Getting

activated
Mental preparedness and
Psychological awareness
To act or not to act – The Action Bias
Mental preparedness and Just like physical skills,
Psychological awareness psychological ones can
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJIJwGFRoLg be taught, learned, and
The concept of performance— a goal- practiced. In
directed behavior— plays a central role in understanding human
behavior, both in
contemporary culture. Everyone wants to
individuals and in groups,
perform better— not only in their careers, you can develop these
but also in their hobbies, relationships, psychological skills and
and in pretty much everything else they use them to heighten
do. And to perform better in any your awareness, foster
situation, it is necessary to focus on and your talents and abilities,
develop the psychological skills that help and reach your peak
lead to success performance
 Arousal • Arousal—a psychophysiological state of being awake or reactive to
stimuli (i.e., general alertness and readiness to respond)— is the
Is a Lot of Stress underpinning of stress, anxiety, pressure, and even motivation
• The concept dates back thousands upon thousands of years to our
Really That Bad? distant prehistoric ancestors
In business, as in sports, one may
not be handling life and death
situations such as soldiers in battle
or a prehistoric person facing off
against a tiger, but arousal, or high
levels of stress, can be used to your
benefit in both everyday and
extraordinary circumstances

Understanding how to healthily and

positively handle and harness stress
makes one
 more productive
 lead a happier and more inspired
life
The concept of
stress
 • A classic experiment conducted in 1908
by Robert M. Yerkes (1876– 1956), a
pioneer of American psychology, and his
colleague John D. Dodson, is highly
relevant to the question of how stress
influences performance
• They investigated “the relation of
strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-
formation,” (Journal of Comparative
Neurology and Psychology)

• They discovered that mild electrical

shocks could effectively be used to cause
mice to acquire the habit of completing
a maze. If the electrical shocks were too
mild or too strong, however, the mice’s
performance in the maze decreased.
STRESS AND PERFORMANCE From this they developed what is now
called the Yerkes- Dodson law which
Stress is not necessarily shows a curvilinear relationship
between stress and performance
something bad, it all depends
on how you take it - Hans Selye
Types of Stress
ACUTE CHRONI
STRESS C
STRESS

Episodic
Acute
Stress
 When acute stress happens frequently, it’s
called episodic acute stress

Episodic ► Displays prolonged effects of acute stress

acute ► Negative health effects

stress and ► Personality is an important factor for

developing acute stress
its
Symptoms ▪ Symptoms of extended over arousal
► Persistent tension headaches
► Migraines
► Hypertension
► Chest pain
► Digestion problems

▪ Resistant to change
Chronic Stress
Grinding stress that wears people
away day after day year after year

• Warfare
• Financial crisis
• Traumatic experiences
• Chronic illnesses
• Dysfunctional families

• Creates LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

• Dealing with chronic stress

increases psychosomatic
problems
 Common signs
of stress
Psychological signs
Physical signs Effect of stress on
 Dry mouth
• sudden irritability performance
• problems Stress affects appetite and
 Difficulty breathing
concentrating digestion
 Pounding heart
• Difficulty sleeping
 Stomach-ache Stress affects cognition
• Narrowed perception
 Chronic headache
• Frequent feelings of
fatigue
 Stress ► The brain reacts to stress in a series of neural and
chemical reactions that are meant for physical survival
and its
physiolog Stress caused by
biological agents – viruses
y environment – temperature
psychological agents – threat to self esteem, loss of
loved one resulting in loneliness, social isolation etc
Physiological
 The nervous system
Systems Involved  The endocrine system
in the Stress  The immune system
Response
Optimally, interaction of these systems maintains homeostasis and wellness
 • The Hypothalamic Pituitary When one experiences a stressful
Adrenal Axis or HPA axis – event:
best known for its role in • The hypothalamus releases a
TRIGGERI body’s natural reaction to
stress
hormone called the Corticotrophin
Hormone (CRH)

