Stress and its effects

Adjustment in the 21st CenturyDr. Mehran Rostamzadeh

INTI International UniversityNilai ,2015

Psychology Applied to Modern LifeChapter 3

Learning Outcomes

● Describe the experience of stress in everyday life, and distinguish between primary and secondary appraisals of stress.

● Summarize the evidence on ambient stress, ethnicity-related stress, and acculturation stress.

The Nature of Stress• Stress is a part of everyday life. Indeed, a poll by the American Psychological Association (2010) shows that, for

many of us, stress levels are high and are on the rise.• One third of Americans surveyed reported “living with extreme stress,” and nearly half believed that their stress

had “increased over the past 5 years.”

• It seems that being “stressed out” has become a hallmark of modern life. Catastrophe or traumatic crises such as bombings, floods, earthquakes, and nuclear accidents.

Hassles or everyday events, such as waiting in line, having car trouble, misplacing your keys, and staring at bills you can’t pay, are also stressful.

A major stressful event, such as going through a divorce, And other changes

In fact, according to the national APA (2010) survey, daily problems concerning money, work, and the economy were the top three reported causes of stress.

• Research shows that routine hassles may have significant negative effects on a person’s mental and physical health (Almeida, 2005).

• Why would minor hassles be related to mental health?

• Many theorists believe that stressful events can have a cumulative or additive impact (Seta, Seta, & McElroy, 2002).

• In other words, stress can add up. Routine stressesat home, at school, and at work might be fairly benign individually, but collectively they can create great strain.

•Whatever the reason, it is evident that daily hassles makeimportant contributions to psychological distress (Serido,Almeida, & Wethington, 2004).

• Stress Lies in the Eye of the Beholder

• Not everyone becomes overwhelmed by stress from daily hassles.• Certain personal characteristics such as resilience and optimism

can buffer the distressing effects of daily hassles. • Therefore, individual perceptions are important in how people

experience stress• The experience of feeling threatened depends on what events

you notice and how you choose to interpret or appraise them. • Appraisals account for many of the individual differences in

reactions to potential stressors (Folkman, 2011). Events that are stressful for one person may be routine for another.

• Example, many people find flying in an airplane somewhat stressful, but frequent fliers may not even raise an eyebrow.

Appraisals of stressRichard Lazarus and Susan Folkman (1984) distinguish between primary and secondary appraisal . Primary appraisal is an initial evaluation of whether an event is (1) irrelevant to you, (2) relevant but not threatening, or (3) stressful.

When you view an event as stressful, you are likely to make a secondary appraisal, which is an evaluation of your coping resources and options for dealing with the stress.

People’s appraisals of stressful events alter the impact of the events themselves.

Research has demonstrated that negative interpretations of events are often associated with increased distress surrounding these events.

In fact, when studying a sample of children after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Lengua and her colleagues (2006) found that children’s appraisals of the event predicted their stress symptoms as much as factors such as their coping styles or pre-attack stress loads.

• People are rarely objective in their appraisals of stressful events and their appraisals are highly subjective.

• Clearly, some people are more prone to negative interpretations of life’s difficulties than others are.

• Research shows that anxious, neurotic people are more likely to make threat appraisals as well as to report more negative emotions related to stress than people with less anxiety (Schneider et al., 2012).

• Thus, stress lies in the eye (actually, the mind) of the beholder,

Primary and secondary appraisal of stress.Primary appraisal is an initial evaluation of whether an event is (1) irrelevant to you, (2) relevant but not threatening, or (3) stressful. When you view an event as stressful, you are likely to make a secondary appraisal, which is an evaluation of your coping resources and options for dealing with the stress. (Based on Lazarus & Folkman, 1994)

Stress May Be Embedded in the Environment

• Although the perception of stress is a highly personal matter, many kinds of stress come from the environmental circumstances that individuals share with others.

• Ambient stress consists of chronic environmental conditions that, are negatively valued and place adaptive demands on people.

• Features of the environment such as excessive noise, traffic, and pollution can threaten well-being.

• For example, investigators found an association between chronic exposure to high levels of noise and elevated blood pressure among children attending school near Los Angeles International Airport (Cohen et al., 1980).

