1. Ch. 15 – Stress
and Health
Section 1 –
Sources of Stress

2. Stress
• Stress- a person’s reaction to his or her
inability to cope with a certain tense event or
situation.

3. Science of Stress – 3:33

4. Components of Stress
• Stressor- a stress- producing event or situation
• Stress Reaction - the body’s response to a
stressor
• Distress - stress that stems from acute anxiety
or pressure
• Eustress - positive stress, which results from
motivating strivings and challenges

6. Conflict Situation - when a person must
choose between two or more options that
tend to result from opposing motives

7. Appraising a Stressful Situation
• Primary Appraisal – immediate evaluation of a
situation – irrelevant, positive, negative
• Secondary Appraisal – pick coping strategy

8. Appraising Stress – 10 min

9. Cell Phone – WWYD – 6min

10. Environmental Stressors – an external form of a
stressor that you are exposed to…
• Crowd Noise
• Crowding
• Smell
• Light Pollution

11. Life Changes and Stress

12. Hassles – small
annoyances that
if isolated will
not produce
significant stress

13. Section 2 – Reactions to Stress
• Stress will be reacted to if intense/prolonged
• Nature vs. Nurture
• Varies by person/culture

14. Fight or Flight – the bodies default response to a
perceived threat or danger
• Autonomic Nervous System – controls this
• Sympathetic (speeds up)
• Parasympathetic – slows down

15. General Adaptation Syndrome
• Information

16. Emotional and
Cognitive
Responses
• Short-term psychological stress reactions
• Anxiety – vague, generalized apprehension or
feelings of danger
• Anger – irate reaction likely to result from
frustration
• Fear – usual reaction when a stressor involves
real or imagined danger

17. Behavioral
Reactions
• Maladaptive coping – behaviors such as using
alcohol and drugs to escape problems.
• Adaptive coping – involves direct
confrontation of problems, realistic
appraisals, recognizing and modifying
unhealthy responses

18. Physical Reactions
• General Adaptation Syndrome, Autonomic NS

19. Factors Influencing Reactions to Stress
• Personality, Perceived Control, Social Support

20. Personality Differences
• Type A vs. Type B
• Emotional
Expressiveness
• Internalize or
externalize stress

21. Perceived Control over Stressors
• Predictable Stress better than Unpredictable
• Effect on Jobs – employees need to believe
they have a say in what is going on
• W.I. Thomas Theorem - What is perceived as
real is real in its consequences

22. Social Support
• Information

23. Social Support
• Emotional – concerned listening/affection
• Appraisal – Interactive, sort out (Socratic Method)
• Informational – stressed person responds/solutions
• Instrumental – direct help (money, bed, car, etc…)

24. Section 3 – Coping with Stress

25. Psychological Coping Strategies
• Cognitive Appraisal –
interpreting event 
determine stress
impact

26. Defensive Coping Strategies
• Denial - a coping mechanism in which a person
decides that the event is not really a stressor
• Intellectualization - a coping mechanism in which
the person analyzes a situation from an
emotionally detached viewpoint.

27. Active Coping Strategies
• Doing something to fix, deal with or avoid a
stressful situation (Adaptive Coping if
positive, maladaptive coping if negative)

28. Hardiness – ability to not give up
• Traits  Control, Commitment, Challenge

29. Controlling Stressful Situations
Escape/Withdrawal  Controlling Exposure to
Stressors
Problem Solving
• Confronting situation head
on/rational analysis
• Leads to decision making

30. Explanatory Style
• Optimists – people who see the
circumstances they are in positively
• Pessimists – people who see the
circumstances they are in negatively
• Seligman  Baseball Players –
analyzed post game comments, coded
them  optimists lived longer

31. Relaxation
• Control Physiological
Responses to Stress

32. Progressive Relaxation
• Lying down, tensing and relaxing each muscle

33. Meditation
• Focusing attention to clear mind = inner peace

34. Biofeedback
• Learning to control bodily states with machines

35. Humor

36. Exercise
• Adrenalin and
Cortisol …Fight or
Flight

37. Support Groups/Professional Help
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• Weight Watchers
• Accountability Groups

38. Training
• Practicing
speaking, playing
golf, mock interviews

39. Improving Interpersonal Skills

40. Section 4 – Stress in Your Life

41. Autonomy
• Ability to take care of
oneself and make one’s
own decisions
• Decisions, value
system, worldview, respo
nsibility, etc…

42. Choosing College
• “College Shock”
• Peter Madison
(1969)
• College students
 high/unrealistic
expectations
initially

43. Sources of Change (in college)
• Challenge Identity
• Greater Diversity
• Developmental
Friendships

44. Developmental Friendships
• Friends force on another to reexamine their
basic assumptions and perhaps adopt new
ideas and beliefs.
• Ex.  Eric and Samir

45. Coping with Change
• Focusing on goals, work harder through doubt
• Going through motions

46. Resynthesis
• Combining old ideas with new ones and
reorganizing feelings in order to renew one’s
identity.
• Resynthesis (example  changing majors
many times)

47. Working
• Variety of Challenges, Rewards in Working

48. Work Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction
• 5 Major Sources of Work Satisfaction
1. Resources – tools to do the job well
2. $$$ - includes income, benefits, security
3. Challenge
4. Relations with coworkers
5. Comfort (conditions, commute, physical
aspects)

49. Changing Careers
• Retire then start new career
• Good economy = less satisfaction = more change
• Bad economy = more satisfaction = less change

50. Careers
• A vocation in which a person works at least a few years

51. Comparable Worth
• the concept that women
and men (and all people)
should receive equal pay
for jobs calling for
comparable skill and
responsibility.
• People (consciously or
unconsciously) compare
their career to others
• Can be a source of great
dissatisfaction