STRESS AND SOME BASIC

CONCEPT
- Stress is the process of appraising and responding to a threatening or
challenging event.
- But stress is a slippery concept. We sometimes use the word informally to
describe threats or challenges (“Ben was under a lot of stress”), and at other
times our responses (“Ben experienced acute stress”).
- Stress arises less from events themselves than from how we appraise them.
- The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called
stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.

Figure 1: Stress appraisal

o The events of our lives flow through a psychological filter. How we

appraise an event influences how much stress we experience and how
effectively we respond.
- When short-lived, or when perceived as challenges, stressors can have
positive effects. But extreme or prolonged stress can harm us. Now, let’s
look more closely at stressors and stress reactions.

Stressors—Things That Push Our Buttons

Stressors fall into three main types: catastrophes, significant life
changes, and daily hassles (including social stress). All can be toxic.

CATASTROPHES
- Catastrophes are unpredictable large-scale events: earthquakes,
floods, wildfires, storms. After such events, damage to emotional
and physical health can be significant.
- Unpredictable large-scale events, such as the catastrophic
earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010 (aftermath shown here),
trigger significant levels of stress-related ills. When an earthquake
struck Los Angeles in 1994, sudden-death heart attacks increased
fivefold. Most occurred in the first two hours after the quake and
near its center and were unrelated to physical exertion (Muller &
Figure 2: Seismic stress

Verrier, 1996).
- For those who respond to catastrophes by relocating to another
country, the stress may be twofold. The trauma of uprooting and
family separation may combine with the challenges of adjusting to
a new culture’s language, ethnicity, climate, and social norms.
 Howerver, this acculturative stress declines over time, especially
when people engage in meaningful activities and connect socially.

SIGNIFICANT LIFE CHANGES

- Life transitions—leaving home, having a loved one die, taking on
student debt, losing a job, getting divorced—are often keenly felt.
Even happy events, such as graduating or getting married, can be
stressful life transitions.
- Many of these changes happen during young adulthood.
- A cluster of crises—losing a job, home, and partner—puts people
even more at risk.
DAILY HASSLES AND SOCIAL STRESS
- Stress also comes from daily hassles—dead cell phones,
aggravating housemates, and too many things to do, giving a
public speech or do difficult math problems.
Figure 3: Studying stress
 o Most people experience stress when giving a public speech. To study
stress, researchers recreate this type of situation. At the end, they
debrief and reassure each participant.
Figure 4: Don’t stop believing you can beat stress

o Singing in public can cause stress. In one experiment, participants

publicly sang the Journey song “Don’t Stop Believing” (Brooks,
2014). Most people experienced stress, but those who told themselves,
“I am excited” felt less stress and earned more performance bonus
money. It paid to convert anxiety to excitement.
- Daily pressures may be compounded by prejudice against our gender
identity, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, which—like other stressors—can
have both psychological and physical consequences. Thinking that some of
the people you encounter each day will dislike, distrust, or doubt you makes
daily life stressful.
When prolonged, such stress takes a
toll on our health. For many African-
Americans, for example, stress can lead
to unhealthy blood pressure levels and
sleep deprivation, which can reduce
academic achievement.
 Stress and response system

- The stress response is part of a unified mind-body system (Walter Cannon)

o Extreme cold, lack of oxygen, and emotion-arousing events all trigger
an outpouring of the adrenal stress hormones epinephrine and
norepinephrine. When alerted by any of a number of brain pathways,
the sympathetic nervous system arouses us, preparing the body for the
wonderfully adaptive response that Cannon called fight or flight.
- Fight or flight
o Increases heart rate and respiration, diverts blood from digestion to
the skeletal muscles, dulls feelings of pain, and releases sugar and fat
from the body’s stores. By fighting or fleeing, we increase our
chances of survival.
- The body’s adaptive response to stress is so general that, like a burglar
alarm, it sounds, no matter what intrudes. (Hans Selye) This response is the
general adaptation syndrome (GAS), which include three phases—alarm,
resistance, exhaustion.

o In Phase 1, you have an alarm reaction, as your sympathetic nervous

system is suddenly activated. Your heart rate zooms. Blood is diverted
to your skeletal muscles. You feel the faintness of shock. With your
resources mobilized, you are now ready to fight back.
o During Phase 2, resistance, your temperature, blood pressure, and
respiration remain high. Your adrenal glands pump hormones into
your bloodstream. You are fully engaged, summoning all your
resources to meet the challenge. As time passes, with no relief from
stress, your body’s reserves begin to dwindle.
 o You have reached Phase 3, exhaustion. With exhaustion, you become
more vulnerable to illness or even, in extreme cases, collapse and
death.

o Due to the ongoing conflict, Syria’s White Helmets (volunteer

rescuers) are perpetually in “alarm reaction” mode, rushing to pull
victims from the rubble after each fresh attack. As their resistance
depletes, they risk exhaustion
- Although the human body copes well with temporary stress, prolonged
stress can damage our health. For example, severe childhood stress gets
under the skin, leading to greater adult stress responses and disease risk or
Former prisoners of war, who experienced constant stress and suffering,
have died sooner than their fellow soldiers not taken captive.
- We respond to stress in many different ways: Withdraw, pull back, conserve
energy (When loved’s death) or fear ( when faced with an extreme disaster),
… one of these, found often among women, is to give and receive support—
what’s called the tend-and-befriend response.
o Tend and befriend - Under stress, people (especially women) often
provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from
others (befriend).
Women more often respond to stress by nurturing and banding
together. This may in part be due to oxytocin, a stress-moderating
hormone associated with pair bonding in animals and released, for
example, by cuddling, massage, and breast feeding in humans