• Similarly, studies of children living near Munich International Airport (Evans, Hygge, & Bullinger, 1995) found elevated stress hormones, reading and memory deficits, and poor task persistence in samples of schoolchildren.

1. Crowding is a major source of environmental stress. Even temporary experiences of crowding, such as being packed into a passenger train for a crowded commute, can be stressful (Evans & Wener, 2007).

• Generally, studies suggest an association between high density and increased physiological arousal, psychological distress, and social withdrawal (Evans & Stecker, 2004).

Noise and crowding are not the only environmental factors related to stress. 2. There is considerable evidence that exposure to community violence, whether as a victim or as a witness, is associated with anxiety, depression, anger, and aggression among urban youth (Margolin & Gordis, 2004).

3. investigators have examined poverty as a source of environmental stress.

Children from lower income homes tend to have higher levels of stress hormones than their higher-income peers (Blair et al., 2011).

Poverty related stress takes its toll on both mental and physical health (Chandola & Marmot, 2011).

Studies suggest that some of the link between poverty and poorer adjustment can be explained by perceived social class discrimination (Fuller-Rowell, Evans, & Ong, 2012).

Stress Is Influenced by Culture

• Indeed, culture sets the context in which people experience and appraise stress.

• Social scientists have explored the effects of ethnicity-related sources of stress experienced by African Americans,

Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and other minority groups, and they have documented that racial discrimination negatively affects the mental health and well-being for targets of racism (Brondolo et al., 2011).

• Of all hate crime incidents reported for 2010, 48.2% were motivated by race, and the majority of those were anti-black.

• Everyday discrimination can take many forms; including verbal insults (ethnic slurs),

negative evaluations, avoidance, denial of equal treatment, and threats of aggression.

Feldman-Barrett and Swim (1998) emphasize that these acts of discrimination are often subtle and ambiguous ( e.g., “The clerk seemed to be ignoring me”).

Such perceived discrimination has been linked to greater psychological distress, higher levels of depression, and decreased well-being for a variety of minority groups, including sexual minorities

(Lewis et al., 2006; Moradi & Risco, 2006; Swim, Johnston, & Pearson, 2009).

• For immigrants, acculturation, or changing to adapt to a new culture, is a major source of stress related to reduced well-being.

• Indeed, acculturation stress is associated with depression and anxiety (Revollo et al., 2011).

• Studies show that the discrepancy between what individuals expect before immigrating and what they actually experience once they do immigrate is related to the amount of acculturation stress they report (Negy, Schwartz, & Reig-Ferrer, 2009).

Learning Outcomes

● Distinguish between acute, chronic, and anticipatory stressors.

● Describe frustration, internal conflict, life changes, and pressure as sources of stress in modern life.

Major Sources of Stress• Theorists have tried to analyze the nature of stressful events and divide them

into subtypes.

• One sensible distinction involves differentiating between acute stressors and chronic stressors.

1. Acute stressors are threatening events that have a relatively short duration and a clear endpoint.

• Examples would include having a difficult encounter with a belligerent drunk, waiting for the results of a medical test, or having your home threatened by severe flooding.

2. Chronic stressors are threatening events that have a relatively long duration and no readily apparent time limit.

Examples : ongoing pressures from a hostile boss at work, or the demands of caring for a sick family member over a period of years.

3. Anticipatory stressors: upcoming or future events that are perceived to be threatening.

That is, we anticipate the impact of the event even though it has not happened yet.

Example: we may worry about breakups that never occur, bad grades we never receive, or hurricanes that never make landfall.

The problem with anticipatory stress is that it can affect us psychologically and physically just as strongly as actual stressors do (Sapolsky, 2004).

Let’s take a look at four major sources of stress: frustration, conflict, change, and pressure.

Frustration• “It has been very frustrating to watch the rapid

deterioration of my parents’ relationship.

• Over the last year or two they have argued constantly and have refused to seek any professional help.

• I have tried to talk to them, but they kind of shut me and my brother out of their problem.

• I feel very helpless and sometimes even very angry, not at them, but at the whole situation.”

