Chapter 12
Emotional Behaviors, Stress and
Health
Emotion • Emotion
– Though emotions comprise a significant and crucial part of our individual and social
experience, emotion is an elusive concept, difficult to define and measure.
– Through scientific research psychologists
have learned much about nature of emotions, but some interesting and important questions remain unanswered.
The Crucial Importance of Emotion
• It is by no means true that we would make better decisions if we could keep our emotions in
check, despite the pop culture lore that promotes this idea.
• Brain damaged people with impaired emotions are generally inferior decision-makers.
• Emotions are a powerful informer of our decisions, closely related to motivation, as
Module 12.1 • The Nature of Emotions
Measuring Emotions
• Like many other constructs in psychology, measuring emotion poses challenges to psychological scientists. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses.
– Self-reports are fast and easy but may have questionable accuracy.
– Behavioral observations; especially of facial
expressions are useful. Although facial emotions can be suppressed, micro-expressions can be very
revealing.
– Physiological measures use autonomic nervous activity. These are harder to control or suppress, although their meaning is ambiguous.
Excitement and Physiological Arousal • The role of the autonomic nervous system
– The autonomic nervous system is the division that controls the functioning of the internal organs.
– The ANS has two subdivisions, the
sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
The Autonomic Nervous System • The sympathetic nervous system
– The sympathetic nervous system is
comprised of two chains of neuron clusters just to the left and right of the spinal cord. – It increases the heart rate, breathing rate,
production of sweat, and flow of adrenaline. – It prepares the body for intense activity, “fight
or flight” and other stress-related behaviors. It is the “crisis management” center.
The Autonomic Nervous System
• The parasympathetic nervous system
– The parasympathetic nervous system consists of neurons with axons extending out from the medulla and the lower spinal cord.
– These axons connect to neuron clusters near the internal organs.
– The parasympathetic nervous system is the long-term survival center, promoting rest by decreasing heart rate, digestion, and other functions that keep an organism alive in the long-term.
The Autonomic Nervous System • The two divisions of the ANS
– Both systems are active, and shifting between the two systems helps to keep the body in a balanced condition called homeostasis.
– Emergencies mainly activate the sympathetic nervous system, but also may involve some parasympathetic activity (i.e., being frightened causes an individual to lose bowel or bladder control).
The Autonomic Nervous System • The two divisions of the ANS
– We cannot directly control autonomic
responses, but we can influence them by
voluntary cognition and behavior, for example, athletes learn to control breathing and focus their concentration for improved aim.
The Autonomic Nervous System • The Opponent-Process Principle of Emotions
– After sympathetic nervous system activity slows down, the body responds with increased
parasympathetic activity
– Removal of a stimulus that excites one emotion causes a swing to an opposite emotion. The
initial emotion is referred to as the “A” state, and the rebound emotion as the “B” state.
– With repetition of the cycle, the A state
becomes weaker, and the B state becomes stronger and more prolonged.
Concept Check:
If you ride on the back of your friend’s brand-new high-powered motorcycle, does your heart rate increase or decrease?
During the ride, your heart rate will increase.
What happens when the ride is over?
Emotion and Perceived Arousal
• Which comes first, the psychological experience of emotion or the physiological arousal?
• Common sense dictates that one feels sad and therefore one cries, one feels happy and so one laughs.
Emotion and Perceived Arousal
• The James-Lange theory of emotions
– Two nineteenth century psychologists, working
independently, came up with a different interpretation of how emotion and physiological reactions are
related.
• The James-Lange theory states that a person’s interpretation of a stimulus evokes the autonomic changes directly.
• The psychological experience of emotion is the individual’s perception of those physiological changes.
Emotion and Perceived Arousal • The James-Lange theory of emotions
– You decide that you are happy because you are smiling, sad because you are frowning and tears are forming in your eyes.
– According to the James-Lange theory, the reactions are not enough to produce the emotions, but you will not have the full experience of the emotions without them.
