Stress and Health

Chapter 17: Stress and Health

Case Study: The Slow-Food, Low-Stress Diet

Section 1: Understanding Stress
Section 2: Stress: Responses and Effects
Section 3: Psychological Factors and Health
Section 4: Ways of Coping with Stress
Simulation: Applying What You’ve Learned

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Stress and Health

Case Study: The Slow-Food, Low-Stress Diet

The ability of the French population to consume foods
heavy in fat and sugar but remain slim became known as
the French paradox. One French scientist claimed that the
effect was caused by drinking wine, but this theory was
disproven. Instead, researchers now think the difference is
in the way the French eat a meal: slowly, without rushing or
performing other tasks while eating. These studies show
that the French consume less food in a meal, even though
they spend more time eating. It seems that our eating
habits are not only unhealthy, they are adding to our overall
stress levels as we strive to eat more healthfully.

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What do you think?

• What are some of the key factors that might explain
the French paradox?
• Do you think Americans are ever likely to change their
eating habits and adopt the French diet? Why or why
not?

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Stress and Health

Section 1 at a Glance

Understanding Stress
• Stress is the arousal of one’s mind and body in response
to demands made upon them.
• Sources of stress include frustration, daily hassles, and
life changes.
• Different types of conflict contribute to stress.
• Some people create their own stress through their
personality type.

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Stress and Health

Understanding Stress

Main Idea
Many different situations and events can produce both good and bad
stress. Some personality types may even create their own stress.

Reading Focus
• What are the two different kinds of stress?
• What are the main sources of stress?
• Why does conflict cause stress?
• How does personality type affect stress?

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Stress and Health

Are you a slave to

success?

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Stress and Health

Different Kinds of Stress

In physics, stress is defined as pressure, or a force. In
psychology, stress is the arousal of one’s mind and body in
response to demands made upon them.
Eustress Distress

• Eustress is positive stress • Distress is negative stress

• Increases sharpness and • Linked to intense pressure or
motivation and can keep people anxiety
alert and involved • Can strain people’s ability to
• A sign that a person is taking on adjust to various situations
a challenge to try to reach a • Can dampen mood, impair
goal ability, and harm the body

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Identify Supporting Details

Why isn’t all stress bad?

Answer: Good stress can increase motivation and

keep people alert and involved.

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Stress and Health

Sources of Stress
Frustration
• Stressor: an event or situation that
• Being blocked from attaining a goal,
produces stress
such as being late to an
• What is a stressor for one person appointment or lacking money
might not be for another. • Many frustrations are minor, but
• Some stressors are common to more serious ones can be
most people. extremely stressful

Daily Hassles Life Changes

• Everyday frustrations: household, • Major events such as moving,
health, time-pressure, inner- serious illness, or a death
concern, environmental, financial,
• Many life changes are positive, and
work, future-security
tend to happen less often

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Stress and Health

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Stress and Health

Click on the
image to play
the Interactive.

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Make Generalizations
How can sources of stress influence a
person’s life?

Answer: Sources of stress influence a person’s

life in psychological (depression or anxiety) and
physical ways (health problems).

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Stress and Health

Conflict
Approach-Approach Avoidance-Avoidance
Conflict Conflict
• Least stressful types • More stressful
• Each of the choices are positive • Neither choice is positive
• Usually resolved by making a • Resolved by making a decision
decision

Approach-Avoidance Multiple Approach-

Conflict Avoidance Conflict
• Occurs when a choice has both • Most complex form
positive and negative aspects
• Each of several alternative courses
of action has its advantages and
disadvantages

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Stress and Health

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Analyze
Which type of conflict might cause the most
amount of stress?

Answer: avoidance-avoidance conflict, there are

no desirable choices

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Stress and Health

Personality Types
• Some people create their own stress.
• Two basic personality types: type A (intense) and type B (laid-back)
– Type A people are always on the go and put pressure on themselves
– Type B people are more relaxed and patient, and do not become angry
as easily as type A
• Type A people usually achieve more than type B people, but their
success comes with a price of heightened stress

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Reading Check

Contrast
How does the behavior of type A and type B
people differ?

Answer: type B person more relaxed and less

intense than a type A

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Stress and Health

Section 2 at a Glance

Stress: Responses and Effects

• Maintaining a positive attitude and a sense of humor are
among the ways that people can reduce the effects of
stress.
• Stressful situations produce the three stages of the
general adaptation syndrome.
• Chronic stress can suppress the activity of the body’s
immune system.

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Stress and Health

Stress: Responses and Effects

Main Idea
People respond to stress in different ways, but stressful situations
produce similar responses in the body. Stress—especially chronic
stress—can even compromise the body’s immune system.

Reading Focus
• What factors influence our response to stress?
• What is the general adaptation syndrome?
• How does stress affect the immune system?

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Stress and Health

Can you ever be too

optimistic?

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Stress and Health

Responses to Stress
People with different personalities respond to stress in different
ways. The stress of an event depends largely on what the event
means to the person involved. Biology also accounts for
differences in people’s responses to stress.
Self-Efficacy Expectations Psychological Hardiness

• Beliefs people have that they • People with certain traits can
can accomplish goals that they withstand stress
set for themselves • Commitment—stress as
• Closely related to self- motivation
confidence • Challenge—prefer change
• Self-confident person likely to • Control—feelings of being in
keep cool under pressure control of their lives

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Stress and Health

Sense of Humor
• Students who had a sense of humor and saw humor in difficult
situations experienced less stress than students who were not
able to find humor in the same situations.
• Some research suggests that emotional responses may aid the
immune system.
Predictability
• Having the ability to predict a stressor seems to reduce the
amount of stress it causes.

Social Support
• The presence and interest of other people provide support that
helps people cope with stress.
• Ways to help: express concern, provide physical relief, offer
information, provide feedback, and socialize

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Stress and Health

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Draw Conclusions
What role might attitude play in responding
to stress?

Answer: Attitude affects how one responds to

stress. A positive attitude yields a positive
response to stress. A negative attitude yields a
negative response to stress.

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Stress and Health

The General Adaptation Syndrome

• Selye observed that different stressful situations each produced
similar responses by the body.
• The general adaptation syndrome (GAS) has three stages:
– The alarm reaction
• Initiated when a stressor is perceived
• Sometimes described as the fight-or-flight reaction
• Certain hormones are released that prepare the body for stress
– The resistance stage
• If the stressor is not removed, people try to find a way to cope and to avoid
being overwhelmed
– The exhaustion stage
• If stressor still is not removed, hormones are depleted, muscles are worn
out, heart and breathing rates slow down

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Stress and Health

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Summarize
What are the three stages of the general
adaptation syndrome?

Answer: alarm reaction, resistance stage, and

exhaustion stage

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Stress and Health

Effects of Stress on the Immune System

The Immune System Stress and the Immune

• Most people are exposed to a great System
variety of disease-causing • One reason stress exhausts people
organisms, but an intact immune is that it stimulates bodies to
system fights off most of them. produce steroids, which suppress
• White blood cells destroy disease- the immune system.
causing microorganisms, worn-out • One study showed lower immune-
body cells, and malignant cells. system functioning during more
• The immune system “remembers” stressful periods.
some invaders and maintains • Another study showed that training
antibodies to fight them, often for in coping skills improved the
years. functioning of the immune system.

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Analyze
How does the immune system protect
people against disease?

Answer: by producing white blood cells that

destroy disease-causing microorganisms

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Stress and Health

Section 3 at a Glance

Psychological Factors and Health

• Both biological and psychological factors play important
roles in health problems.
• Headaches are among the most common stress-related
health problems.
• People can make behavioral changes to help reduce the
risks of heart disease.
• People with cancer must cope with the biological aspects
of their illness as well as with its psychological effects.

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Stress and Health

Psychological Factors and Health

Main Idea
Both biological and psychological factors play an important role in
medical problems, including headaches, heart disease, and cancer.

Reading Focus
• How do biological and psychological factors affect health?
• What are the most common types of headaches?
• What factors contribute to heart disease?
• How is cancer linked to stress?

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Stress and Health

Can you see my pain?

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Stress and Health

Biological and Psychological Factors

• Biological factors such as family history of a disease, exposure to
disease-causing microorganisms, inoculations against certain
diseases, accidents, injuries, and age play an important role in
physical illness.
• Psychological factors also affect health problems.
– Attitudes
– Patterns of behavior
– Anxiety
– Depression
• Health psychology: concerned with the relationship between
psychological factors and the prevention and treatment of physical
illness.

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Analyze
How can a bad family medical history be a
positive opportunity?
Answer: A bad family medical history is an
opportunity to keep harmful genes from expressing
themselves.

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Stress and Health

Headaches
Among the most common stress-related health problems
Types of Headaches Treatment

• Most frequent is muscle- • Aspirin, acetaminophen, and

tension: dull, steady pain on prescription drugs are used to
both sides of the head fight headache pain.
• Second most common is • Different medicines work in
migraine headache: sudden different ways.
onset and severe throbbing on • Changing behaviors is also
one side of the head helpful: progressive relaxation
• Affect 10 percent of Americans and biofeedback training help to
• Type A more affected relieve pain

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Identify Cause and Effect

How can headache pain result in a vicious
cycle?
Answer: Headaches are often caused by muscle
tension. The pain of the headache increases rather
than relaxes muscle tension.

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Stress and Health

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Stress and Health

Heart Disease

Risk Factors Behavioral Changes

• Nearly half of U.S. deaths are • Various medical treatments exist,
caused by heart disease. Causes but certain behavioral changes can
include: reduce risk:
• Family history (genetics) • Quitting smoking
• Physical conditions • Controlling weight
• Patterns of consumption • Reducing hypertension
• Type A behavior • Lowering serum cholesterol levels
• Anger and hostility • Changing type A behavior patterns
• Job strain • Exercising regularly
• Lack of exercise

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Stress and Health

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Summarize
What can people do to help reduce the risk
of heart disease?
Answer: quit smoking, control weight, reduce
hypertension, lower cholesterol, change type A
behavior, and exercise regularly

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Stress and Health

Cancer
Risk Factors
• Cancer involves the rapid growth of
• People may inherit a tendency to
malignant cells.
develop certain kinds of cancer.
• Individuals whose immune systems
• Certain behaviors increase risk.
are weakened appear to be more
likely candidates for getting cancer. • Stress may be a risk factor.