Frustration• As psychologists use the term, frustration occurs in any situation in which the

pursuit of some goal is thwarted.

• Everyone has to deal with frustration virtually every day. Long daily commutes, traffic jams, and annoying drivers,

for instance, are routine sources of frustration that can produce negative moods and increase levels of stress (Wener & Evans,2011).

• Such frustration often leads to aggression; even artificially induced frustration in a laboratory setting can lead to increased aggression from participants (Verona & Curtin, 2006).

• Some frustrations, such as failures and losses, can be sources of significant stress.

Frustration• Fortunately, most frustrations are brief and insignificant.

• You may be quite upset when you go to the auto shop to pick up your car and find that it hasn’t been fixed as promised.

• However, a few days later you’ll probably have your precious car back, and all will be forgotten.

• More often than not, frustration appears to be the culprit at work when people feel troubled by environmental stress (Graig, 1993).

• Excessive noise, heat, pollution, and crowding are most likely stressful because they frustrate the desire for quiet, a comfortable body temperature, clean air, and adequate privacy.

• Frustration also plays a role in the aggressive behaviors associated with “road rage” (Jovanovic ´, Stanojevic ´, & Stanojevic ´, 2011).

Internal conflict

• internal conflict is an unavoidable feature of everyday life.

• That perplexing question “Should I or shouldn’t I?” comes up countless times on a daily basis.

Internal conflict occurs when two or more incompatible motivations or behavioral impulses compete for expression.

• Sigmund Freud proposed over a century ago that internal conflicts generate considerable psychological distress.

Internal conflict

• This link between conflict and distress was measured with precision in studies by Laura King and Robert Emmons (1990, 1991).

• They found higher levels of conflict to be associated with higher levels of psychological distress.

• Conflicts come in three types, which were originally described by Kurt Lewin (1935) and investigated extensively by Neal Miller (1944, 1959).

• These types—• approach -approach,• avoidance-avoidance, • and approach-avoidance.

approach-approach conflict

• In an approach-approach conflict a choice must be made between two attractive goals.

• The problem, of course, is that you can choose just one of the two goals.

• Example, you have a free afternoon; should you play tennis or go to the movies? Among the three kinds of conflict, the approach-approach type tends to be the least stressful. In approach-approach conflicts you typically have a reasonably happy ending, whichever way you decide to go.

Nonetheless, approach-approach conflicts centering on important issues may sometimes be troublesome.

If you are torn between two appealing college majors or two attractive job offers, you may find the decision-making process quite stressful.

avoidance-avoidance conflict• In an a choice must be made between two unattractive goals.

• Forced to choose between two repelling alternatives, you are, as the expression goes, “caught between a rock and a hard place.”

• Example, let’s say you have painful backaches. Should you submit to surgery that you dread, or should you continue to live with the pain?

• • Obviously, avoidance-avoidance conflicts are most unpleasant

and highly stressful.

• Typically, people keep delaying their decision as long as possible, hoping that they will somehow be able to escape the conflict situation.

• For example, you might delay surgery in the hope that your backacheswill disappear on their own.

approach-avoidance conflict

• A choice must be made about whether to pursue a single goal that has both attractive and unattractive aspects.

• For instance, imagine that you’re offered a job promotion that will mean a large increase in pay. The catch is that you will have to move to a city that you hate.

• Approach-avoidance conflicts are common, and they can be highly stressful.

• Should you risk your savings by investing in a new business that could fail?

Approach-avoidance conflicts often produce vacillation.

• That is, people go back and forth, beset by indecision that can create stress.

• Fortunately we are equipped to focus on the positive aspects of our decision once it has been made (Brehm, 1956).

Life changes• “After graduation, I landed my dream job and moved to another

state.

• For the first time, I am living alone, far away from my friends and family.

• My biggest stress is getting used to my new life. Everything is different.

• I am learning how to do my new job, trying to make friends, and navigating my way around my new city.

I love my job and my new location, but I am having difficulties dealing with all these changes at once.”

Life changes

• Life changes may represent a key type of stress.

• Life changes are any noticeable alterations in one’s living circumstances that require readjustment.

