Psychology Test - 6

The correct answer is All of the above.

Key Points

• Stress is not a factor that resides in the individual or the environment, instead it is embedded in an ongoing process that involves individuals transacting with their social and cultural environments, making appraisals of those encounters and attempting to cope with the issues that arise.
• Stress is a dynamic mental/cognitive state. It is a disruption in homeostasis or an imbalance that gives rise to a requirement for resolution of that imbalance or restoration of homeostasis.

Additional Information

Stress

• Stress can be described as the pattern of responses an organism makes to a stimulus event that disturbs the equilibrium and exceeds a person’s ability to cope.
• Stress: Faced with any challenge, we put in additional efforts and mobilize all our resources and the support system to meet the challenge. All the challenges, problems, and difficult circumstances put us to stress.   
• Conversely, too little stress may cause one to feel somewhat listless and low on motivation which may lead us to perform slowly and less efficiently.
• It is important to remember that not all stress is inherently bad or destructive.
• ‘Eustress’ is the term used to describe the level of stress that is good for you and is one of a person’s best assets for achieving peak performance and managing the minor crises.
• Eustress, however, has the potential of turning into ‘distress’. 
• It is this latter manifestation of stress that causes our body’s wear and tear. 

The correct answer is Both 1 and 2.

Key Points

• Appraisals are very subjective and will depend on many factors.
• One factor is the past experience of dealing with such a stressful condition.
• If one has handled similar situations very successfully in the past, they would be less threatening for her/him.
• Another factor is whether the stressful event is perceived as controllable, i.e. whether one has mastery or control over a situation.
• A person who believes that s/he can control the onset of a negative situation, or its adverse consequences, will experience less amount of stress than those who have no such sense of personal control.
   

Additional Information

• The perception of stress is dependent upon the individual’s cognitive appraisal of events and the resources available to deal with them.
• The stress process, based on the cognitive theory of stress propounded by Lazarus and his colleagues.
• An individual’s response to a stressful situation largely depends upon the perceived events and how they are interpreted or appraised.
• Lazarus has distinguished between two types of appraisal, i.e. primary and secondary.
  • Primary appraisal refers to the perception of a new or changing environment as positive, neutral or negative in its consequences.  
  • Secondary appraisal, which is the assessment of one’s coping abilities and resources and whether they will be sufficient to meet the harm, threat or challenge of the event. These resources may be mental, physical, personal or social.

The correct answer is Adaptation. 

Key Points

Sources of Stress

• A wide range of events and conditions can generate stress. Among the most important of these are major stressful life events, such as death of a loved one or personal injury, the annoying frequent hassles of everyday life and traumatic events that affect our lives.
• Life Events Changes, both big and small, sudden and gradual affect our life from the moment we are born.
  • We learn to cope with small, everyday changes but major life events can be stressful, because they disturb our routine and cause upheaval.
• Hassles These are the personal stresses we endure as individuals, due to the happenings in our daily life, such as noisy surroundings, commuting, quarrelsome neighbours, electricity and water shortage, traffic snarls, and so on. 
• Traumatic Events These include being involved in a variety of extreme events such as a fire, train or road accident, robbery, earthquake, tsunami, etc.
  • The effects of these events may occur after some lapse of time and sometimes persist as symptoms of anxiety, flashbacks, dreams and intrusive thoughts, etc.

The correct answer is Alcohol intake.

Key Points

What are the effects of stress?

