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Stress. Presented to you by: Chloe Kenda TK. What is stress?. Stress is the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors , that we appraise as threatening or challenging. SEYLE’S GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME.
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Stress Presented to you by: Chloe Kenda TK
What is stress? • Stress is the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.
SEYLE’S GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME • Hans Selye was a Canadian scientist who studied stress for 40 years. After an unsuccessful desire to find new hormones in rats he became depressed. One day, he wondered if there was a nonspecific reaction of the body to any kind of damage. • To check his hypothesis, he studied animal’s reactions to various stressors like electric shock, surgical trauma, and immobilizing restraint. • The body’s adaptive response was general which is why he named his studies general adaptation syndrome.
SEYLE’S GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME (CONT.) • General adaptation syndrome (GAS) - Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three stages-alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. • He saw three phases of people’s reactions and response to a stressful event: • Phase 1- someone experiences an alarm reaction due to the sudden activation of that person’s sympathetic nervous system. The heart rate increases at this stage. • Phase 2-resistance occurs here where someone’s temperature, blood pressure, and respiration remains high, and there is a sudden outpour of hormones released to maintain a state of readiness. • Phase 3- with exhaustion someone’s parasympathetic nervous system returned to its physiological state to normal. Here people are more vulnerable to illness or fall to death in some severe cases.
SEYLE’S GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME (CONT.) • Prolonged stress can produce physical deterioration. More people may die younger due to stress because DNA pieces (telomeres) get too short and the cell cannot divide so it eventually dies. • Stress causes heart conditions and emotional difficulties such as depression. Our bodies can remain ready for a challenge only so long before our resources are depleted and we are vulnerable do disease.
MEASURING STRESS I. Measuring StressThomas Holmes and Richard Rahe • SRRS (social readjustment rating scale): Measures the changes in life • Ex: -Selling a home • -Changing jobs • The greater the change the more LCU (life changing units: units of measurement for SRRS) assigned to that event • Both negative and positive events receive LCU • The higher you score on the SRRS the more likely you are to have a stress related disease
Measuring stress(cont.) II. Other measurements of StressOther tests have been designed to measure stress • Take into account the perceptions the person perceives of a stressful event • More accurate
Coping With Stress Problem-Focused Coping Attempting to alleviate stress directly by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor. EX: You get into an upsetting argument with your mom, and later talk things out with her in order to feel better. Emotion-Focused Coping Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one’s stress reaction. EX: Feeling stressed over project assignments and choosing to party to get them off of your mind.
Coping with stress (cont.) • Why do we choose certain ways to cope?We often implement problem-focused coping when we feel a sense of control over a situation and think we can change the circumstances.We turn to emotion-focused coping when we believe that we cannot change a situation.
And to tie everything together…. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb2WKa9GueE&context=C349d2ffADOEgsToPDskLWKSdfOzdWhW71iNyw2W2v