Stress in Applied Social Psychology

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          Stress is a part of daily life for most people, but there are some extreme side effects. Severe illnesses such as cancer and heart disease and emotional side effects such as anxiety can be influenced by both social  and psychological factors ( Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012 ).  Stress, therefore is a way which may help facilitate the disease or emotional well-being. There will always be a relationship between individuals and their surroundings and the transactional model of stress is that ongoing connection. First, a stressor occurs which can be the onset of stress and then appraisal sets in as to how to determine how to react. Next, coping takes over which is how an individual tries to lower the stress. And lastly there is usually a result to the stressor which may come in the form of health issues.

 I was adopted, but one thing I inherited from my mother is that she stressed out about everything and I am now like that as well. I was on a journey for 17 months in 2011 through 2012 to adopt my two foster children and I can honestly say that there wasn’t a day that went by that I wasn’t stressed because of this journey, whether it was because of fear of losing them or fear and stress of the unknown. It caused me to overeat which may be a side effect which also contributes to risk factors such as being overweight. Unhealthy eating may also lead to such things as heart disease which just happens to also be the number one reason that women die each year, which is responsible for a third of the deaths of women ( Cardio Smart, 2013 ) . Before this journey, I was maybe got sick once a year, but during this stressful time, I was getting sick quite often. I have always experienced anxiety, but it really had come to the forefront during this emotional time. I now incorporate exercise and breathing relaxation techniques to cope with stress.

            Stress is a well known factor for smoking and can lead to many health factors which can be life-changing. This issue is very close to my heart. My husband is a smoker and my grandmother who died from lung cancer and quite a few of my good friends still smoke, even though the places where they are allowed to smoke are fewer. I thought that when they banned smoking in restaurants, bars, even many work places that would cause people to quit smoking. However, many people still do, including my husband.  I work in a restaurant and probably 70 percent of my co-workers have to “have” a smoke break during a busy shift. Some people can quit “ cold turkey” , but others have used other methods such as the nicotine patch, nicotine gum, hypnosis, relaxation techniques or drugs which may have powerful side effects such as Chantix which my friends have tried for the third try and are successful, thus far ( one month into it).

            Stress is a well-known, thoroughly studied risk factor to Cardiovascular Heart Disease (CHD). In one study, participants showed a 2.15 greater risk of developing CHD when stress was present ( Bosma, Siegrist & Marmot, 1998). Stress is instrumental to CHD by lowering the response to inflammation ( Yudkin, Kumari, Humphries and Mohamed-Ali, 2000). Psychological treatment would focus on stress management and by decreasing stress, it would improve a CHD patients; longevity. Since stress play a vital position in the progress and cultivation of CHD, finding ways to lower stress such as relaxation exercises, hypnosis can be helpful.

            Finding ways to cope with the stress such as social support from friends and loved ones or a support group for those that are going through the same thing as you can be very helpful. The “theory of planned behavior”  says that how we alter an individual’s behavior is to change the behavior such as not being around negative environments if you are trying to stay away from alcohol ( Schneider et al., 2012 ). There should be no existence of a temptation surrounding the individual because it may facilitate failure. The perception has to be altered as well. If the individual is trying to abstain from alcohol, having friends that want to always “ go out”  may not be the friends that they want to surround them. Finding new ways to have fun may include going for hike’s along trails or having a picnic at a park instead.

            The onset of stress can occur during negative events such as a loss or death and may even occur during positive events such as wedding or in my case, the eventual adoption.  Random events are what cause stress to sometimes take over as well as feelings of being overwhelmed because of upcoming events or “too much on your plate” which happens to most of us. The “five stages of change model”  allows us to understand and research why some interventions in health aren’t attainable. Optimism is important in realizing that stage of an intervention are steps which are flexible meaning that if you miss a step, that just means that you have to make adjustments. Health psychology is another important component to applied social psychology!

 

 

Bosma, H., Peter, R., Siegrist, J., & Marmot, M. (1998). Two alternative job stress models and the risk of coronary heart disease. American Journal of Public Health, 88(1), pp. 68-74.

Heart Disease Statistics. (2013). Cardio Smart. American College of Cardiology.

Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.A. (2005). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Yudkin, J. S., Kumari, M., Humphries, S.E., & Mohamed-Ali, V. (2000). Inflammation, obesity, stress and coronary heart disease: is interleukin-6 the link?. Atherosclerosis, 148(2), pp. 209-214.