• Many of the effects are physiological in nature, however, other changes also occur inside stressed individuals. There are four major effects of stress associated with the stressed state, viz. emotional, physiological, cognitive, and behavioural.
• Behavioural Effects: Stress affects our behaviour in the form of eating less nutritional food, increasing intake of stimulants such as caffeine, excessive consumption of cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs such as tranquillisers etc.
  • Tranquillisers can be addictive and have side effects such as loss of concentration, poor coordination, and dizziness.
  • Some of the typical behavioural effects of stress seen are disrupted sleep patterns, increased absenteeism, and reduced work performance

• Emotional Effects: Those who suffer from stress are far more likely to experience mood swings, and show erratic behaviour that may alienate them from family and friends.
  • In some cases this can start a vicious circle of decreasing confidence, leading to more serious emotional problems.
  • Some examples are feelings of anxiety and depression, increased physical tension, increased psychological tension and mood swings. 
• Physiological Effects: When the human body is placed under physical or psychological stress, it increases the production of certain hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol.
  • These hormones produce marked changes in heart rate, blood pressure levels, metabolism and physical activity. Although, this physical reaction will help us to function more effectively when we are under pressure for short periods of time, it can be extremely damaging to the body in the long-term effects.
  • Examples of physiological effects are release of epinephrine and nor - epinephrine, slowing down of the digestive system, expansion of air passages in the lungs, increased heart rate, and constriction of blood vessels
• Cognitive Effects : If pressures due to stress continue, one may suffer from mental overload.
  • This suffering from high level of stress can rapidly cause individuals to lose their ability to make sound decisions.
  • Faulty decisions made at home, in career, or at workplace may lead to arguments, failure, financial loss or even loss of job. Cognitive effects of stress are poor concentration, and reduced short-term memory capacity.

The correct answer is Alarm reaction stage - Resistance Stage - Exhaustion Stage. 

Key Points

General Adaptation Syndrome

• What happens to the body when stress is prolonged? Selye studied this issue by subjecting animals to a variety of stressors such as high temperature, X-rays and insulin injections, in the laboratory over a long period of time.
• He also observed patients with various injuries and illnesses in hospitals.
• Selye noticed a similar pattern of bodily response in all of them.
• He called this pattern the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS).
• According to him, GAS involves three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion 
  1. Alarm reaction stage: The presence of a noxious stimulus or stressor leads to activation of the adrenal pituitary-cortex system. This triggers the release of hormones producing the stress response. Now the individual is ready for fight or flight.
  2. Resistance stage: If stress is prolonged, the resistance stage begins. The parasympathetic nervous system calls for more cautious use of the body’s resources. The organism makes efforts to cope with the threat, as through confrontation.
  3. Exhaustion stage: Continued exposure to the same stressor or additional stressors drains the body of its resources and leads to the third stage of exhaustion. The physiological systems involved in alarm reaction and resistance become ineffective and susceptibility to stress-related diseases such as high blood pressure becomes more likely. Selye’s model has been criticised for assigning a very limited role to psychological factors in stress.

The correct answer is Duration. 

Key Points

• The stresses which people experience also vary in terms of 
  • Intensity (low intensity vs. high intensity),
  • Duration (short-term vs. longterm),
  • Complexity ( less complex vs. more complex) and
  • Predictability (unexpected vs. predictable). 
• The outcome of stress depends on the position of a particular stressful experience along these dimensions.
• Usually more intense, prolonged or chronic, complex and unanticipated stresses have more negative consequences than have less intense, short-term, less complex and expected stresses.
• An individual’s experiences of stress depend on the physiological strength of that person.
• Thus, individuals with poor physical health and weak constitution would be more vulnerable than would be those who enjoy good health and strong constitution. 

The correct answer is 1 and 2 only.

Key Points

• Lazarus and Folkman has conceptualised coping as a dynamic process rather than an individual trait.
• Coping refers to constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to master, reduce or tolerate the internal or external demands that are created by the stressful transaction.
• Coping serves to allow the individual to manage or alter a problem and regulate the emotional response to that problem.
• According to them coping responses can be divided into two types of responses, problem-focused and emotion-focused.
• Problem-focused strategies attack the problem itself, with behaviours designed to gain information, to alter the event, and to alter belief and commitments.
  • They increase the person’s awareness, level of knowledge, and range of behavioural and cognitive coping options.
  • They can act to reduce the threat value of the event.
  • For example “I made a plan of action and followed it”.
• Emotion-focused strategies call for psychological changes designed primarily to limit the degree of emotional disruption caused by an event, with minimal effort to alter the event itself.
  • For example “I did some things to let it out of my system”.
• While both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping are necessary when facing stressful situations, research suggests that people generally tend to use the former more often than the latter. 

