful situation. But
experience can make us
lose hope.
Learned
Helplessness:
Declining to help
oneself after
repeated
attempts to do so
have failed.
Personal Control:
When people are
given some choices
(not too many), they
thrive.

30. Stress factor: Perceived Level of Control
Experiment: the left and middle rats below
received shocks. The rat on the left was able to
turn off the shocks for both rats. Which rat had
the worst stress and health problems?
 Only the
middle,
subordinate
rat had
increased
ulcers.
 It is not the
level of shock,
but the level
of control
over the
shock, which
created
stress.

31. External vs. Internal Locus of Control
Locus of control: Our perception of where the seat of
power over our lives is located.
Internal locus of control: we
feel that we are in charge of
ourselves and our
circumstances.
Too much internal locus of
control: We blame ourselves
for bad events, or have the
illusion that we have the
power to prevent bad events.
External locus of control:
we picture that a force
outside of ourselves controls
our fate.
Too much external locus of
control: We lose initiative,
lose motivation to achieve,
have more anxiety about
what might happen to us,
don’t bother developing
willpower.

32. Self-Control: Resource, Skill, Trait
 The ability to control impulses and
delay gratification, sometimes called
“willpower”
 This is a finite resource, an expenditure
of brain energy, which is replenished
but can be depleted short-term:
People asked to resist eating cookies
later gave up sooner on a tedious task
 With practice, we can improve our selfcontrol
 There seem to be individual
differences in this trait in childhood
 The Marshmallow study: Kids who
resisted the temptation to eat
marshmallows later had more success
in school and socially

33. Optimism vs. Pessimism
We can be optimistic or pessimistic
in various ways:
 Prediction: We can expect the
best or the worst. At the
extremes, we can get ourselves
overconfident or simply depressed
or anxious about the future.
 Focus of attention: We can focus
on what we have (half full) or what
we don’t have (empty).
 Attribution of intent: We can assume that people meant to
hurt us or that they were having a bad day.
 Valuation: We can assume that we or others are useless, or
that we are lovable, valuable.
 Potential for change: We can assume that bad things can’t be
changed, or have hope.

34. Excessive
Pessimism
I can’t do it, might as
well forget it.
vs.
Realism
It might be hard; I’d
better plan.
Excessive
Optimism
It will be easy, I
won’t think about
it.
I’m trapped, can’t
get out of this
I want to make
changes or get
out.
Someone will
rescue me.
That person hates
me, he is against
me.
I should ask what
he feels about me,
what he wants.
I’m sure he just
wants what’s best
for me, I’ll trust
him.
Excessive pessimism can leave us depressed, inactive.
Excessive optimism can leave us unprepared, unsafe.

35. Promoting Health: Social Support
 Having close relationships is
associated with improved
health, immune functioning, and
longevity.
 Social support, including from
pets, provides a calming effect that
reduces blood pressure and stress
hormones.
 Confiding in others helps manage
painful feelings.
 Laughter helps too.
“Well, I think you’re wonderful.”

36. Aerobic Exercise and Health
 Aerobic exercise triggers certain
Aerobic exercise refers
genes to produce proteins which
to sustained activity that
guard against more than 20
raises heart rate and
chronic diseases and conditions.
oxygen consumption.
 Aerobic exercise reduces the risk
of heart disease, cognitive
decline and dementia, and early
death.
Ultimate (Frisbee): you must run
often to “get open” for a pass, then
run more to cover the other team
and block their passes.

37. Aerobic Exercise and Mental Health
 Aerobic exercise reduces
depression and anxiety, and
improves management of
stress. How do we know?
 Aerobic exercise is correlated
with high confidence, vitality,
and energy, and good mood.
 Is there causation? Perhaps
depression simply reduces
exercise.
 One study establishing
causation: mildly depressed
young women randomly
assigned to an exercise group
showed reduced depression
caused by exercise alone.

38. Lifestyle Modification
 In one study, a control group was given
diet, medication, and exercise advice.
 An experimental group practiced lifestyle
modification, a plan to slow down the pace of one’s
life, accept imperfection, and renew faith.
Result: modifying
lifestyle led to
reduced heart
attack rates.

39. Relaxation and Meditation
 Use of relaxation techniques can
reduce headaches, high blood
pressure, anxiety, and insomnia,
and improve immune functioning.
 People who meditate can learn to
create a relaxation response:
relaxed muscles, lower blood
pressure, and slowed heart rate
and breathing.
 Meditation also increases brain
activity associated with positive
emotions.
 Steps to get the relaxation
response: focus attention on
breathing, a focus word, and
relaxing muscles from toes
upward.