 

 

13 comments

  1. mor-Nutrition4life

    Stress in Applied Social Psychology | Applied Social Psychology (ASP)

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    Stress in Applied Social Psychology | Applied Social Psychology (ASP)

  3. Keli Elaine Barnes

    Personally I am glad that you talked about what stress relievers you use because I find myself using some of them also. I think stress is over looked by many doctors and people when declaring cause of death. I believe that more people die because of stress related issues daily rather than anything else.
    I myself tend to under eat when I am stressed. I have had an issue with ignoring the fact that I am hungry for years. People always laugh at me when I do eat a lot because of the fact that they rarely see me eating. I feel like I have no time to eat, I live a busy and very stressful life therefore I tend to forget the things that should be obvious to me. Which leads into another thing I do when I am stressed, which is smoking. I have a tendency when I have a lot on my mind to smoke a lot, oddly enough this happens when I am hungry. Normally when I feel hungry I smoke which takes my mind off being hungry. I am not under weight, but I could potentially lose enough weight to be worrisome because of this.
    Smoking is one of the worst things I could possibly do, but yet I constantly do it and what makes it worse is I chain smoke when I am stressed. My fathers family comes with a ungodly long history of deaths from heart disease (including my father), I have rheumatoid arthritis which causes heart disease, and I smoke which can cause heart disease. Every time I go to the doctors they tell me I need to stop smoking because of all this leading to heart disease and I already am at a huge risk for it. I hate it but I know every cigarette is closer to death than if I wasn’t a smoker.

  4. Thank you for sharing your story.
    Often times when we experience certain stressful stimuli it can sometimes feel like we’re alone, but your post has highlighted the fact that we all go through this and we can learn to cope with these occurrences. Not only is it important to learn how to deal with everyday stressors, it’s also essential that we have support systems in place to offer us help when we feel overwhelmed. (Cohen, Sheldon, 1985) Social support in the form of family and friends can often mean the difference between falling apart and breaking through.
    Like you stated constant exposure to stressful stimuli can often lead to a whole host of medical issues. Our bodies go through a mini war when we are faced with psychological or environmental stressors. When this occurs our brain, particularly the amygdala sends out a signal to the hypothalamus that then sends a message to the rest of our body that it’s in distress; this is often referred to as the “fight or flight” response. (“Understanding,” 2011)
    There are various ways we can counteract stressful situations. Like I previously stated one such way would be the establishment of a support system. A group of friends, coworkers, and family members that offer emotional support in times of crisis. One theory that has highlighted the effectiveness of social support networks is the buffering hypothesis. (Cohen, Sheldon, 1985) In this theory a social network acts as a shield against the negative or stress inducing events, which then influences how people react to these events and therefore can prevent the negative effects of stress. (Cohen, Sheldon, 1985)

    Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis.
    Cohen, Sheldon; Wills, Thomas A.
    Psychological Bulletin, Vol 98(2), Sep 1985, 310-357. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.310

    (2011). Understanding the stress response. Harvard Mental Health Letter , 3. Retrieved February 20, 2014, from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mental_Health_Letter/2011/March/understanding-the-stress-response

  5. You mention stress and appraisal sets, ways to cope with the stress, stress and health, and how stress can occur during positive events. I wanted to add to your comments by sharing a personal experience that addresses each of these components.

    When a person believes and feels that he or she is incapable to cope from demands of their environment, it is regarded as stress. There is an appraisal process that people typically follow. First, a person determines the meaning of an event (primary appraisal). Second, a person makes an assessment of one’s resources and coping ability (secondary appraisal). When people feel that they cannot cope, stress ensues.

    My personal experience where I felt incapable to cope occurred several years back when I was driving on a two lane road. The car on the opposite lane veered and crashed into the car in front of me. The result of the car crash was the death of a young man who was driving the car that veered. I was the first on the scene and realized the young man needed help (primary appraisal) and then attempted to cope by actively trying to call 911 on my cell and stop cars driving by to stop and help (secondary appraisal). Stress ensued when I could see how badly injured the young man was, that my cell phone was not able to dial out because of the remote area we were in, and unsuccessful attempts to stop people to help.

    Taylor, 2012, pp.169 states that, “an optimistic nature can lead people to cope more effectively with stress…” I would describe my personality style in regard to coping with stress as a positive emotional style and optimist nature style. When the tragic car accident occurred, I was optimistic that people would help, I was positive that an ambulance would arrive and the young man would survive from his horrific injuries. I believed it completely. I know this belief is what helped me to engage and meet the situation head-on rather than avoid it and drive away as fast as I could. What transpired was the opposite expectation: people did not help, people drove away and the young man did not survive. As people drove by the accident and did not help, it affirmed beliefs about the nature of some people, that they can be fearful and selfish. I was left behind to deal with the stress of helplessness. I know the reason I was able to deal with the situation in a positive way was that my positive emotional style and optimist nature style were activated. Otherwise, I believe I would have responded to the stressor in a negative way. The car accident was a negative event which caused stress.