• Research on life change began when Thomas Holmes, Richard Rahe, and their colleagues set out to explore the relation between stressful life events and physical illness (Holmes & Rahe, 1967; Rahe & Arthur, 1978).

• They interviewed thousands of tuberculosis patients to find out what kinds of events preceded the onset of their disease.

• Surprisingly, the frequently cited events were not uniformly negative.

• The list included plenty of aversive events, as expected, but patients also mentioned many seemingly positive events, such as getting married, having a baby, or getting promoted.

• Why would positive events, such as moving to a nicer home, produce stress?

• According to Holmes and Rahe, it is because they produce change.

• Their thesis is that disruptions of daily routines are stressful.

• According to their theory, changes in personal relationships,

changes at work, changes in finances, and so forth can be stressful even when the changes are welcomed.

• Based on this analysis, Holmes and Rahe (1967) developed the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) to measure life change as a form of stress.

• The scale assigns numerical values to forty-three major life events that are supposed to reflect the magnitude of the readjustment required by each change.

• Respondents are asked to indicate how often they experienced any of these forty-three events during a certain time period (typically, the past year).

• The person then adds up the numbers associated with each event checked.

• The total is an index of the amount of change-related stress the person has recently experienced.

Overall, these studies have shown that people with higher scores on the SRRS tend to be more vulnerable to many kinds of physical illness—and many types of psychological problems as well (Scully, Tosi, & Banning, 2000).

Pressure• “My father questioned me at dinner about some things I

did not want to talk about.

• I know he doesn’t want to hear my answers, at least not the truth.

• My father told me when I was little that I was his favorite because I was ‘pretty near perfect’ and I’ve spent my life trying to keep that up, even though it’s obviously not true.

• Recently, he has begun to realize this and it’s made our relationship very strained and painful.”

Pressure• Pressure involves expectations or demands that one behave in a certain way.

• Pressure can be divided into two subtypes: the pressure to perform and the pressure to conform.

• You are under pressure to perform when you are expected to execute tasks and responsibilities quickly, efficiently, and successfully.

Example, salespeople are usually under pressure to move lots of merchandise. Professors at research institutions are often under pressure to publish in prestigious journals. Comedians are under pressure to get laughs. Pressures to conform to others’ expectations are also common. Businessmen are expected to wear suits and ties. Suburban homeowners are expected to keep their lawns manicured. Teenagers are expected to adhere to their parents’ values and rules.

Pressure• However, Weiten (1988, 1998) has devised a scale

to measure pressure as a form of life stress.

• In research with this scale, a strong relationship has been found between pressure and a variety of psychological symptoms and problems.

• In fact, pressure has turned out to be more strongly related to measures of mental health than the SRRS and other established measures of stress (see Figure 3.6).

• A recent 15-year study of over 12,000 nurses found that increased pressure at work was related to an increased risk for heart disease (Väänänen, 2010).

• Participants who reported that their work pressure was much too high were almost 50% more likely to develop heart disease than those who experienced normal levels of pressure.

• Academic pressures, common for students worldwide, are related to increased anxiety and depression and affect student motivation and concentration (Andrews & Hejdenberg, 2007).

• Research also suggests that stress resulting from academic pressure may actually impede academic performance (Kaplan, Liu, & Kaplan, 2005) and lead to problematic escape behaviors such as drinking (Kieffer, Cronin, & Gawet, 2006).

• We tend to think of pressure as something imposed from outside forces.

• However, students often report that pressure is self-imposed (Hamaideh, 2011).

• For example, you might sign up for extra classes to get through school quickly.

• Or you might actively seek additional leadership positions to impress your family.

• Self-imposed stress doesn’t stop when you complete your education.

• People frequently put pressure on themselves to rapidly climb the corporate ladder or to be perfect parents.

• Even the pressure that modern people put on themselves to maintain a proper work-family balance can serve as a source of stress.

• Individuals who think that failure to meet exceedingly high standards is unacceptable (that is, negative perfectionists) are more prone to fatigue and depression (Dittner, Rimes, & Thorpe, 2011).

• In sum, because individuals might createstress by embracing unrealistic expectations for themselves, they might have more control over their stress than they realize.