Concept Check:
You arrive at your psychology class and realize
that there is a test today and you completely forgot about it. You feel nervous and start to sweat.
According to the James-Lange theory, which comes first, the feeling of fear or the sweating?
The Autonomic Nervous System
• Effects of decreased perceived arousal
– Some medical conditions cause people to feel little physiological arousal.
– In the condition called pure autonomic failure the ANS stops regulating the internal organs.
– People who suffer from pure autonomic failure recognize situations that call for strong emotions
(fear, elation) but they report that their emotions are much less intense.
Emotion and Perceived Arousal • Schachter and Singer’s theory of emotions
– Another theory proposes that the
physiological state is not the same thing as the emotion.
• According to the Schachter and Singer theory of emotions, the intensity of the physiological reaction determines only the intensity of the emotion, not the type of
Emotion and Perceived Arousal • Schachter and Singer’s theory of emotions
– A person’s cognitive appraisal of the situation that determines the emotion that we
experience.
– Research studies based on the Schachter and Singer theory leave some unanswered questions about the role of physiological
arousal in contributing to the intensity of the emotional states.
Figure 12.4
Figure 12.4 According to Schachter and Singer’s theory, physiological arousal determines the intensity of an emotion, but a cognitive appraisal determines which emotion one feels.
Concept Check:
According to the Schachter-Singer theory, which comes first, the realization that you forgot about the test, or the feeling of fear?
The Range of Emotions
• Psychologists have yet to agree on a single list of basic emotions but they have agreed on a list of criteria for establishing what a basic emotion should be.
The Range of Emotions
• A basic emotion should emerge early in life without requiring a great deal of experience. • The basic emotions should be found across
cultures.
• Each basic emotion should have a unique
The Range of Emotions
• Producing facial expressions
– The function of facial expressions in all primates is communication, especially communication of emotions.
• Facial expression of emotion is much more likely to occur in the presence of other people. • Facial expressions of emotion are more likely
to indicate a person’s true internal state than simple statements and other indicators.
The Range of Emotions • Producing facial expression
– For example, a voluntary smile, such as the one you put on for a photographer, only
utilizes the mouth muscles.
– A full, spontaneous smile, or Duchenne
smile, also involves the eye muscles along with the mouth.
– Most people cannot voluntarily produce a Duchenne smile.
The Range of Emotions • Understanding facial expressions
– Researchers have found a large amount of evidence that there is a set of basic emotions. – Many facial expressions including smiling,
frowning, laughing, and crying occur
throughout the world and are even found in children born deaf and blind.
The Range of Emotions
• Understanding facial expressions
– Some of our facial expressions develop in the absence of opportunities to observe and imitate others.
– There is evidence that the basic emotions consist of happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger and surprise.
– Interpretation of these emotions by facial
expression occurs easily and fairly accurately across cultures.
The Range of Emotions
• Understanding facial expressions
– But people also rely on gestures, changes in expression, and social situation to make more accurate judgments of others’ emotions.
– People of different world cultures do not
necessarily agree about which internal states are emotions.
– Also, a state that is associated with a recognizable facial expression is not necessarily an emotion.
An Alternative to Basic Emotions • An Alternative to Basic Emotions
– Emotions may not be basic units of
experience but may be broken down into elements or experiences.
– Emotions overlap and often very different emotions evoke the same physiological responses.
– The circumplex model tries to account for these facts.
Concept Check:
What six states are currently believed to comprise the six basic emotions?
Happiness Sadness Anger Fear Disgust Surprise
Concept Check:
What is the evidence that these six may be the basic emotions?
Most people in all cultures recognize the facial expressions associated with these states.
The Usefulness of Emotions
• If emotions were not informative in some way, we probably would not have evolved them.
– Emotions adjust our priorities and focus our attention on important information.