The correct answer is Cognitive Behavioural Techniques.

Key Points

Stress Management Techniques: 

Cognitive Behavioural Techniques

• These techniques aim to inoculate people against stress.
• Stress inoculation training is one effective method developed by Meichenbaum.
• The essence of this approach is to replace negative and irrational thoughts with positive and rational ones.
• There are three main phases in this: assessment, stress reduction techniques, and application and followthrough.
• Assessment involves discussing the nature of the problem and seeing it from the viewpoint of the person/client.
• Stress reduction involves learning the techniques of reducing stress such as relaxation and self-instruction.

Additional Information

Stress Management Techniques

• Stress is a silent killer. It is estimated to play a significant role in physical illness and disease.  Hypertension, heart disease, ulcers, diabetes and even cancer are linked to stress.  Due to lifestyle changes stress is on the increase.
• Some of these techniques are:
  • Relaxation Techniques: It is an active skill that reduces symptoms of stress and decreases the incidence of illnesses such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Usually relaxation starts from the lower part of the body and progresses up to the facial muscles in such a way that the whole body is relaxed.
  • Meditation Procedures: The yogic method of meditation consists of a sequence of learned techniques for refocusing of attention that brings about an altered state of consciousness.
  • Biofeedback: It is a procedure to monitor and reduce the physiological aspects of stress by providing feedback about current physiological activity and is often accompanied by relaxation training.
  • Creative Visualisation: It is an effective technique for dealing with stress. Creative visualisation is a subjective experience that uses imagery and imagination. Before visualising one must set oneself a realistic goal, as it helps build confidence. 
  • Cognitive Behavioural Techniques: These techniques aim to inoculate people against stress. Stress inoculation training is one effective method developed by Meichenbaum. 
  • Exercise: Exercise can provide an active outlet for the physiological arousal experienced in response to stress

The correct answer is Perfectionism. 

Key Points

Life Skills

• Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.
• Our ability to cope depends on how well we are prepared to deal with and counterbalance everyday demands, and keep equilibrium in our lives.
• These life skills can be learned and even improved upon.
• Assertiveness, time management, rational thinking, improving relationships, self-care, and overcoming unhelpful habits such as perfectionism, procrastination, etc. are some life skills that will help to meet the challenges of life. 

The correct answer is Internal pressures.

Key Points

• Internal pressures stem from beliefs based upon expectations from inside us to ourselves such as, ‘I must do everything perfectly’.
• Such expectations can only lead to disappointment. Many of us drive ourselves ruthlessly towards achieving unrealistically high standards in achieving our goals. 

Additional Information

 Types of stress

• The three major types of stress, viz. physical and environmental, psychological, and social,
• Physical and environmental stress: It is important to understand that all these types of stress are interrelated that are often unavoidable such as air pollution, crowding, noise, heat of the summer, winter cold, etc.
  • Another group of environmental stresses is catastrophic events or disasters such as fire, earthquake, floods, etc.
• Psychological Stress These are stresses that we generate ourselves in our minds.
  • These are personal and unique to the person experiencing them and are internal sources of stress.
  • We worry about problems, feel anxiety, or become depressed.
  • These are not only symptoms of stress, but they cause further stress for us.
  • Some of the important sources of psychological stress are frustration, conflicts, internal and social pressures, etc.
• Social Stress: These are induced externally and result from our interaction with other people.
  • Social events like death or illness in the family, strained relationships, and trouble with neighbours are some examples of social stresses.
  • These social stresses vary widely from person to person.
  • Attending parties may be stressful for a person who likes to spend quiet evenings at home while an outgoing person may find staying at home in the evenings stressful.