    Negative events cause more stress than positive events. However, even positive events such as getting that job one always dreamed of, or the mate we always imagined, or bringing a new life into the world are happy celebratory events, but come with an emotional, time and energy price tag. Negative events have an adverse effect on emotional health and bring forth stressors (including psychological and physical symptoms). In short, negative events are more detrimental than are positive events. Positive events have a caveat. If people have a negative view of themselves positive events can become stressors that influence poor health. The inverse also holds merit. People with positive views of themselves, will demonstrate better health after a positive event.

    I used a combination of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. Problem-focused coping involves attempts to do something constructive about the stressful conditions that are harming, threatening, or challenging an individual (Schneider et al., 2012, pp.184). Undoubtedly, I was engaged in trying to do whatever constructive thing I could do to confront the eminent treat I was faced with. I kept thinking during the ordeal, “what do I do next, move, move, and get help fast!” In addition, I used the emotional-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping involves efforts to regulate emotions experienced because of the stressful event (Schneider et al., 2012, pp.184). I did not have to deal with how all of these events were making feel. There was no time to work through the emotions I was experiencing. I had to set those feelings aside and deal with the task at hand. I would deal with my emotions at a later time.

    I relied on social support to help cope with the situation. The biggest help came from my family where I received comfort, faith and support about the mortality of all us. I became sensitized to the probability of dying young and not having a long life. I became more in tune with my own fragility. Working through the emotions of this event with my family helped alleviate the stress of this new found realization. I also became a much more cautious driver. It was a great lesson on perspective too. When life’s events become stressful and seemingly unbearable, it is good to recall that day and put it all into perspective. This event helped me to cope with other stressors in my life. Sad as it was, that event changed me for the better.

    References

    Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

    Taylor, E. S. (2012). Health Psychology, (8th ed.).

  6. Too many people overlook the link between stress and their physical well-being. Personally, I suffer from depression and anxiety. Both of these factors can have a debilitating effect on my health. If I become too stressed out I suffer from migraines. If I become too depressed I ache and have no energy. Many people look at this behavior and see it as laziness or hypochondria. Since so many people don’t equate stress with physical health they end up treating the symptom rather then the disease. Their stress could have created an ulcer, but they blame the food they eat and ‘medicate’ with antacids until the problem gets much worse.

  7. As I read your post, I could not help but be glad that you shared your story on your adoption and stress. When thinking about psychology, health psychology is not often first thought about. The fact is that psychological factors can have a relationship with health issues. ( Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012 ) As you have mentioned, stress can have negative effects on our health. Not only can our habits change due to stress, our health can change due to these habits.
    While I think about stressful situation in my life, I begin to think about the habits that I have while under stress. Unfortunately, I am a smoker. This is a habit that I have on a daily basis, but I smoke more when I am stressed. Not only am I putting myself at risk for cancer, but I am also outing those around me at risk. Since we are influenced by those around us, I am often not bothered by the fact that I smoke because several of my family members smoke as well. (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012) I hope that by social influences from my husband and non-smoking friend, they can persuade me to quit smoking by opening my eyes to the reasons why I should not smoke. I am still young, and I need to find other stress relievers that are not going to hurt my health.

  8. Stress is a normal part of life. We all have experienced stress in low-level forms as well as stress with a magnitude of a million, but each person handles their stress in different ways; some have a problem dealing with stress all together. This is when some people may reach to for a substance (legal or illegal) to assuage those feelings of stress. For smokers, cigarettes tend to be that stress reducer. Stress is often a major contributor as to why smokers cannot or choose not to quit smoking (smokefree.gov, 2013). Many of them feel as though they would be unable to handle the stress and pressures of daily life without their cigs. My mother is the prime example. She is a Police Lieutenant who has been with the department for 27 years; a very high stress job. She is also a smoker of 40 years and just last year was diagnosed with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). COPD is a progressive lung disease that encompasses a combination of mild emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthma, restrictive breathing, shortness of breath, and coughing (COPD Foundation, 2014). This diagnosis did not come as a surprise to my brother and me, but it is terrifying. My mother is only 54 years old and her father died of COPD at age 57. So in an effort to try to get my mother to stop smoking, I employed positive thinking techniques, began teaching her ways to replace the thoughts of stress with positive uplifting alternatives, and sprinkled in a touch of guilt. After all, this is mother, my daughter’s grandmother, and my best friend.

