Chapter 11



Chapter 11:Emotions, Stress and Health

Emotion

Emotion

a response of the whole organism

physiological arousal

expressive behaviors

conscious experience

Theories of Emotion

Does your heart pound because you are afraid... or are you afraid because you feel your heart pounding?

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

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Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

Cognition and Emotion

While some emotional responses—especially simple likes, dislikes, and fears—involve no conscious thinking, complex emotions—including moods such as depression—are greatly affected by our interpretations, memories, and expectations.

Arousal and Performance

Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks

In day-to-day life, performance on a task is usually best when arousal is moderate--varies with the difficulty of the task. With easy tasks, peak performance comes with relatively high arousal, which enhances the dominant, usually correct, response. With more difficult tasks, the optimal arousal is somewhat less.

Emotion - Lie Detectors

Polygraph

machine commonly used in attempts to detect lies

measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion

perspiration

cardiovascular

breathing changes

Expressed Emotion

Communicate nonverbally as well as verbally. Example: firm handshake=an outgoing, expressive personality. With a gaze, an averted glance, or a stare intimacy, submission, or dominance is communicated. Fear and anger read mostly from the eyes: happiness from the mouth.

Introverts are better emotion-detectors than extraverts; extraverts are easier to read.

People more speedily detect an angry face than a happy one

Women are better than men at reading emotions.

Effects of facial expressions on emotional experience

Facial feedback hypothesis: expressions communicate emotion, amplify the felt emotion and signal the body to respond accordingly.

Example: students made to make a frowning expression reported feeling a little angry. People instructed to express other basic emotions react similarly---just activating one of the smiling muscles by holding a pen in the teeth is enough to make cartoons seem more amusing.

Culturally universal expressions

some gestures culturally determined, facial expressions, such as those of happiness and fear, are common the world over. The physiological symptoms of emotion also cross cultures.

Cultures differ in how, and how much, they express emotions. Example: in communal cultures that value interdependence, intense displays of potentially disruptive emotions are infrequent.

Experienced Emotion

Anger: most often aroused by frustrating or insulting acts that seem willful and unjustified. Expressing anger may be temporarily calming, but in the long run it can actually arouse more anger.

Catharsis: emotional release The catharsis hypothesis maintains that “releasing” aggressive energy through action or fantasy reduces anger.

Although “blowing off steam” may temporarily calm an angry person, it may also amplify underlying hostility, and it may provoke retaliation. Angry outbursts may be reinforcing and therefore habit forming. In contrast, anger expressed without accusing someone can benefit relationships by leading to reconciliation rather than retaliation

Happiness boosts people’s perceptions of the world and their willingness to help others.

Feel-good, do-good phenomenon

people’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood

Subjective Well-Being

How happy are you? One way to measure happiness:

Subjective well-being: An approach by which people evaluate their lives in terms of both their thoughts and emotions

Characteristic of happy people:

High self esteem: more intelligent and better interpersonal skills than average person

Firm sense of control: feel in control of their lives

Optimistic: glass is ½ full

Like to be around other people: tend toward extraversion and to have supportive others

Significant good events seldom increase happiness for long, a fact explained by the adaptation-level and relative deprivation principles.

Adaptation-Level Phenomenon

tendency to form judgments relative to a “neutral” level, defined by our prior experience. describes tendency to judge various stimuli relative to what we have previously experienced. If income or social prestige increases, feel initial pleasure. We then adapt to this new level of achievement, come to see it as normal, and require something better to give us another surge of happiness. Even really good, such as winning a state lottery, seem not to increase happiness for long. We overestimate the duration of our emotions and underestimate our capacity to adapt

Relative Deprivation

perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

In summary----

Happiness is...

High self-esteem, close friendships or a satisfying marriage, and meaningful religious faith are among the predictors of happiness. Age, gender, educational level, and parenthood are among the factors unrelated to happiness.

Stress and Health

Health Psychology: subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine

Health psychologists and physicians---interdisciplinary field of behavioral medicine. Health psychologists study the causes and effects of stress as well as effective strategies for alleviating it.

Stress and Illness

Stress and Stressors:

the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

Stress is the physiological response of the body to physical and psychological demands. The response to events that threaten or challenge an individual.

Stress comes from how we interpret or appraise events; not so much coming from the event itself. To study stress and stressors: interested in how we appraise and cope with environmental threats and challenges

Stressors can be both pleasant events and unpleasant events (feel stress from things that threaten or challenge us)

Both positive and negative effects from stress: positive effects: motivation to conquer problems. Negative effects: threaten resources

Effects of Stress:

Walter Cannon: in response to stress, the sympathetic nervous system activates the secretion of stress hormones, triggers increased heart rate and respiration, diverts blood to skeletal muscles, and releases sugar and fat from the body’s stores, all to prepare the body for either “fight or flight.

Sources of Stress

Stressful Life Events

Catastrophes: unpredictable, large-scale events e.g., war, earthquake. Can have significant health consequences. Catastrophic floods, hurricanes, and fires are followed by increased rates of psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Life Changes e.g., death, marriage, divorce, loss of job

Major life events, or significant life changes--- such as the death of a family member, that have immediate negative consequences—but with time, stress levels generally fade. Those who experience significant life changes, such as the death of a spouse, divorce, or loss of a job, are vulnerable to disease. Experiencing a cluster of such crises puts one even more at risk

Daily Hassles (or background stressors): annoying events in everyday life, such as being stuck in traffic, long lines at the bank or store, and aggravating housemates--cause minor irritations that may have long-term ill effects if they continue or are compounded by other stressful events.

