PSYC 2600 Chapter Notes - Chapter 18: Sympathetic Nervous System, Peripheral Nervous System, United States Academic Decathlon
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Week 11 Notes: Chapter 18: Stress, Coping, Adjustment, and Health
Models of the Personality-Illness Connection
- How personality relates to health
Stress: the subjective feeling produced by events that are uncontrollable or threatening
- The response to the situation, not the situation itself
Interaction Model: objective events happen to people, but personality factors determine the
impact of those events by influencing people’s ability to cope
- Personality has an effect on coping responses
- Personality influences the relationship between stress and illness
Transactional Model: personality has three potential side effects:
1. It can influence coping
2. It can influence how the person appraises or interprets events
3. It can influence the events themselves
- Stressful events don’t just influence the person, the person also influences events
Health Behaviour Model: personality affects healthy indirectly through health-promoting or
health-degrading behaviours
- Personality does not directly influence the relationship between stress and illness
- Example: people low on conscientiousness smoke more
- Conscientiousness is a personality trait that is related to good health and predicts a
longer life
Predisposition Model: personality and illness are both expressions of an underlying
predisposition
- Associations exist between personality and illness because of a third variable that
causes them both: genetics
- Genetics influence personality and illness
Example: enhanced sympathetic nervous system reactivity may be the cause of
subsequent illnesses as well as the cause of behaviours and emotions that lead a person
to be neurotic
Illness Behaviour Model: personality influences the degree to which a person perceives and
pays attention to bodily sensations and the degree to which the person interprets and labels
those sensations as an illness
- Illness: the presence of an objectively measureable abnormal physiological process
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Illness Behaviour: the action that people take when they think they have an illness
Example: going to a doctor, taking medication
- The way in which people perceive their symptoms influences their illness behaviours
The Concept of Stress
Stressors: events that cause stress
1. Stressors are extreme, they produce a state of feeling
2. Stressors often produce opposing tendencies, such as wanting and not wanting
3. Stressors are uncontrollable, outside of our power to influence
Stress Response
General Adaptation Syndrome: stage model of stress
- