1. Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)
Chapter 14
Stress and Health
James A. McCubbin, PhD
Clemson University
Worth Publishers

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

3. Stress and Illness
 Leading causes of death in the US in 1900
and 2000

4. Stress and Illness
 Stress
 the process by
which we
perceive and
respond to
certain events,
called stressors,
that we appraise
as threatening or
challenging

5. Stress Appraisal
Appraisal Response
Threat
(“Yikes! This is Panic, freeze up
beyond me!”)
Stressful event
(tough math test)
Challenge
(“I’ve got to apply Aroused, focused
all I know”)

6. Cerebral cortex
(perceives stressor)
Thalamus Pituitary hormone in the
bloodstream stimulates
Hypothalamus 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

7. Stress and Illness
The body’s resistance to stress can
last only so long before exhaustion sets in  General
Adaptation
Syndrome
Stress
resistance  Selye’s concept
of the body’s
Stressor
occurs
adaptive
response to
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 stress in three
Alarm
reaction
Resistance
(cope with
Exhaustion
(reserves stages
(mobilize stressor) depleted)
resources)

8. 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

9. Stressful Life Events
 Chronic Stress by Age

10. Perceived Control
 Health consequences of a loss of control
“Executive” rat “Subordinate” rat Control rat
To shock control To shock source No connection
to shock source

11. Perceived Control
 Equality and Longevity

12. Stress and the Heart
 Coronary Heart Disease
 clogging of the vessels that
nourish the heart muscle
 leading cause of death in many
developed countries

13. Stress and the Heart
Hopelessness 3.5
scores Men who feel extreme hopelessness
3 are at greater risk for heart attacks
and early death
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Heart attack Death
Low risk Moderate risk High risk

14. 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

15. Stress and the Heart

16. Stress and Disease
 Psychophysiological Illness
 “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

17. Stress and Disease
 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

18. Stress and Disease
UCS
(drug)  Conditioning of
UCR
(immune immune
suppression) suppression
CS UCS
(sweetened (drug)
water)
UCR
(immune
CS suppression)
(sweetened
water) CR
(immune
suppression)

19. Stress and Disease
 Negative emotions and health-related
consequences
Heart
disease
Persistent stressors
Release of stress Immune
and negative
hormones suppression
emotions
Unhealthy behaviors Autonomic nervous
system effects
(smoking, drinking, (headaches,
poor nutrition and sleep) hypertension)

20. Promoting Health
 Aerobic Exercise
Depression 14
No-treatment
score group
13
 sustained
12
11
10
9
Relaxation
treatment
exercise that
8
Aerobic
group
increases heart
7
6
exercise
group and lung fitness
5
4
3 Before treatment After treatment
evaluation evaluation

21. Promoting Health
 Biofeedback
 system for
electronically
recording,
amplifying, and
feeding back
information
regarding a subtle
physiological state
 blood pressure
 muscle tension

22. Promoting Health
 Modifying Type A life-style can reduce
recurrence of heart attacks
Percentage 6
of patients Control patients
with recurrent 5 Modifying life-style
heart attacks reduced recurrent
(cumulative 4 heart attacks
average)
3
2
Life-style modification patients
1
0
1978 1979 1980 1981 1982
Year

23. Promoting Health
 Social support across the life span
Percentage
with high
support 100%
90
80
70
60
50
12-14 18-19 25-34 45-54 65-74
15-17 20-24 35-44 55-64 75+
Age in years

24. Life events
Personal appraisal
Challenge Threat
Personality type
Easy going Hostile
Nondepressed Depressed
Optimistic Pessimistic
Personality habits
Nonsmoking Smoking
Regular exercise Sedentary
Good nutrition Poor nutrition
Level of social support
Close, enduring Lacking
Tendency toward
Health Illness

25. 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
Men Women

26. Promoting Health
 Religious Attendance

27. Promoting Health
 The religion factor is mulitidimensional
Healthy
behaviors
(less smoking,
drinking)
Social support Better health
Religious (faith (less immune system
involvement communities, suppression, stress
marriage) hormones, and suicide)
Positive
emotions
(less stress,
anxiety)

28. 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

29. Subfields of Alternative Medicine
Alternative systems of Health care ranging from self-care according to folk principles,
medical practice to care rendered in an organized health care system based on
alternative traditions or practices
Bioelectromagnetic The study of how living organisms interact with electromagnetic
applications (EM) fields
Diet, nutrition, The knowledge of how to prevent illness, maintain health, and
life-style changes 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 interconnected-
ness of mind and body
Pharmacological and Drugs and vaccines not yet accepted by mainstream medicine
biological treatments

30. Promoting Health
 Smoking-related early deaths
40,000
Number
33,348
of deaths
per 100,000 30,000
20,000
10,000
0
1,686 1,135 556 202
Smoking Suicide Vehicle HIV/ Homicide
crash AIDS
Cause of death

31. The
Physiological
Effects of
Nicotine

32. Promoting Health
 Fewer Canadian smokers
60%
Percentage Males
of Canadians 50
smoking
40
Females
30
20
10
0
1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994- 1996-
1995 1997
Year

33. Smoking Prevention
 U.S. teen smoking

34. Smoking Prevention
 Results of a smoking inoculation program
Percentage 20
of students
who smoke 15
Control school Fewer teens took up
10
smoking when “inoculated”
against it
5
0 School with smoking
Prevention program
0 4 9 12 16 21 33
Seventh grade Eighth grade Ninth grade
Months of study

35. Obesity and Weight
Control
 Obesity and
body mass
index

36. Obesity and Weight
Control
 Obesity and mortality
2.8
Relative
2.6
risk of
2.4
death
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
18.5 18.5- 20.5- 22.0- 23.5- 25.0- 26.5- 28.0- 30.0- 32.0- 35.0- 40
20.4 21.9 23.4 24.9 26.4 27.9 29.9 31.9 34.9 39.9
Body-mass index (BM I)
Men Women

37. Weight Discrimination
7
6
Willingness  When women
to hire scale
(from1:
5
applicants were
definitely
not hire to
4 made to look
7: definitely 3 overweight,
hire)
subjects were less
2
willing to hire
1
0
Women Men
Normal Overweight

38. Weight Control
 Effects of a severe diet
Metabolism:
Caloric Body Oxygen
intake weight consumption
in in in liters
calories kilograms per hour
per day 165 26
3000
160 25
2000 155 24
150 23
1000
145 22
0 140 21
8 16 24 32 8 16 24 32 8 16 24 32
Days Days Days

39. Weight Control
 Trading risks

40. Weight Control
 Thinning of Miss America

41. Weight Control
10
Weight 5 Starting
point
 Most lost
change
in pounds 0
Normal trend for untreated obese
weight is
people: Gradually rising weight regained
-5
-10
-15 After participation in behavioral
Program: Much of initial weight
loss regained
-20
Post
treatment 1 2 3 4 5
Years of follow-up

42. Weight Control
Skinfold fat  Obesity was
measure (mm) 32
more
30
common
28 among those
26 who watched
24 the most
22
television
20
<2 2-3 >4
Hours of television watched per day
in 1990s study
Boys Girls