Unit 3: stress and wellness

1. Unit 3: stress and wellness

2. What is Stress? • Process by which we perceive and respond to certain events called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging • Ex: Your excited/nervous about a first date. The night of the date you get a pimple on your nose! Which is the stress? ACTUALLY… • Stressor: the date • Stress reaction - pimple

3. Health Psychology • Sub field that focuses on how stress affects our well-being and our health • How are stress and illness related? • How do our perceptions of stress affect our health? • Can we control our reactions to stress?

4. Responding to Stress2 main ways to respond to stress YOU GET A FLAT TIRE AS A THREAT AS A CHALLENGE • “I can’t do this. I am going to be stuck on the side of the road.” • More likely to panic and freeze up • Making it more difficult to solve the problem • “I got this! I can google it and change my own tire!” • You will be focused and determined • More likely to overcome your perception of the stressor

5. How does your body react to stress? • Emotion-arousing incidents-Pop Quiz- to physical stress-cold- all trigger the release of stress hormone into the nervous system • Increases heart rate, dulls sensation of pain, sends more blood to your larger muscles • It prepares you to either take action against the challenge (fight) or flee from it (flight) • Walter Cannon worked on the fight or flight response • Influenced others to go deeper into understanding stress

6. General Adaption Syndrome (GAS) • Hans Selye • Expanded on Cannon’s ideas • Said that there were 3 stages of Stress – GAS • Phase 1: Alarm Reaction • Nervous system activated • Following your fight or flight response • Phase 2: Resistance • Outpouring of Stress • Respiration, temperature, and blood pressure high • Body is not made to be in this phase indefinitely • After event, body becomes depleted

7. General Adaption Syndrome (GAS) • Phase 3: Exhaustion • Greater susceptibility to illness and even death • Prolonged stress is physically deteriorating • Ex: Combat or child abuse cases affect the memory

8. Types of Stressors • Daily Stress • Locker jams, economic upheaval, forgot your book, etc. • Can cause burn outs – state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion- can include depression, decreased performance, cynicism • Significant Changes • Significant personal changes in one’s life. Ex: Death of a loved one, leaving home

9. Types of Stressors • Catastrophes • Earthquakes, wars, flood, etc. • Prolonged exposure to stress

10. Stress related diseases • Stress and Cancer • Connection not entirely clear • Stress does not appear to create the cancer cells • BUT Stress definitely affects the body’s fighting ability • Stress can weaken immune system and body is much more likely to allow tumor growth

11. Stress related Diseases • Stress and Heart problems • High levels of stress can increase the risk of heart disease • Type A and B personalities • Created by Meyer Friedmant and Ray Rosenman • Type A: impatient, competitive, hard driving, verbally aggressive, and anger prone – more likely to have heart attacks • Type B: laidback, easy going, and relaxed

12. Stress and Wellnessin High School • Individually, take the General Well-Being Quiz. Be honest as possible. • Be sure to write your answers on a separate sheet of paper. Once you have added up your points, answer the following questions on your answer sheet: • What does your score mean? • Do you believe it is accurate? Why/Why not? • What causes stress in high school students today? Explain • How might you decrease one’s stress level? Explain • When finished with questions, on a white sheet of paper, choose one way of decreasing stress levels for high school students and create a poster. Must include: a slogan, picture, and a brief explanation on the back why this would be helpful. Be sure to include COLOR! Staple answer sheet and poster together and turn in

13. Group Projects – Promoting Wellness • In groups of 6 (some 5) You will create an advertisement to promote a type of wellness to our local community • Exercise • Family/Friends • Faith • Flow • Happiness • Optimism • Sleep

14. Group Projects – Promoting Wellness • In each group, you will need the following: • A commercial promoting your type of wellness (may be recorded or performed live) • Rap/song/poem –preformed in class • Ppt (at least 6 slides) • Argument of why your particular wellness is vital to healthy living ( Your not knocking the others down, just how, for example, exercise is very important…) • Argument will be written in 2 paragraphs • Project is worth 50 points and which group does the best will receive a quiz freebee coupon!