    I knew the typical arguments weren’t going to work for my mother because she actually enjoys smoking and at the onset of her diagnosis, had no desire to quit. “Work is too stressful, I need my smokes” she would tell me. “I know people who quit smoking and developed lung cancer months later, what’s the point” she would say. “I still feel great” she would try to convince me. “Whenever I get stressed, my mind plays tricks on me and I need a smoke,” she would pronounce. That’s a bunch of bull I thought. But if I wanted my mother around for years more I knew I needed to take action. I started teaching my mother ways to counteract the negative thoughts she had whenever she went without a cigarette. I began showing her pictures of lungs, stories of loved ones who had lost family members to lung cancer, and I used my 10 year old daughter as a reason for her quit. My initial goal was to cause a cognitive dissonance in my mother about her smoking and after a couple of months it worked. Now that she had a cognitive dissonance and a desire to quit, I implemented my “train your brain” strategy. I made a list of alternate thoughts that she could use whenever her mind would tell her she “needed” a cigarette. I made her aware that she controlled her thoughts – her thoughts did not control her. When she heard that inner voice tell her “you’re stressed, just light up”, she would replace that thought with an alternative like “No, I control my behavior, and I can chew a piece of gum instead and get the same satisfaction.” When she had a busy day at work (busy in law enforcement equated to a really bad day filled with horrific things) and needed to decompress (usually by smoking) she should take her dogs for a walk instead. I try to replace her false beliefs and feelings of fear with creative alternatives that free her from these negative feelings.

    This has been an ongoing process and one that has been riddled with ups and downs. She tried Chantix – to no avail. Everyone I know personally who tried Chantix had major life dissatisfaction, loss of sleep, major change in moods and weight, and have all went back to smoking. This was the main motivating factor to get my mother to quit; I knew it had to be something she wanted to do and it had to be done through changing the way ‘her mind talks to her.’ It has been a long process but my mother has decreased her smoking from two packs a day to less than one.

    Smoking is a habit and habits are hard to break. I read a book a few years back called Psycho Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz where he describes that amputees take an average of 21 days to get used to their limb being gone and/or to adjust to a prosthetic. He talks about how happiness is a habit, but so is failure; and either can be changed through the mind-body connection. This was precisely the type of approach I am trying with my mother. Unfortunately, however, her habit had too tight of a grip on her for the 21 day strategy to work.

    I think it is important to realize that stress affects each person differently and when it comes to stress related smoking, often times it takes a multitude of approaches to find that one that sticks. It requires vigilance and dedication, and it is a long, strenuous path littered with emotional turmoil and a lot of soul searching. It is critical to have a support system and a reason to quit. It is a type of personal empowerment that requires dedication and diligence.

    COPD Foundation. (2014). What is COPD? Retrieved from COPD Foundation website: http://www.copdfoundation.org/What-is-COPD/Understanding-COPD/What-is-COPD.aspx

    smokefree.gov. (2013). Stress and Smoking. Retrieved from smokefree.gov website: http://smokefree.gov/stress-and-smoking

  9. Rebekah Christina Smith

    I think the bystander effect is prevalent in all realms of society. I am in the military and while we don’t have bystander training, we get bystander training in other areas of our training. For example, when we have sexual harassment training, we are learning about what to do if we are a bystander. The purpose of this training is to teach us that we all need to jump in and help if need be. On the other end of it, it mentions needing to take responsibility for our actions. If one was in the wrong, they would be held accountable for what one has done.
    This training and others like it works to show that we are together in our success and failure. It brings military members together to show that they are not alone and they have people that will help them when they are in trouble. This helps place people in in-groups and helps give them a source of identity.

  10. When we think of stress we normally think of the kind that causes anxiety and other health problems. However, Dr. Hans Seyle claims that there is also a type of stress that he termed, eustress (Healthy Lifestyle Success, 2012). This type of stress, according to Dr. Seyle, is beneficial. Dr. Seyle defined stress as the body’s reaction to demands (Stress-Relief-Tools.com, 2014). In the case of eustress, stress is demanding the individual to make changes for the better. An example would be a prosecutor who is trying to convict a murderer. The situation is stressful, but is also a means to a positive end. Dr. Seyle is not the only researcher to claim that small amounts of stress can be beneficial. Daniela Kaufer, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley suggests that small amounts of stress can improve cognitive functions (UC Berkeley News Center, 2014).