– The broaden-and-build hypothesis of positive emotions the function of happy moods is to increase our readiness to explore new ideas and opportunities.
– Mildly sad moods seem to increase the
Emotions and Moral Decisions
– Emotions may influence our moral decisions. – Research studies using the Trolley Dilemma
and Footbridge Dilemma, problems that
involve making decisions about letting a small number of people die to save a larger number of people, have provided evidence that
emotions play a powerful role in deciding the most moral course of action.
Figure 12.17
Figure 12.17 (a) Should you flip a switch so the trolley goes down a track with one person instead of five? (b) Should you push a fat person off a bridge to save five people?
Emotion, Decision-Making, and Emotional Intelligence
• It makes intuitive sense that good decision-making would require some great degree of emotional control, hence the familiar advice to remain calm and rational when contemplating big decisions.
• This in fact is not entirely true. Only extreme emotions interfere with decision-making.
• Some degree of emotionality appears to be necessary for good decision-making.
Emotions and Decision-Making
• In fact, a number of case studies of patients with brain damage suggest that the ability to
experience and express emotions plays a key role in important life and moral decisions.
• The case of Phineas Gage and more recently, Antonio Damasio’s case study of “Elliot” both provide evidence that feeling distinctly good or bad is crucial in making decisions of major
importance in our lives so that the best outcome is achieved.
Figure 12.18
Figure 12.18 In the 1990s researchers used modern technology to reconstruct the path that an iron bar must have made through the brain of Phineas Gage, who survived this injury in 1848. The damage impaired Gage’s judgment and decision-making ability.
Concept Check:
A patient experiences a closed head injury, with damage to the prefrontal cortex. What behavioral and emotional problems might result from this
injury?
Problems with making decisions, expressing and modulating emotions, tendency to impulsive behavior, reduced ability to accurately interpret the emotions of other people.
Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to perceive, imagine and understand emotions and to use that information in decision-making.
• The idea of emotional intelligence has gained a great deal of popularity over the past few
Emotional Intelligence
• The evidence for the existence of a special kind of intelligence related to emotions is still not strong. • Measuring this construct poses challenges in
assessment that have yet to be well managed. • For example, in constructing items for a test of
emotional intelligence, too often the best answer to a question might be “it depends.”
• Emotional intelligence is an interesting idea, but requires further and better research.
Emotions and Decision-Making
• The ability to imagine the feeling that we would have pursuing each option presented to us is a big part of good decision-making capability.
“Emotions are inseparable from the idea of good and evil.”
Emotions
• The debates described in this module may not strike you as terribly important, but they are part of larger issue of great importance to the
science of psychology.
• Human behavior seems to be in large part influenced by emotions.
Emotions
• Just as the first chemists had to struggle to
identify the number and nature of basic elements in order to understand the way the universe
works, so we need to keep striving to identify the basic emotions and the relationship of these to human experience and action.
Module 12.2 • A Survey of Emotions
Fear and Anxiety
• Fear and anxiety feel the same but can be distinguished
– Fear is a response to an immediate danger. – Anxiety is an increase in the startle reflex,
Fear and Anxiety
• Some researchers are investigating the
relationship between emotions and brain activity. – There is evidence linking the emotions of fear
or anxiety to the amygdala.
– When the amygdala is damaged, a person’s ability to experience these feelings may be impaired.
Figure 12.19
Figure 12.19 Structures in the pons and medulla control the startle response to a sudden loud sound. The amygdala sends information to the pons and medulla. This drawing is of a human brain, although the relevant experiments were conducted with rats.
Fear and Anxiety
• Damage to the amygdala also diminishes the
ability to recognize the signs of these feelings in other people.
• There is also impairment in the ability to recognize anger, disgust and surprise.
• The amygdala may be specialized to process information relative to several kinds of emotions
Anxiety, Arousal and Lie Detection
• The sympathetic nervous system and lie detection – Throughout history, humans have been
determined to find a reliable test to determine whether a person is telling the truth or is lying.