40. Faith Communities and Health
While attendance at religious services may not directly save lives, it
may make other healthy practices more likely.
Religious
attendance seems
to have
results, especially
for
men, comparable
to the benefit of
physically healthy
lifestyle choices.

41. Faith Communities and Health:
Intervening Factors
The health impact of religious involvement may be indirect.
Health may improve because of the lifestyle and emotional
factors associated with religious involvement, and not [just]
the faith.

42. Closer Look at a Particular Emotion: Happiness
Happiness is:
 a mood.
 an attitude.
 a social phenomenon.
 a cognitive filter.
 a way to stay hopeful,
motivated, and connected to
others.
The feel-good, do-good
phenomenon: when in a good
mood, we do more for others.
The reverse is also true: doing
good feels good.

43. A More Positive Psychology
 Martin Seligman, who earlier
kept dogs from escaping his
shocks until they developed
learned helplessness.
 Developed Positive
Psychology, the “scientific study
of optimal human functioning,”
finding ways to help people
thrive.
 Focus: building
strengths, virtue, emotional wellbeing, resilience, optimism, sens
Three
e of meaning. pillars of Positive Psychology:
1. Emotions, e.g. engagement
2. Character, e.g. courage
3. Groups, Culture, Institutions

44. Over the Course of a Week
Happiness
has its ups
and downs.
Levels of
happiness, as
well as other
emotions, can
vary over the
course of a week
(we like the
weekend), and
even over the
course of a day
(don’t stay awake
too long!).
Over the Course of a Day

45. Wealth and Well-Being:
A Change in Goals
 In the late 1960s, students entering college had a primary
goal of developing a meaningful life philosophy.
 Since 1977, being very well-off financially has become
more of a primary goal for first year students.

46. Can Money Buy Happiness?
Money seems to buy
happiness when it lifts
people out of extreme
poverty. Otherwise, money
doesn’t seem to help our
mood much.
1. The average level of
income (adjusted for
inflation) and
purchasing power has
increased in the United
States.
2. The percentage of
people feeling very
happy, though, has not
followed the same
trend of improvement.

47. Adaptation-Level Phenomenon
 When we step into the sunshine, it seems very bright at
first. Then our senses adapt and we develop a “new
normal.” If a cloud covers the sun, it may seem “dark” in
comparison.
 The “very bright” sensation is temporary.
 The adaptation-level phenomenon: when our wealth or
other life conditions improve, we are happier compared to
our past condition.
 However, then we adapt, form a “new normal” level, and
most people must get another boost to feel the same
satisfaction.

48. Adapting Attitudes
Instead of Circumstances
 Because of the adaptation-level phenomenon, our level of
contentment does not permanently stay higher when we gain
income and wealth; we keep adjusting our expectations.
 It is also true that misfortune, disability, and loss do not
result in a permanent decrease in happiness.
 In both cases, humans tend to adapt.

49. Relative Deprivation
 If the average income has risen by
10 percent in your area, it might be
hard to feel great about a 5 percent
rise in your income because of
 People who were satisfied with their
own lives might become less
satisfied if other people get more
power, recognition, and income.
 We can affect our happiness by
choosing the people to whom we
compare ourselves.
 However, the tendency is to
compare ourselves to people who
are more successful.
Relative
deprivation:
feeling
worse off by
comparing
yourself to
people who
are doing
better.

50. Correlates of Happiness
There are behaviors that seem to go with
happiness. Whether they are the cause or the
effect of happiness is not clear, but it can’t
hurt to try them.
Researchers have found that happy
people tend to:






Happiness seems not much
related to other factors:
Have high self-esteem (in individualistic  Age (example: the woman at
countries)
the laptop in the picture)
Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable  Gender (women are more
Have close friendships or a satisfying
often depressed, but also
marriage
Have work and leisure that engage their
more often joyful)
skills
 Parenthood (having children
Have an active religious faith
or not)
Sleep well and exercise
 Physical attractiveness
There also may be a genetic basis for a predisposition to happiness.
Whether because of genes, culture, or personal history, we each
seem to develop a mood “set point,” a level of happiness to which we
keep returning.

51. Possible Ways to
Increase Your Chances
at Happiness
 Look beyond wealth for satisfaction.
 Bring your habits in line with your goals; take control
of your time.
 Smile and act happy.
 Find work and leisure that engages your skills.
 Exercise, or just move!
 Focus on the needs and wishes of others.
 Work, rest, …and SLEEP.
 Notice what goes well, and express gratitude.
 Nurture spirituality, meaning, and community.
 Make your close relationships a priority.