Group ONE

Mrs. Cuevas

“STRESS”

Professor:

When you hear the word “STRESS” what comes to your

Mind?

What is STRESS?The term Stress has been

defined in several different ways. Sometimes the term is applied to

stimuli or events in our environment that make physical and emotional demands on us, and sometimes it is applied to

our emotional and physical reactions to such stimuli. In this discussion, we will refer to the

environmental stimuli or events as stressors and to emotional

and physical reactions as stress.

Many sorts of events can be stressors, including disasters such as hurricanes or tornadoes, major life events such as divorce or the loss of job, and daily hassles such as having to wait in line at the supermarket when you need to be somewhere else in ten minutes. What all these events have in common is that they interfere with or threaten our accustomed way of life. When we encounter such stressors, we must pull together our mental and physical resources in order to deal with the challenge. How well we succeed in doing so will determine how serious a toll the stress will take on our mental and physical well-being.

STRESS- an emotional or physical reaction to demanding events or stimuli.STRESSORS- an event or stimulus that causes stress.

REACTING TO STRESSORS.

The Canadian physiologist Hans Seyle has been the most influential researcher and writer on stress. Seyle has proposed that both humans and other animals react to any stressors in three stages, collectively known as the general adaption syndrome. The first stage, when the person or animal first become aware of the stressors, is the alarm reaction. In this stage, the organism becomes highly alert and aroused, energized by a burst of epinephrine. After the alarm reaction comes the stage of resistance, as the organism tries to adapt to the stressful stimulus or to escape from it. If these efforts are successful, the stage of the organism returns to normal. If the organism cannot adapt to continuing stress, however, it enters a stage of exhaustion or collapse.

Seyle developed his model of the general adaption syndrome as a result of research with rats and other animal. In rats, certain stressors such as painful tail-pulling, consistently lead to the same sorts of stress reaction. In humans, however, it is harder to predict what will be stress-ful to a particular person at a particular time. Whether a particular stimulus will be stressful depends on the person’s subjective appraisal of that stimulus. How threatening is it? How well have I handled it this time? For one person, being called upon to give a talk in front of class is highly stressful stimulus that will immediately produce such elements of an alarm reaction as a pounding of heart and a dry mouth. For another person, being called on to give a talk is not threatening at all, but facing a deadline to complete a term paper is extremely stressful. In humans, moreover, the specific stress reaction is likely to vary widely ; some stressful situations give raise predominantly to emotions of fear, some to anger some to helplessness and depression. 

The term stress had none of its contemporary connotations before the

1920s. It is a form of the Middle English ”destresse”, derived via Old

French from the Latin ”stringere” that means "to draw tight." It had long

been in use in physics to refer to the internal distribution of a force exerted on a material body, resulting in strain. In the 1920s and 1930s, the term was occasionally being used in biological and psychological circles to refer to a mental strain, unwelcome happening,

or, more medically, a harmful environmental agent that could cause

illness.

What is STRESS?

Stress is a term that is commonly used today but has become increasingly difficult to define. It shares, to some extent, common meanings in both

the biological and psychological sciences. Stress typically describes a negative concept that can have an impact on

one’s mental and physical well-being, but it is unclear what exactly defines stress and whether or not stress is a cause, an

effect, or the process connecting the two. With organisms as complex as humans, stress can take on entirely concrete or

abstract meanings with highly subjective qualities, satisfying definitions of both cause and effect in ways that can be

both tangible and intangible.

Signs of stress may be

Cognitive, Emotional, Physical, or Behavioral

In science, cognition is a group of mental processes that includes attention, memory,

producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is

studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, science and computer science. It is also used in a branch of

social psychology called social cognition to explain attitudes, attribution and groups

dynamics.

Cognitive

Cognitive symptoms:

Memory problemsInability to concentrate

Poor judgmentPessimistic approach or thoughts

Anxious or racing thoughtsConstant worrying

Emotions are the various bodily feelings associated with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation and also with hormones such as dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin. Emotion is often the driving force behind motivation, positive or negative. In 1992, Carlson and Hatfield defined emotions, as feeling states with physiological, cognitive, and behavioral components. The power of emotion is closely linked to arousal of the nervous system with various states and strengths of arousal relating, apparently, to particular emotions. Although the word emotion might seem to be about feeling and not about thinking, cognition is an important aspect of emotion, particularly the interpretation events. Fear in the mind usually occurs in response to a threat with the cognition of danger and subsequent arousal of the nervous system. Emotion is also linked to behavioral tendency.

Emotional

Emotional symptomsMoodiness, Irritability or short temper, Agitation, inability to relaxFeeling overwhelmed, Sense of loneliness and isolationDepression or general unhappiness

Behavioral

Behavior or behaviour is the range of actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with their environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment. It is the response of the system or organism to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary.

Behavioral symptomsEating more or less

Sleeping too much or too littleIsolating oneself from othersProcrastinating or neglecting

responsibilitiesUsing alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs

to relaxNervous habits (e.g. nail biting,

pacing)

Physical symptomsAches and pains

Diarrhea or constipationNausea, dizziness

Chest pain, rapid heartbeatLoss of sex driveFrequent colds

Physicalism is a philosophical position holding that everything which exists is no more extensive than its physical properties; that is, that there are no kinds of things other than physical things. In contemporary philosophy, physicalism is most frequently associated with the mind-body problem in philosophy of mind, regarding which physicalism holds that all that has been ascribed to "mind" is more correctly ascribed to "brain" or the activity of the brain. Physicalism is also called "materialism", but the term "physicalism" is preferable because it has evolved with the physical sciences to incorporate far more sophisticated notions of physicality than matter, for example wave/particle relationships and non-material forces produced by particles.

Physical

FOUR TYPES OF STRESS

Eustress, a type of stress that is fun and exciting, and keeps us vital

Acute Stress, a very short-term type of stress that can either be positive (eustress) or more distressing (what we normally think of when we think of ‘stress'); this is the type of stress we most often encounter in day-to-day life (e.g. skiing down said slope or dealing with road rage)

Episodic Acute Stress, where acute stress seems to run rampant and be a way of life, creating a life of relative chaos (e.g. the type of stress that coined the terms ‘drama queen’ and ‘absent-minded professor’)Chronic Stress, the type of stress that seems never-ending and inescapable, like the stress of a bad marriage or an extremely taxing job (this type of stress can lead to burnout)

When faced with chronic stress and an overactivated autonomic nervous system, people begin to see physical symptoms. The first symptoms are relatively mild, like chronic headaches and increased susceptibility to colds. With more exposure to chronic stress, however, more serious health problems may develop. These stress-influenced conditions include, but are not limited to:

STRESS AND HEALTH: IMPLICATIONS OF CHRONIC STRESS

Depression diabeteshair loss heart diseaseHyperthyroidis mobesity obsessive-compulsive or anxiety disordersexual dysfunction tooth and gum diseaseUlcers cancer (possibly)

In fact, most it’s been estimated that as many as 90% of doctor’s visits are for symptoms that are at least partially stress-related!

“ADOPTING THE RIGHT ATTITUDE CAN CONVERT A

NEGATIVE STRESS INTO A POSITIVE ONE”

“THE GREATEST WEAPON AGAINST STRESS IS OUR ABILITY TO

CHOOSE ONE THOUGHT OVER ANOTHER.”

THE

END