– One of the most frequently used methods involves the use of a polygraph or “lie detector.”
– A polygraph measures SNS arousal such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration and
electrical conduction of the skin in reaction to a series of questions.
Figure 12.20
Figure 12.20 The polygraph operator (a) asks a series of non-threatening questions to establish base-line readings of the subject’s autonomic responses, (b) then asks questions relevant to an investigation.
Anxiety, Arousal and Lie Detection
• The sympathetic nervous system and lie detection – A polygraph is a machine that records several
indications of sympathetic nervous system
arousal: blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and electrical conduction of the skin.
– Although the some people will confess simply because they believe that the polygraph will catch them if they do not tell the truth.
– Some people are quite capable of regulating reactions well enough to fool the machine.
Anxiety, Arousal and Lie Detection
• The sympathetic nervous system and lie detection
– Although a typical polygraph test procedure
does identify a large number of guilty people, it also misses a substantial minority and falsely identifies some innocent people (37% in one study) as guilty.
– The guilty-knowledge test is a variant of the standard test that produces more accurate
Anxiety, Arousal and Lie Detection • The sympathetic nervous system and lie
detection
– The interrogator asks about information that would only be known to someone who had been involved in the crime. The suspect is expected to show heightened arousal in response to the correct details.
– Although the guilty knowledge test improves the accuracy of polygraph use, it is by no
means flawless and can only be used when law enforcement has a great deal of
information about the crime that would not be known to the general public.
Figure 12.21
Figure 12.21 Polygraph examiners correctly identified 76% of guilty suspects as lying. However, they also identified 37% of innocent suspects as lying. (Based on data of Kleinmuntz & Szucko, 1984)
Other Methods of Lie Detection
• It has been shown that when people lie, they experience increased blood flow to the face. • A thermal camera can detect this blood flow,
without making contact with the person’s body. • The method appears to work about as well as a
polygraph (which unfortunately is not saying much to recommend it).
Other Methods of Lie Detection
• Psychologist Paul Ekman has developed a fairly good method based on observation of facial
expressions.
• His research suggests that people who are trying to keep a happy or “straight” face still make very subtle, quick facial expressions of negative emotion when trying to lie.
• He calls these movements “microexpressions.” • With good training, this method can be more
effectively used than polygraphs but it still may fail when one is dealing with confident or experienced liars.
Concept Check:
List the various methods of lie detection. Standard polygraph
Guilty knowledge
Thermal camera
Concept check:
List some of the objections to standard methods of lie detection.
Not perfectly reliable or valid
People can learn to “fake truthfulness” or “fake good”
Guilty knowledge requires police to have much inside knowledge of crime
Anger and Aggressive Behavior
“The struggle to understand violence is among the most important goals facing humanity in general, and psychology in particular.”
Causes of Anger • Frustration and aggression
– The frustration-aggression hypothesis is the idea long held by psychologists that a failure to obtain a desired or expected goal leads to aggressive behavior.
– This hypothesis has some limitations in explaining aggressive behavior.
Causes of Anger • Frustration and aggression
– The experience of anger and potential for aggression depends on an attribution of
intention on the part of the person causing the frustration.
– The fact that frustration leads to anger does not necessitate that the anger will lead to
aggression.
– Frustration appears to play a role only in
emotional aggression, not in the more calm aggressive behaviors that people learn as strategies for getting what they want.
Causes of Anger
• Frustration and aggression
– More recently, researchers have proposed that any unpleasant event provokes a fight or flight reaction. Whether aggression results from the event depends on a variety of factors.
– The likelihood of violence resulting from frustration is particularly high in a sexual
context. One of the most common causes of murder is sexual jealousy.
Causes of Anger • After violence: reconciliation
– Reconciliation after outbursts of anger and aggression are vital in species that live in social groups.
– After reconciliation, the individuals who fought are less likely to fight again.