Psychological Aspects Positive Attitude

• Cancer patients must cope with • One study found a significantly
weakness, pain, and medicine side- higher survival rate among women
effects. who met their cancer diagnosis with
a “fighting spirit.”
• They may face anxiety, fear,
depression, and vulnerability. • Social support increases the
survival rate.

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Identify Supporting Details

What psychological effects might those with
cancer face?
Answer: People with cancer face anxiety
regarding treatment and the possibility of death.

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Stress and Health

Section 4 at a Glance

Ways of Coping with Stress

• Defensive coping methods as a means of handling stress
are self-defeating and usually harmful.
• Effective active coping methods for dealing with stress
include changing stressful thoughts, relaxing, and
exercising.

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Stress and Health

Ways of Coping with Stress

Main Idea
People handle stress using both defensive and active coping methods.
Defensive coping methods are often self-defeating, while active coping
methods are far more effective.

Reading Focus
• What are some defensive coping methods?
• How do active coping methods help ease stress?

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Stress and Health

Why won't Japanese

businessmen take a break?

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Stress and Health

Defensive Coping
• Defensive coping: a way to handle stress and reduce immediate
effects, but not the most desirable way. It may involve socially
unacceptable behavior. It does not eliminate the source of stress.
– Substance abuse
• People may become psychologically dependent on these substances in an
effort to decrease their awareness of stress or disguise an unpleasant
reality.
– Aggression
• Using violence to cope with stressful situations rarely, if ever, provides a
solution to the problem. May heighten the problem.
– Withdrawal
• Can be emotional or physical withdrawal.
– Defense mechanisms
• Protect ego from anxiety produced by an awareness of unacceptable ideas
or impulses. They become problematic when they are the only coping
mechanisms a person has.

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Stress and Health

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Find the Main Idea

Why are defensive coping strategies not the
most desirable ways to deal with stress?

Answer: Defensive coping strategies are socially

unacceptable and self-defeating.

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Stress and Health

Active Coping
• Active coping: involves changing the environment or situation (in
socially acceptable ways) to remove stressors, or changing one’s
response to stress so that stressors are no longer harmful.
– Changing stressful thoughts
• People who have stressful thoughts can learn to recognize and change them
before becoming overwhelmed by them.
– Relaxation techniques
• A number of techniques for reducing the bodily reactions to stress:
– Meditation
– Biofeedback
– Progressive relaxation
– Exercise
• Fosters physical health, enhances people’s psychological well-being, and
helps people cope with stress.
– Breathing
• Practicing controlled breathing can reduce stress.

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Stress and Health

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Stress and Health

Reading Check

Identify Supporting Details

How can active coping methods relieve
some health problems?

Answer: Active coping methods can relieve some health

problems by reducing stress that compromises the body’s
immune system.

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Stress and Health

Current Research in Psychology

Coping with Catastrophe
Even though the tragedy of September 11, 2001, mostly affected those who
lost family and friends, people who only witnessed the attacks on television
suffered what psychologists call “second-hand stress.”
• Many people who witnessed the • Some scientists suggest taking a
terrorist attacks on television break from the news to alleviate
suffered symptoms similar to post- symptoms; others say this is a form
traumatic stress disorder. of denial.
• Similar reactions occurred after • One study found that those who
Hurricane Katrina in 2005. donated blood or money felt less
helpless.
• Watching scenes on television can
cause the biological fight-or-flight • Disasters can bring a nation
reaction. together when the shared response
is to reach out and help the victims.

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Stress and Health

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Stress and Health

Thinking Critically
• How does helping disaster victims reduce second-hand
stress?
• Think of a time when you helped someone overcome
difficulties. What did you do? How did it make you feel?

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Stress and Health

Simulation: Applying What You’ve Learned

Stress and Active Coping Methods
What is the most effective way to cope with a stressful situation?

1. Introduction 2. Prepare the Simulation

• In this simulation, you will work • Discuss with your group the
in a group to develop and source of stress that you have
perform a simulation in which been assigned.
you role-play a stressful • Assign a role to each member.
situation and effective coping • Discuss appropriate responses
methods. to the situation.
• Your teacher will assign each • Write the dialogue and practice
group one stressful situation. it several times.

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Stress and Health

Simulation (cont'd.)
3. Perform the Simulation 4. Discussion
• Speak loudly enough. • As a class, discuss the
• Act your role in a serious following:
manner. • What did you think of the
• Be supportive of group performances?
members if they falter. • Did each represent a stressful
• As an audience member, take situation realistically?
notes on: • What were some of the
• stressor being shown effective coping mechanisms
• effectiveness of coping portrayed?
methods • Can you use what you have
• how you would react learned to deal with stress more
effectively?

Original Content Copyright by HOLT McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.
Stress and Health

Original Content Copyright by HOLT McDougal. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.