MODULE 2: REACTION TO CRISIS

OBJECTIVES

1. 2. 3.

To identify and list different reactions to crisis To familiarise with the principles of adjustment To understand different mechanism of coping

Activity
(1) Participants identify the most frequent type of crisis they encounter in their daily life. The trainer records their responses on a flip chart (2) Participants identify their reaction(s) to crisis situations. The trainer records their response on a flip chart. (3) Participants brain storm on how they would respond to someone in a crisis. The trainer records their response on a flip chart.

1.

Reactions to Crisis

We tend to react to crisis situations as a whole, that is, a crisis produces both psychological and physiological reactions.

1.1

Physiological Reactions
same way under any threat ,be it in the form of an infection ,injury, a tumour or psychological stress. Regardless of the source of General Adaptation Syndrome Stress, the body mobilises its defence to ward off threat in a pattern referred to by Selye as the

Selye ( 1976),a Canadian medical researcher found that the body reacts in much the

( GAS) which follows three stages :

Alarm reaction:

The body s initial response to threat or stress is to mobilize its stored resources. The sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system diverts blood away from digestion and into the skeletal muscles, increases perspiration and prepares the body for a physical struggle. The endocrine glands pump epinephrine and other hormones into the blood stream that aid the actions of the autonomic nervous system and increase levels of blood sugar. When stress is intense or prolonged, theses bodily changes give rise to general muscle tension. stomach aches, headaches and other feelings of illness. The body s resources have now been fully mobilized and resistance to the stress is high. However, this resistance is costly in terms of resources and new stressors encountered ( physical and psychological) will strain already depleted resources and leave the person more vulnerable to physical stress ( disease). The individual s resources have been exhausted and resistance to the stress is lowered. In the case of prolonged exposure to severe physical stress ( illness) death can occur during this stage. Prolonged psychological stress can result in death if the person whose resources are depleted, becomes clinically depressed and suicidal.

Resistance stage:

3. Resistance stage:

1.2

Psychological Reactions
These include anxiety, irritability, disturbance in sleep patterns, changes in appetite, loss or gain of weight, decreased libido Impaired cognition such as difficulties with memory, judgement and concentration

 Examples of erroneous thinking Overgeneralization this is the process of reaching a general conclusion based on a few specific bits of evidence. A person who has failed one exam and concludes that he/she will never pass any exam would be over generalizing Arbitrary inference this is the logical error of reaching a conclusion based on little or no logical evidence the conclusion is arbitrary. For example, if you received an invitation to have lunch with your boss, would you conclude that the boss was going to gently break the news to you that you will be fired? Some people reason in this arbitrary way concluding that every thing means something bad. Magnification / minimization - When a lady sitting next to you says that your ears have an interesting point at the top would you magnify this statement and blow it out of proportion? (No wonder everybody hates me I have huge ears!) Or if you receive a heartfelt compliment from a friend do you minimize it to nothing (Lynne just says nice things to me because she feels sorry for me) these examples illustrates the process of magnification and minimization. Personalisation is the erroneous pattern of reasoning in which external events are seen as being related to you when there is no logical reason for doing so e.g. concluding that one is presence in a particular place cause storm to occur. Absolutistic thinking thinking in all or nothing terms either something is absolutely wonderful or everything is absolutely terrible eg you fail to graduate at a University but end up involved in a successful business enteprise but you still conclude that you are a failure.

Anger which is a common emotional reaction to stress may lead to aggression.. Agression involves behaviour that is intended to hurt someone either physically or verbally. The frustration aggression hypothesis assumes that whenever a persons effort to reach a goal is blocked, an aggressive drive is induced and motivates behaviour to injure the object or the person causing the frustration (Atkinson et al 1990;362). Aggression can be directed to the source of frustration or displaced to an innocent person or object when the source of frustration is so powerful that an attack would be dangerous.

A person in crisis may also respond by withdrawal and apathy which in turn can deepen into depression. Seligman et al (1980) explain this reaction of giving up with the term learned helplessness. Learned helplessness relates to the attribution an individual makes about a negative event. It is not the event per se that is the problem but how the person interprets it which creates the feeling of helplessness.

Preoccupation with the stressor and decreased energy levels.

2.

Adjustment

Adjustment can be viewed as a first step towards resolution of a crisis. It involves putting things into perspective. Positive adjustment at the cognitive level means reframing the circumstance which brought the stressful situation. Reframing involves helping people in crisis situations to think about themselves and their difficulties in a different and more creative way eg a counselor may reframe a clients indecision as a necessary period of contemplating or an intuitive wisdom about going slow when faced with a complex issue. 2.1. Is Adjustment a state or process?