– Conciliatory behaviors have been observed in wolves, monkeys, chimpanzees and humans.
Individual Differences in Anger and Aggression • For a long time, psychologists assumed that
violence was a result of the perpetrator’s low self-esteem.
• More recent research shows little or no
relationship between violence and low self-esteem.
Individual Differences in Anger and Aggression • In many professional contexts, psychologists are
asked to predict who will be violent, and how violent they might be.
• So what factors are good predictors of violent behavior?
Individual Differences in Anger and Aggression • One challenge in this effort is the fact that violent
acts, even in a person with a history, are sporadic and situation-dependent.
• The best predictor of future violent behavior, in general, is past violent behavior.
• A person with a long history of violence, dating back to childhood, is more likely to re-offend than a person who has committed a single or isolated violent act.
Individual Differences in Anger and Aggression • Some other factors that have been linked to
violent tendencies are:
– Having been physically abused as a child – Having witnessed violence between one’s
parents
– Use of alcohol or drugs – History of impulsive acts
Individual Differences in Anger and Aggression
• Lack of remorse after hurting someone
• Weaker than average level of physiological response to arousal
• Smaller than average prefrontal cortex
• Decreased release of serotonin in the prefrontal cortex • History of suicide attempts
• Preference for violent television programming • Men are more violent in general than women.
• Young men (in their late teens and early twenties) are more likely to commit acts of violence.
Concept Check:
When all the evidence is examined, the best predictor of future violent behavior is…
Concept Check:
Name some other factors that have been
associated with tendencies towards violent behavior.
Childhood abuse and exposure to domestic violence/violent neighborhood Drug and alcohol use
History of impulsive behavior History of suicide attempts Various biological factors
Sexual Violence
• Violence is most likely to occur between people who know each other well.
• Married and dating couples usually know each other well.
• When violence is defined very broadly, women can be just as violent as men, if not more so, according to some studies.
Sexual Violence
• But when violence is defined narrowly and only serious and injurious attacks are included, then men commit far more of this type of violence, and are far more likely to seriously injure or kill their partners.
• Men who commit serious acts of this nature are generally those who are prone to criminal and violent behavior towards other people as well.
Sexual Violence
• Rape
– Rape is defined as sexual contact obtained through violence, coercion, or threats.
• In practice, rape is defined on a continuum that ranges from forcible rape to a refusal to respect ambiguous resistance.
• Verbal coaxing can result in a woman having unwanted sex.
• Men are encouraged to disregard women’s
refusals as part of a “script” for negotiating sexual relations.
Sexual Violence • Rape
“Preventing date rape is partly a matter of
persuading men to respect a woman’s refusal and partly a matter of advising women to
express their refusal emphatically.”
Sexual Violence
• Rape
– What kind of men commit rape?
• The best available evidence suggests that most perpetrators of sexual violence have a history of hostility and aggression towards women and men.
• Other factors (history of childhood abuse, expression of anger towards women in
particular) have a weaker relationship with acts of sexual violence.
Controlling Violence
• We like to believe that people are fundamentally good, and that violence and cruelty result from social problems that can be corrected: poverty, injustice, ignorance, and low self-esteem.
• But social improvements partly fix the problem. There have been and are violent individuals who have experienced none of these difficulties.
Controlling Violence
• Harsh punishments are probably not the answer. Children do need guidance and supervision, and consequences that are quick, certain, and
logical.
• People can be taught at any age to handle frustration more effectively and to learn
non-violent ways to negotiate for the things that they want. Anger management training is sometimes used effectively for this purpose.
• There are a variety of interventions and
techniques for reducing the amount of violence in our society.
Happiness
• It is challenging to measure happiness
scientifically, because unlike the negative
emotions, it doesn’t really cause any obvious behavioral changes (like running away or
attacking).
• Most researchers simply ask subjects how happy they think that they are.
