1. Health, Stress, and Coping
Reporters:
Paul Symon Alonzo
Joseph Hector Galang
Geanne Flores
February 26, 2013
Main Reference: General Psychology for Filipino College Students
Edited by Lota A. Teh and Ma. Elizabeth J. Macapagal
2. Overview:
Health and Psychology
Health Psychology
Biopsychosocial model of health
Focus: AIDS in the Philippines
Stress and stressors.
General Adaptation Syndrome
Coping with Stress
4. Health
As defined by the World Health Organization
(WHO), is “the state of complete
physical, mental, and social well-being.”
5. Health Psychology
The branch of psychology concerned with individual’s
behaviors and lifestyles affecting a person’s health
and illness.
Uses psychological processes to help improve the
physical outcomes of individuals.
In general, health psychology is concerned with the
role of cognitive, affective, behavior, and social
factors affecting health illness.
6. The shift to Biopsychosocial model of
Health
Central to linking the mind (realm of psychology) and
the body (realm of biology) in understanding illness.
7. Focus: AIDS in the Philippines
Source: Philippine National AIDS Council
http://www.pnac.org.ph/uploads/documents/public
As of December 2012: ations/NEC_HIV_Dec-AIDSreg2012.pdf
8. Focus: AIDS in the Philippines
Social factors:
Thriving commercial sex industry
Failure to use condoms especially in paid sex.
Sexual cultural norms
“Embarrassment, from a social psychological perspective
(e.g., Dahl, Gorn& Weinberg, 1998), can occur when a situation
poses a dilemma between a publicly observable behavior
(e.g., buying condoms at a drugstore) and apprehension
about negative social evaluation by
others (e.g., disapproving judgments by others, like people in l
ine at the counter or even imaginedothers not physically
present like one’s parents). ”(Manalastas, 2009)
9. Focus: AIDS in the Philippines
Increase in casual sex among the youth.
Methamphetamine use was strongly
associated with behavioral risk factors for HIV
infection. (US Center for Disease Control)
11. Stress
Term used to describe the
physical, emotional, cognitive, and
behavioral responses to events that
are appraised as threatening or
challenging.
23. Pressure
Happens when…
There are urgent demands for a
person’s behavior coming from an
outside source.
24. Uncontrollabillity
Depends on the degree pf control a
person has over a situation
The lesser the control, the greater the
stress.
25. Frustration
Occurs when people are blocked or
prevented from achieving a desired
goal or fulfilling a perceived need.
External Frustration
Internal/Personal Frustration
26. Frustration
Responses to frustration
Persistence
• Continuation of efforts to get around
whatever is causing the frustration.
Aggression
• Actions meant to harm or destroy
• Displaced aggression
27. Frustration
Occurs when people are blocked or
prevented from achieving a desired
goal or fulfilling a perceived need.
External Frustration
Internal/Personal Frustration
28. Conflict
Approach-Approach Conflict
Involves choosing between two
desirable goals. Also a “win-win”
situation.
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
Involves choosing between two or
more unpleasant goals.
29. Conflict
Approach-Avoidance Conflict
Involves only one goal or event, which
may have both positive and negative
aspects
Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflict
Involves multiple goals that have both
positive and negative elements.
31. What is the General Adaptation
Syndrome?
The General Adaptation Syndrome (or GAS) describes
the body's short and long-term emotional and
physical effects of stress.
32. GAS: A Brief History
Introduced by Hans Selye in 1936. Hans Selye is
considered as the founding father of stress research.
He conducted a research involving rats in which he
injected various extracts from the glands of the body.
The rats exhibited the same symptoms.
He believed at first that he discovered a new
hormone.
33. GAS: A Brief History
However, after further tests using other substances
and methods such as injecting formaldehyde, cutting
the rats’ spinal cord, exposure to cold and forced
exercise, the results were still the same.
The predictable sequence he observed on the rats is
now what we call the General Adaptation Syndrome.
35. The alarm phase of the general
adaptation syndrome
In the alarm phase you enter a heightened
psychological and physiological arousal, known as the
fight or flight response.
Stress hormones are released into the bloodstream.
Adrenaline increases muscle tension, heart rate, and
causes a number of other physical effects of stress.
You are now immediately equipped with enough
energy to handle it.
You are more focused and alert!
36. The resistance phase of the general
adaptation syndrome
The mind and the body attempt to adapt to the cause
of stress.
Also known as the adaptation phase.
Homeostasis begins restoring balance and a period of
recovery for repair and renewal takes place.
Body remains alert (at a lower level) but continues
the normal functions.
Stress hormone levels may return to normal but you
may have reduced defenses and adaptive energy left.
37. The exhaustion phase of the general
adaptation syndrome
Exhaustion sets in.
Stress has generally occurred for some time and at
this point, resistance can drop off and the activity
returns to the point before the emergency.
Characterized by issues such as burnout and
exhaustion.
Body’s immune system that fights off disease and
infection is weakened.
38. The exhaustion phase of the general
adaptation syndrome
Chronic stress can damage nerve cells in tissues and
organs. Particularly vulnerable is the hippocampus
section of the brain. Thinking and memory are likely
to become impaired, with tendency toward anxiety
and depression.
40. Coping
“The process of managing external
and/or internal demands that are
appraised as taxing or exceeding the
resources of the person.” By Lazarus and Folkman (1984)
44. Emotion-Focused Coping
- Means concentrating on alleviating
the emotions associated with the stressful
situatione.
- Especially when the situation is
beyond one’s control.
45. This involves cognitive
strategies, some behavioral strategies to
cope with negative feelings are exercise, use
of alcohol, drugs, releasing anger and
seeking emotional support from
friends.(Atkinson et al., 1996)
50. Culture related to Stress and coping
What people find stressful and how they
respond to stress is partly patterned by culture
(Western,1996)
1. Cultural context shapes the types of
stressors we experience.
2. Culture may affect how we appraise the
stressfulness of a given event.
3. Culture affects our individual choice of
coping strategy.
4. Culture provide different institutional
mechanisms for coping with stress.
Notas do Editor
Ages ranged from 2 to 81 years old (median 28 years). The 20-29 year old age group had the most (58%) number of cases for 2012.
HIV/AIDS among Asians and Pacific Islandershttp://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/api.htmmethamphetamine use was strongly associated with behavioral risk factors for HIV infection, including infrequent condom use, commercial sex activity, and low rates of HIV testing