The state concept of adjustment implies that the person as a whole is either adjusted or maladjusted. This is rather simplistic view of adjustment. The process concept of adjustment focuses on the effectiveness of adjustment as measured by how well a person copes with the ever changing circumstances. 2.2. What are the characteristics of effective adjustment? Accurate perception of reality Ability to express feeling - capacity for self control Good interpersonal relationships Ability to cope with stress

Accurate perception of reality Distortion of reality? - An individual may distort reality to suite ones own desires and motives. There are times when people want to hear or see something so much that they actually believe that they have heard about it. How realistic are ones goals? Sometimes you find that you might either change/ modify your goals eg somebody with poor grades in science may not expect to study medicine One of the most important aspects of all accurate perceptions of reality is the ability to conceive the consequences of your action and to guide your behaviour accordingly

Ability to express feelings -ability to express a wide range of emotion. Some people are afraid to express certain feelings. -Ability to be in control of emotions. Reaction to provocation some people responds with extreme anger, moodiness or depression. -Importance to become aware of your feelings eg.anger, fear. Once you have identified the emotion consider options on how that emotion should be expressed. What is the most constructive way. Emotionally healthy people are able to feel and express the full spectrum of emotions and feelings however their expression of emotion is both realist and under their control

Good interpersonal relations Well-adjusted people are able to achieve appropriate degree of intimacy in their social relationships. There are various aspects of interpersonal relations such as attraction, friendship, love, and sexuality A person who is not able to feel and express emotion has either to give in to others or will often resist accepting what others have to offer, this results in loneliness. Most of us do not like to be alone we spent most of our lives in the company of other people A positive self image

How do we perceive ourselves? You can find out by answering the question, who am I? Does your self-appraisal include only positive or only negative aspects? What do you do about these aspects of yourself that you do not like? Is the way that other people perceive you agree with the way that you perceive yourself. When these perceptions are not in agreement the individual is likely to be maladjusted. One of the characteristics of positive adjustment is to view oneself in a positive manner Self-perceptions are learnt and can be modified

Ability to cope with stress Coping is a set of behavioural and psychological skills that an individual employs in response to or as a result of adapting to an experience (Barofsky, 1981). There are two main ways of coping: problem-focused coping and emotional focused coping

Problem focused coping The focus is on the problem. A person evaluates the situation and does something to change or avoid it. Emotional focused coping Focuses on the emotional response to the problem. The individual tries to reduce anxiety without dealing directly with the anxietyprovoking situation. Emotional focused strategies do not alter the stressful situation they simply change the way a person perceives

and thinks about it. Freud used the term defense mechanism to refer to unconscious process aimed at defending a person against anxiety by distorting reality in some way .

Examples of defense Mechanisms

1. Repression wishes, thoughts or memories, which are too frightening or painful, are excluded from conscious awareness. Since repression is never completely successful and repressed material threaten to leak through into awareness anxiety is the first signal and the individual employs a defense mechanism to keep repressed impulses from awareness. Freud believed that repression of certain childhood impulses is universal ( Oedipus and Electra conflict). Repressed material continue to influence behaviour slips of the tongue, dreams. ii. Rationalisation means finding logical but false reason for behaviour eg. concept of sour grapes. Rationalisation serves two purposes it reduces own disappointment when we fail to reach the goal ( I didnt want it anyway) and provides us with acceptable motives for our behaviour. Rationalization serves as an excuse my mother didnt wake me up iii. Projection - this is a mechanism that protects us from recognising our own undesirable wishes or needs by assigning them to other people. I want to go to bed with him - he wants to go to bed with me. A man with homosexual impulses may project them to others. iv. Reaction formation thoughts needs and feelings are repressed and their opposites are expressed. Mother who didnt want her child became over protective. Someone who has many nasty thoughts and desires may adopt attitudes. v. Denial when external reality is too unpleasant or harmful to face individual may deny that it exists. The parents of child that has died may refuse to admit that everything is wrong because they cannot tolerate the pain. Less extreme forms of denial can be seen in individuals who constantly ignore criticism, fail to perceive that others are angry with them or disregard all kind of clues suggesting that a mamage partner is having an affair. Sometimes denying facts may be better than facing them. In severe crisis, denial may give the person time to face facts eg. A victim of a stroke or spinal cord injury might give up altogether if they are fully aware of the seriousnes of their conditions. Denial can have adoptive value. On the other hand the negative effects may delay seeking help in the case of denial important symptoms of disease. vi. Displacement Freud felt that displacement was the most satisfactory way of handling aggressive and sexual impulses. The basic drives cannot be changed but the object towards which a drive is directed can. The displacement of a person is true impulse, desire or emotion is replaced by a safer one. Instead of directing aggression towards a daughter a mother can feel anger towards the teacher. sublimation means that sexual and aggressive impulses are displaced into activity as poetry, art, aggressive feelings may be displaced with sex. vii. Identification is the opposite of projection. Identification is tendency to increase personal feelings of worth by taking characteristics of someone viewed as successful. We all identify with other people and groups in a great variety of relations, with parents, relative, teachers basketball players or movie stars.

Identification involves modeling our behaviour to someone else.