Happiness
• Martin Seligman and other psychologists have been developing a perspective called positive psychology.
• Positive psychology is the study of features that enrich life, such as hope, creativity, courage,
spirituality and responsibility.
Happiness
• American researchers have focused on the perception of subjective well-being.
• Subjective well-being is the individual’s
assessment of the degree to which his or her life is pleasant, interesting and satisfying.
Happiness
• When surveyed regarding what conditions would cause an increase in happiness, most people
answered: – Money
– A good job
– More leisure time
Happiness • Other influences on happiness
– Factors that correlate well with happiness include: • Inborn temperament or disposition.
• Marital status (being married seems relate to being happy).
• Striving towards goals and working for causes. • Having a religious faith.
• Being healthy.
– A correlation does not indicate a causal relationship. There may be more than one
Happiness • How to be a happy person:
– Have happy parents.
– Think about the long term when you make decisions.
– Have strong connections with other people. – Be involved in activities that are important to
Happiness • Wealth
– Researchers (like everyone) are curious about the degree to which income level influences happiness.
– It is difficult to measure happiness, and there are cross-cultural influences and problems of subjective interpretation – a number used for a rating by one person may signify a different level to another person.
– The general conclusion drawn from research so far is that wealth does not have a large
Sadness
• Sadness is almost always reported to be a reaction to loss.
– Crying is a typical reaction to severe sadness, but as with all other emotions cultures vary in their attitudes and norms about crying.
– Crying is usually accompanied by an increase in SNS activity and a feeling of relief or
Sadness
• The possible functions of crying
– However, research suggests that crying may not actually relieve tension and that those
who cry are more likely to report feelings of depression than those who don’t.
– Crying may function mainly to draw attention and sympathy.
– The shedding of tears occurs exclusively in humans.
Other Emotions
• Surprise is usually listed as a basic emotion by most psychologists but little research has been done related to it.
• Disgust is an emotional reaction that appears to derive from the reaction one would have if one discovered that contaminated matter was in
one’s mouth.
• Contempt is based upon a reaction to violation of community standards.
• Embarrassment, guilt, shame and pride are related “self-conscious” emotions based on our view of how people regard us and our actions.
Module 12.3 • Stress, Health and Coping
Health Psychology
• Health psychology examines how people’s
behavior can improve health and prevent illness, and how human behavior influences the course of recovery from illness.
Health Psychology
• Stress
– Selye’s Concept of Stress
• A variety of experiences can cause stress. • The physician Hans Selye defined stress as
“the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it.”
• Selye’s definition emphasizes the role that changes in one’s life play in causing stress.
• It does not consider the effects of more chronic problems such as poverty or discrimination.
Health Psychology
• Selye’s concept of stress
– Selye proposed that the body responds to stress in three distinct stages:
• Alarm – a brief period of high arousal of the SNS, which readies the body for vigorous activity.
• Resistance – if the stressor goes on more than a few minutes, the body enters a phase of
prolonged, moderate arousal.
• Exhaustion – long-lasting stress causes a depletion of proteins in the immune system resulting in fatigue, weakness and increased vulnerability to illness.
Concept Check:
According to Selye’s definition of stress, is going away to college stressful?
Concept Check:
According to Selye’s definition of stress, would remaining in an unhappy marriage of over 30 years’ duration be stressful?
Measuring Stress
• Life is inherently stressful. How much stress is detrimental to one’s health?
– To answer this question, psychologists need to measure both stress and health.
– Both of these conditions are difficult to measure.
– Checklists devised for this purpose have been found to have low reliability and validity.
Measuring Stress
• A given event will have different meanings to different people, depending on the
circumstances.
• A lost job is unlikely to be more than a minor
annoyance to a 16-year-old fast-food worker who still lives at home.
• Because of these difficulties in measuring stress according to Selye’s definition, psychologist
Arnold Lazarus devised a different perspective on it.