NG THE • CRH signals the Pituitary Gland to

• HPA axis includes a group of
HPA AXIS hormone secreting glands from
the
secrete the Adreno Cortico Tropic
Hormone (ACTH) into the blood
stream
• NERVOUS and ENDOCRINE
SYSTEM • ACTH travels down to the Adrenal
glands where it prompts the release
of Glucocorticoids from the Adrenal
• This network consists of the Cortex
Hypothalamus, the Pituitary
gland and the Adrenal glands
• One of these Glucocorticoids is
Cortisol which plays an important role
in stress response
• With increased cortisol level 🡪
Epinephrine and Norepinephrine
(hormones) secreted from Adrenal
Medulla
 HPA axis…
 As epinephrine circulates through the body, it brings on number of physiological
changes:
► The heart beats faster than normal
► pushing blood to the muscles, heart, and other vital organs
► Pulse rate and blood pressure go up
► The person undergoing these changes also starts to breathe more
rapidly
► Small airways in the lungs open wide - the lungs can take in as much
oxygen as possible with each breath. Extra oxygen is sent to the
brain, increasing alertness
► Thus, Sight, hearing, and other senses become sharper

► The release of cortisol causes number of changes that helps the body deal
with stress
Eg: Helps body mobilise energy like glucose so that body has enough energy to
cope with prolonged stress

► When the threat passes, cortisol levels fall

The parasympathetic nervous system — the "brake" — then dampens the stress
response
 WHY DO
INDIVIDUAL ► Stress depends on Individual differences
how an individual
S BEHAVE perceives a situation
cognitive reaction to a situation -
DIFFERENTL appraisal of the nature, importance
► Perception of the and implications of the event, and by
Y DURING ability to cope with your ability to effectively manage or
STRESS? the situation cope with the event
emotional responses to a situation -
The individual's determined by appraisal of situation
judgment that a stressful and coping abilities
Importance of knowing physiology
situation exists, initiates
of stress:
a stress response
•If one understands the physiology Ex: “I can handle this,” – planning
of stress, then one can begin to use Without this appraisal ways to handle the situation
this knowledge to augment one’s there is no stress in the
own health and well-being through person's psychological “This is terrible. I’m going crazy” -
different stress management schema quitting, getting more anxious
techniques

•It is important to know what

happens to our body during a
stressful situation…
 Locus of Self
Factors of control esteem
Personalit
y related
to stress Personality
Hardiness
Type
 A sense of time urgency and hostility - A feeling that there is not enough
time to do all the things that we believe should be done or that we wish to
do.

Main symptoms:
• Rapid movements: The afflicted person usually walks, talks or eats fast

Characteristi • Impatience: There is a feeling that the rate at which most events take
place is too slow

cs of Type A • Anguish at waiting in line or waiting to be seated in a restaurant. Avoids

repetitive tasks

Behavior • Tension: finds it difficult to sit and do nothing. Feels guilty when relaxing He often has a
characteristic facial tautness expressing tension and anxiety

• Restlessness: knee jiggling, rapid tapping of the fingers, head nodding, rapid eyebrow lifting
while speaking, sucking in air while speaking, tongue-to-front-teeth clicking during
conversation, or tuneless humming

• Preoccupation: Inattentive to others. Unable to detect mental and physical fatigue while
engaged in a task. Fails to observe seemingly unimportant unrelated things

2. Hostility – a predisposition to evaluate people or events negatively, often in a

suspicious, distrustful, cynical, and paranoid fashion
There is a generalized aggression or excessive competitive drive
 Other Personality Types

Type B
People with Type B personality tend to be more
tolerant of others, are more relaxed than Type A
individuals, more reflective, experience lower levels
of anxiety and display higher level of imagination
and creativity

TYPE A PERSONALITY – Jenkins Activity Survey

Online version for college students -
www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/TypeA-B-intro.html
DEVELOPIN
G
RESILIENC
E TO
STRESS
HARDINES
S

