Jenna Vincenty-Cole

Chris Lerczak

Psych/Soc

January 7. 2019

Stressed Out

Stress is the anxious or threatening feeling resulting from or appraisal of a

situation and our reaction to demands placed upon us. It can have a variety of effects

on a person. There is both bad and good stress, and they affect each individual in many

different ways. There are many definitions of stress and even researchers in the field

use the term in several different ways. To some Psychologist’s stress is an even or

situation that produces tension or worry. Others describe it as an individual’s physical or

psychological response to such an event or situation. Sometimes some regard stress as

a person’s perception of the event or situation. Stress is used to refer to a person’s

reactions: perceptual, cognitive, physical, or emotional. When you discuss the bodies

observable response to a stressor the term stress reaction is used.

Negative stress, or distress, stems from acute anxiety or pressure and can take

a harsh toll on the mind and body. Positive stress, or Eustress, results from the

strivings and challenges that are the spice of life. Without stress, you wouldn’t fee such

a strong feeling towards accomplishing any goals or face any new challenges. Stress

can spur us on to greater effectiveness and achievement in some situations. “Complete

freedom from stress is death,” notes one psychologist. Escaping stress isn't possible,

but there are many different ways to manage and learn how to cope with it so that is

makes our lives interesting without overwhelming us.

 There is another component of stress that can influence how stress affects

people’s lives. To make a difference, people need to register and evaluate an event in

certain ways. It's the response to a situation, not the situation itself, that determines

whether we will experience stress. Stress isn't exactly a result of how large or serious

our problems are, but whether we think we are capable of handling them.

Environmental conditions such as noise may cause stress too. Surveys show

that Americans regard noise as one of the foremost irritants in their lives. On study

found that third and fourth graders n the flight path of a major airport showed significant

increases in blood pressure and stress hormones, such as cortisol, compared to those

who weren’t exposed to the noise. Just like noise, odors may also trigger stress in

people. Temperatures can even trigger stressors! Environments that are too hot or too

cold increase demands on the body.

Major life changes are other things that are known to cause people stress.

Positive events can bring about stress just as much as those that are negative.

Psychologist also studied how day-to-day stressors affect people's health. The more

common stressors are known as hassles. Something that could protect you against

stress is called uplifts: they are small, positive events. Uplifts are things that make

people feel good. The primary effects of stress might be caused by the impact of little

things that just constantly seem to bother us.

There are very wide variety of stress reaction, and their effects range from

beneficial to harmful. Many of the psychological responses to stress are inborn methods

that probably evolved to cope with stress effectively. Plus, many reactions to stress are

automatic! Humans are more likely to depend solely on these ancient stress responses
than to make conscious attempts to modify them o adopt others that we now know are

more appropriate to our modern lifestyle. The human body is a holistic organism and a

negative affect in one area can affects others.

Short-term psychological stress reactions may either be emotional or cognitive.

The most common response to a sudden and powerful stressor is anxiety. Another

common reaction is anger. Cognitive reactions to stress include difficulty in

concentrating or thinking clearly, recurring thoughts, confusion, and poor decision

making. Continued frustration can lead a person to the feeling of burnt out. There are

many short-term behavioral changes that are caused by stress but some of those

reactions are positive; such as saving another one's life. Your thoughts and emotions

can produce physiological changes in your body. The physiological fight-or-flight

response is the body’s immediate reaction to stress. Stress can be at least partly

responsible for almost any disease. Sometimes it can be a direct cause of illness and

other times it will contribute indirectly.

An individual’s personality may make them more vulnerable to stress. A

personality trait that can affect the strength of a stress reaction is emotional

expressiveness. Right along side of personality is spirituality. Studies have shown that

people with strong spiritual beliefs often have less stress than others. One way spiritual

beliefs reduce stress is by decreasing negative behaviors. Many spiritual disciplines

encourage forgiveness, which can help people to live in the present and not dwell on

past hurts.

The accepted view today is that physical disorders are more likely when we don't

have control over stressors. So, in general people prefer to have a predictable stress
over unpredictable stress. You can try to influence our cognitive appraisals by means of

defensive coping strategies, and stress reactions are more likely to occur when these

strategies fail. Both denial and intellectualization can prevent physical reactions to

stress. The attitude you have when you encounter a stressful situation makes a great

deal of difference in our ability to cope with it. By appraising a situation as a challenge

and not a threat, we can adopt an active coping strategy for dealing with stress and

approach the situation in an upbeat, hands-on fashion.

Another way to help coping is by using physical and social strategies that use

techniques such as meditation and outside resources. Many techniques of relaxation

have been developed especially to cope with stress. Other ways to help you cope with

your stress are biofeedback, exercise, support groups/professional help, and training.