Measuring Stress
• According to Lazarus, a stressful situation is one that a person regards as threatening and
possibly exceeding his or her resources.
• Thus, divorce could be a major life stressor for an abandoned spouse with several children, but perhaps an easier (though probably not stress-free) transition for a childless couple in their 20’s who are more or less in agreement about the
decision to end the marriage.
• Lazarus’ view also suggests that people can learn to think differently and deal with events actively instead of feeling threatened by them.
Table 12.1
Measuring Stress
• To summarize, in Lazarus’ view the degree of stressfulness of any event depends upon:
– Our interpretation of the event – Our reaction to it
Measuring Stress
• The most accurate way to measure stress would be through a careful and detailed interview to
assess all the possible stressors and positive aspects in an individual’s life.
• Stress research is difficult to do well, but
researchers are able to identify the types of experiences that endanger health.
Concept Check:
16-year-old Brenda has broken up with her boyfriend, lost her job as a cashier at Burger
Tyrant, and been kicked off the varsity girl’s soccer team. Yet she scores in the mild stress range on the stress checklist that her guidance counselor administered to her yesterday. What are some possible interpretations of these facts?
Although it is possible the Brenda is showing signs of an emotional problem or drug use (or both), it is also
possible that her feelings towards her boyfriend had changed, that she hated her job at restaurant, and that she disliked playing soccer but was doing so to please her parents (for example).
How Stress Affects Health
• Stress has indirect effects and direct effects on physical health
– Indirect effects include any changes in
behavior – loss of sleep, use of substances or anxiety generated by negative suggestion – that can damage health in the long-term.
– Direct effects stem from prolonged activation of the SNS, leading to prolonged exposure to cortisol, which can damage memory and inhibit immune system functioning.
How Stress Affects Health
• It is probably not the case that emotions or stress lead directly to illness.
• Rather, negative emotion and great stress may influence an individual to engage in risky
behavior or self-neglect.
• “Curses” and “hexes” may also work in this way, by influencing a person’s beliefs and emotional state, leading to deterioration of health.
How Stress Affects Health
• Heart disease
– In the 1970s a physician hypothesized a link between an impatient, success-driven
personality and heart disease.
• Type A personality describes a highly
competitive, impatient, hurried person who typically has an angry and hostile
temperament.
• Type B personality designates those who are easygoing, less hurried and less hostile.
How Stress Affects Health • Heart disease
– There seems to be a link between a hostile disposition and heart disease.
– But genetics, diet, exercise and other factors have a stronger influence than personality factors or emotional tendencies.
– Culture also dictates pace of life, diet, and
other lifestyle factors that would relate to heart disease.
How Stress Affects Health • Cancer
– Behavior influences the onset and spread of cancer indirectly.
• Fear or anxiety can prevent people from taking preventative steps such as
performing self-examinations.
• Emotional states and stress may lead to
impairment of the immune system so that a greater risk of certain types of cancer will occur.
• The two states that are most likely to do so are depression and stress.
How Stress Affects Health • Cancer
– Research suggests that emotional factors are far less important in contributing to cancer
than exposure to toxins, genetic factors, and lifestyle factors.
– Psychological factors play a role in how people behave after they learn of their condition.
– The more support cancer patients receive, the more positive steps they take on their own
behalves; the better their quality of life and chance of recovery will be.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• A prolonged period of anxiety and depression following the experience of an extremely stressful event is known as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
– This disorder has been well-documented in war
veterans and those who have survived violent crimes and serious accidents.
– Some people who endure these events do not suffer PTSD, so the causes of this disorder are still not fully understood.
– People with PTSD suffer from nightmares, emotional outbursts, guilt, and flashbacks that may cause
Healing: The Psychological and The Somatic • Psychological factors are just one aspect of
health.
• Healthy diet, regular exercise, avoidance of
drugs and alcohol, regular doctor examinations will all improve one’s chances of a long and
healthy life.
