What is Stress - created from Mind Map

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The Pioneers

Other Influential Researchers

Types of Stress

Relaxation Techniques

What causes stress?

What is stress

Walter Cannon

Hans Selye

• First to describe the body’s reaction to stress

– Fight-or-flight response: Body’s stress reaction that includes an increase in:  Heart rate  Respiration  Blood pressure  Serum cholesterol

• Studied the physiological responses to stress • Proposed general adaptation syndrome

– General adaptation syndrome: Includes three stages of stress reaction  Alarm reaction  Stage of resistance  Stage of exhaustion

Figure 1.1 - The General Adaptation Syndrome in Action (1 of 3) 1. Alarm phase – Being at a party but having social anxiety

2. Resistance phase – When others try to involve the socially anxious party guest, he experiences stress (perspiration, muscle tension, increased heart rate, etc.)

3. Exhaustion phase – If the social anxiety is experienced often, and over a long period of time, it can result in illness and disease such as coronary heart disease

• Simeons - Related evolution to psychosomatic disease • Wolff, LeShan, and Engel - Studied illness, disease, and stress • Friedman and Rosenman - Identified the relationship between stress and coronary heart disease • Simonton - Applied the visualization technique to cancer therapy

• Eustress – Good things to which one has to adapt and that can lead to a stress reaction – Example: Job promotion • Distress – Bad things to which one has to adapt and that can lead to a stress reaction – Example: Death of a loved one

• Relaxation response: – Series of bodily changes that are the opposite of the stress reaction • Autogenic training: – Involves a sensation of heaviness, warmth, and tingling in the limbs • Progressive relaxation: – Involves contracting and relaxing muscle groups throughout the body  Called neuromuscular relaxation

Stress Theories: Life-Events Theory

Stress Theories: Hardiness Theory and Social Support Theory

• Social support theory

• Stress occurs when a situation requires more resources than are available • Daily hassles are more stressful than major events • Allostatic load: Cumulative biological wear and tear that results from: – Responses to stress that seek to maintain body equilibrium

– Focuses on one’s attitude toward stressful events – Hardiness - Buffering between stress and the development of illness and disease

– Stress occurs when there is not enough social support available to respond to the event effectively

A combination of a stressor, stress reactivity, and strain”

what is a stressor

• Stimulus with the potential for triggering the fight-or-flight response • Types - Environmental, psychological, sociological, and philosophical • The human body has evolved to respond to stressors with an immediate action – Alters the physiology for greater speed and strength

What is stress reactivity

• Term for fight-or-flight response • Includes – Increased muscle tension, heart rate, blood pressure, and perspiration – Change in respiratory rate and brain waves • Effects are based on duration and degree of one’s physiological reaction

Strain

• Outcome of stress reactivity • Physical - Tension headaches • Psychological - Agoraphobia • Behavioural - Alcohol abuse