Hardiness moderates the

stress–illness relationship by
reducing cognitive appraisals of
threat, and reducing the use of
regressive coping
 Learning about stress can
produce similar problems
Are you There is an old joke about a
man who went to a psychiatrist You can understand the stress

serious because of a problem with

thumb-sucking. After several
reaction, and even note the
signs of stress in your everyday
life, yet still have little idea of
about months of therapy, the patient
was delighted with the results what to do about it
Simply knowing about stress is
stress? and was describing them to a
friend. "So," the friend said, not enough Achieving real
control over stress requires
"you don't suck your thumb
something more: an
any more?" "Oh, no," replied understanding of the unique
the patient, "I still suck it as patterns that stress takes in
much as ever. But now I know your life
why!“ This personal understanding is
necessary because the actual
patterns that trigger stress
reactions vary enormously
from one person to the next
UNDERSTANDIN
G YOUR STRESS
LEVEL
STRESS MAPPING…

keep a stress journal or Personal stress analysis - a Knowing your personal

sensitize yourself to potential notebook, a day-by- day method by which you stressors and how you react to
stressors in the environment account of when and where systematically evaluate and them provides a tremendous
the signs of stress appear interpret the information in opportunity for you to alter
the journal your behavior, coping more
efficiently or perhaps avoiding
stressful situations altogether
(Ask, yourself, when it is that Helps in developing self control as it This analysis, when well grounded in
you feel stressed and discover reveals the patterns of stress, those your examination of potential stressors
an event preceding it) unique configurations of stressor and and in your careful observation of your
response that operate in your life own behavior, can then serve as the
basis for the subsequent development
of a comprehensive program of stress
management
Work on your
stress level
Format for a stress Journal

• Discover patterns of stress operating in • Date and Time:

your life • Signal of stress:
• Be aware of these signs of physical and • Duration of symptom:
mental response to stress • Events prior to the symptom:
• Identify the triggers • Events when symptoms stopped:
• Analyze the relationship between the
stress reaction and the stressful
situation that evoked it
Shaffer, M, 1982
• Set realistic and effective stress control
 How many of these symptoms do you have
now/ in recent past?
MOTOR
BODILY SYMPTOMS SYMPTOMS
FEELING STATES COGNITIVE STATES (MUSCLES
• Flushing • Constipation INVOLVED)
• Agitation • Dread
• Sweating • Fatigue
• Shakiness • Inattention
• Dry mouth • Loss of appetite • Muscular tightness
• Shallow breathing • Nervous chill • Easy tiring • Distractibility • Tremors
• Chest oppression and pain
• Insomnia • Worry • Forgetfulness • Tics (spasms)
• Heart palpitation • restlessness • Panicky feeling • Nightmares • Increased startle
• Pounding pulse • Flatus (passing gas) • Depression (feeling reaction
• Fear of death
• lncreased blood pressure
• Belching blue) • Incoordination
• Headache • Abdominal cramping • Irritability • Sighing
• -Backache • "Irritable colon" • Freezing, feeling
• Feeling of weakness • Dizziness or faintness immobilized
• Intestinal distress • Paresthesias (illusory prickly
• Vomiting skin
• Diarrhea • sensations)
 As an Individual
• Aim for an optimal state of stress and arousal to keep you on your toes, staying
Daily involved and productive, without overworking yourself or entering a state of chronic
stress
Practices
• Remember that obstacles and tasks are subjective— your personal perception can be
a major determinant in how you handle stress and how it affects your performance

• Make complex tasks simpler by employing chunking techniques, breaking down your
actions into smaller, discrete units

As a Leader
Find the sweet spot when it comes to your personal levels of stress and that of the
group, you’re leading

The environment that leaders create and cultivate is crucial to employee performance
— talk to your team about what works best for them and see how you can incorporate
their preferences into the surrounding environment

Recognize that there will be Type A and Type B people on your team, and you will have
to motivate them accordingly— the Type A group will likely need help decreasing stress
and anxiety while Type B will need some added pressure