• Controlling negative emotions on reducing stress will likely decrease the chance of heart disease.
Healing: The Psychological and The Somatic
• But we cannot overestimate the impact of behavioral and psychological factors, either.
• One should not feel guilty if one eventually develops heart disease or cancer anyway, because many of the physical causes of these diseases (genes, accidental exposure to toxins) are beyond one’s control.
Coping with Stress
• Psychologists have developed two major
categories for classifying how people handle their stress.
– Problem-focused – Attending carefully to the stressful event and trying to take effective
action.
– Emotion-focused – The strategy involving attempts to avoid thinking about or focusing on a stressful situation.
Coping with Stress
• Choosing the most effective strategy depends on the nature of the stressor.
• If you are experiencing stress due to an upcoming psychology test, a problem-focused strategy of
taking effective action is probably warranted. Form a study group and hit the books!
• If you are caught in a major traffic tie-up, an emotion-focused strategy is probably a better tack, as there is really nothing you can do about your situation. Turn on the radio and chill out.
Coping with Stress • Problem-focused strategies
– The importance of predictability and control • When we are engaged in an activity
voluntarily, we usually know what to expect and how to change what we are doing or quit if necessary.
• The ability to predict how things will unfold makes the activity or event less stressful.
Coping with Stress • Problem-focused strategies
– Nursing home residents and hospital patients who told what to expect and given a chance to state preferences about their care report
feeling better while under care and tend to live longer.
– Rehearsing or visualizing a process can be an effective way to prepare for a demanding or stressful event.
Coping with Stress
• Problem-focused strategies
– Inoculation is another word for receiving a vaccine. – Inoculation places a small amount of weakened or
dead germs into a person’s body.
– The amount of disease bearing material is not enough to make the person sick, but it does produce an
immune reaction. In some cases, the protection lasts a lifetime.
– To inoculate yourself against stress is to expose
yourself to small amounts or less serious versions of the event prior to encountering the actual stressor.
Coping with Stress • Social support
– Just talking about an experience with someone you trust can be a great relief.
• Talking with any sympathetic and supportive person can be useful.
• It is particularly helpful to talk with others who are having or have had similar
Coping with Stress • Social support
• Giving support can be even more stress-reducing than receiving it.
• Many well-known social organizations and self-help groups, such as Alcoholics
Anonymous and Compassionate Friends (for parents of children who have been murdered) provide these services for the public.
Coping with Stress
• Coping by Reappraisal
– A simple cognitive re-framing may have a protective effect on stress.
• Rationalizations such as “looking at the bright side” and focusing on strengths while disregarding
weaknesses can be useful in reducing the negative effects of stress.
• In one study, students were asked to restrain their emotions while looking at pictures of injured people or crying children. The most successful
participants were those who reinterpreted the pictures as being of people who were about to receive comfort or good medical care.
Coping with Stress • Emotion-focused strategies
– Emotion-focused strategies are most useful when the stressor cannot be avoided.
• Emotion-focused strategies attempt to
manage the reaction to the stressor rather than take action in response to it.
• Relaxation, exercise and distraction are common blunting strategies.
Coping with Stress • Emotion-focused strategies
– Relaxation techniques range from simply finding some quiet time to relax to
participation in various organized mediation practices.
– Exercise arouses the sympathetic nervous system in the short-term, but in the long-term seems to have an inoculating effect on those who engage in it regularly.
– Distraction is similar to hypnosis - it can reduce concentration on the unpleasant
stimulus by replacing it with a different focus of attention.
Are Coping Techniques Effective?
• These strategies work well for many people, but there is a trade-off.
• It takes energy to find ways to endure and cope with stress - energy that might have been
available for other, more pleasurable or rewarding pursuits.
Are Coping Techniques Effective? • These techniques do offer a substantial
possibility for people who experience stress to find strength and positive aspects in negative life events, and for other people to be inspired and to learn from these experiences.