Daily hassles may be the most significant source of stress, because over time these little stressors take a toll on our health and well-being. cumulative effect on health

Another area to consider with daily hassles, is the impact of: DailyUplifts-----Minor positive events that make one feel good

What is stress?

Most organisms reacting to stressors go through three stages, called the General Adaptation Syndrome.

Hans Selye, Canadian scientist, pioneered research into stress. He discovered that the body has an adaptive response to stress that is very general; stress may feel and look the same, regardless of type of stressor.

The body’s adaptive response to stress is composed of three stages

Stages of General Adaptation Syndrome:

Alarm Reaction----aware of presence of stressor. sympathetic nervous system is activated

Resistance---try to cope with stressor. With resources mobilized, we then fight the challenge during resistance.

Exhaustion----Persistent stress may eventually deplete body's resources. Ability to adapt to stressor declines to point where negative consequences of stress appear.

If resist or cope with a stressor in the second stage, physical resources will not be drained.

Long-term, continuous exposure to stressors may result in a reduction of the body's ability to deal with stress.

Perceived Control

Catastrophes, important life changes, and daily hassles are especially stressful when appraised as negative and uncontrollable.

Rats that experience uncontrollable shock are more susceptible to ulcers and experience a lowered immunity to disease--- animal and human studies show that loss of control provokes an outpouring of stress hormones that can contribute to health problems.

Explanatory style

Optimism

use external, unstable, & specific explanations for negative events

predicts better health outcomes

Pessimism

use internal, stable, & global explanations for negative events

predicts worse health outcomes

Pessimism also influences stress vulnerability. Optimists report less fatigue, have fewer aches and pains, and respond to stress with smaller increases in blood pressure. Optimists outlive pessimists.

Habitually grouchy people tend to have poorer health outcomes

Stress and the Heart--- Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death. clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle

Risk factors in heart disease include smoking, stress, Type A personality traits, obesity, a high-fat diet, and lack of exercise.

Type A—characteristics are time urgency; general hostility;

& intense ambition and competitiveness

associated with heart disease

Friedman and Rosenman’s began using this term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.

Found there to be an increased risk of heart disease linked with the competitive, hard-driving, and impatient Type A personality.

Type B

Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people. . The noncompetitive, relaxed, easy-going Type B personality is less physiologically reactive when harassed or given a difficult challenge. Less susceptible to coronary heart disease.

Research on type A personality

Time urgency & competitiveness not associated with poor health outcomes.

The toxic core of Type A is negative emotions, especially the anger associated with an aggressively reactive temperament. Under stress, the body of the Type A person secretes more of the hormones that accelerate the buildup of placques on the heart’s artery walls.

High levels of hostility increase chance of all disease (e.g., cancer)

Reducing stress, increasing exercise, and maintaining a low-fat diet can help minimize the build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries and the risk for cardiovascular disease.

Research indicates that depressed people are also at risk for heart disease

Stress and Disease

Psychophysiological Illness

“mind-body” illness

any stress-related physical illness---some forms of hypertension; some headaches

distinct from hypochondria— misinterpreting normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease

Immune system function--stress leads to suppressed immune function

Diverts energy to muscles & brain

Even brief exposure alters immune function

Stress-weakened immune system increases risk of cancer

depression

bereavement

bottled-up negative emotions

Negative emotions and health-related consequences

Modifying Type A life-style can reduce recurrence of heart attacks

Strategies for coping with stress:

Studies suggest that aerobic exercise can reduce stress, depression, and anxiety.

Aerobic exercise can reduce stress, depression, & anxiety

Relaxation, meditation can lower blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen consumption

Counseling Type A heart attack victims to slow down and relax has helped them lower their rate of recurring attacks.

Social support helps people cope, partly by buffering the impact of stress.

Improves ability to cope with stress & benefits health

person modifies appraisal of stressor’s significance to be less threatening

helps to decrease intensity of physical reactions to stress

make person less likely to experience negative emotions

Pets as social support

especially for elderly and people who live alone

Gender and social support

Religious Attendance

The religion factor is multidimensional

COPING WITH STRESS - The efforts to control, reduce, or learn to tolerate the threats that lead to stress

Two major forms of coping with stress

Problem-Focused Forms of Coping - This approach to coping with stress deals directly with the situation or causative factors to decrease or eliminate the problems. Problem-focused coping: managing or changing the stressor

Confrontive coping or planful problem solving

attempts to manage the stressful problem or stimulus

Emotion-Focused Forms of Coping - emotional or cognitive strategies that change how we view stressful situations, such as reappraising or reinterpreting situation, and the use of defense mechanisms. Used when problem is out of our control.

Try to feel better about situation, characterized by the conscious regulation of emotions

Emotion-focused coping strategies

Escape-avoidance: try to escape stressor

Distancing: minimize impact of stressor

Denial: refuse to acknowledge problem exists

Wishful thinking: imagining stressor is magically gone

Seeking social support :turn to friends, support people

Positive reappraisal: minimize negative, emphasize positive

Downward comparison:compare self to those less fortunate

Resources for Effective Coping - The ability to cope with a stressor also depends on the resources available to a person: includes health and energy, positive beliefs, social skills, material resources personal control, and social support( mutual network of caring, interested others)

Hardiness: A personality characteristic associated with a lower rate of stress-related illness, consisting of three components: commitment, challenge, and control.

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