    I tend to agree with Dr. Seyle and professor Kaufer. Between being a single mother, taking college classes, and having a full time job, I often feel overwhelmed and even depressed at times. However, when my life is a little more settled, for instance during the summer when I do not have classes, I feel “off”. This actually makes me feel stressed. I have always said I thrive on stress. I feel like a fish out of water without it. According to the theory of “good” stress, I would assume that my coping skills are the element that keeps me sane during the more stressful times. Why I do not seem to be able to cope as well in less stressful times is not clear to me. Is it possible to “crave” stress? It seems ridiculous, but I have no other answer. The only explanation I can think of is that being OCD, I have an extreme need to organize anything and everything. Without total chaos, I have nothing to organize. Again, possibly another ridiculous idea, but until another answer is provided I am inclined to believe it.

    References:
    Healthy Lifestyle Success, 2012. Learn About the Positive Effects of Stress. Retrieved from http://www.healthylifestylesuccess.com/positive-effects-of-stress.html.

    Stress-Relief-Tools.com (2014). Eustress and the Positive Effects of Stress. Retrieved from http://www.stress-relief-tools.com/positive-effects-of-stress.html.

    UC Berkeley News Center (2014). Researchers find out why some stress is good for you. Retrieved from http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/04/16/researchers-find-out-why-some-stress-is-good-for-you/

  11. Melody Renee Day

    I have also had my fair share of stressful events, particularly of late, with a miscarriage and moving overseas with my husband and two kids. I tend to eat when I’m stressed, which is a big reason why I workout so much and stress healthy foods in our house; after all, as you mentioned, over eating can lead to weight gain which in turn leads to health risks. As a great example of the theory of planned behavior, my sister-in-law’s (Lindsay) weight loss journey comes to mind.
    Through strong behavioral control, Lindsay was able to modify her behavioral intentions to engender behavior change. First Lindsay changed her attitude towards her weight loss (I need to and will lose weight). Next Lindsay modified her subjective norms, the influence she got from the people around her, what they thought, whether or not they supported her weight loss mission. Specifically, Lindsay stopped hanging out with her friends who had unhealthy lifestyles (over eating/eating junk food/watching tv all day), and cultivated new friendships with people who shared her interests (friends who went to the gym with her and helped her shop for and eat healthy foods). Also, she garnered support from her husband and close family members towards her weight loss goal. Finally, Lindsay acknowledged that her weight loss was completely within her capability of controlling and changing. Lindsay utilized the methods of the theory of planned behavior perfectly to execute her weight loss. My sister-in-law has lost 170 pounds in the last five years due to the efficacy of the theory of planned behavior model. (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2005, p. 78)

    Reference

    Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2005). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.

  12. Katherine M Simmons

    Thank you for sharing your personal experiences with stressful life events and demonstrating how they relate to health psychology. While I do not wish to give the impression that I “know how you feel”, I – like most people – have experienced my fair share of stress as well. You briefly mentioned cancer; I feel this an apt example of a disease that generates stress in all areas – bodily, psychologically, and socially. Almost two years ago my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has since made a nearly full recovery, but I was with her throughout the entire chemotherapy and radiation process, and I witnessed the stress those processes put on her body, which in turn affected her mental state. Not only this, her struggle with cancer caused severe stress in me; it disrupted my life (I moved in with her temporarily to serve as her caretaker), and negatively affected my psychological well-being as I was constantly worrying about everything. In fact, she often had to comfort me!

    The point is, stress is contagious, and can be a very serious and detrimental problem for many people. I did see the positive influence of applied social psychology during my mother’s struggle in the form of support groups and routine visits by social workers. These dedicated professionals were especially important to those who had no one to help them through such a difficult experience; the social workers’ visits were a crucial component to maintaining the psychological health of many of the patients. Personal coping mechanisms can also help tremendously, and I’m glad that you have found exercise and meditation/breathing exercises to alleviate some of the painful side effects of stress. These techniques are great examples of health psychology’s positive contributions to the promotion of psychological well-being.

  13. Jennifer Theresa Cass

    I think stress is something that everyone can relate to. I’m like you and I tend stress way to much over the little things. It is crazy what stress can do to your body physically, the way it makes you feel is just awful!
    Right now I am stressed to the max, my husband is in the Navy and we are getting ready for a big move. Trying to figure out when we are leaving, where we are going to live, planning when the movers are going to come on top of all my school work makes me just want to scream. Just thinking about it all brings my heart rate up and makes my stomach hurt, so I can see how you said stress is a risk factor to Cardiovascular Heart Disease!
    However, I have learned ways to cope with being stressed, I found going to the gym to work out helps so much! It gets my mind off things and I feel like a totally different person afterwards. Luckily my coping technique isn’t a health-compromising habit, but like you mentioned there are people that tend to use other things such as smoking, to cope with their stress.

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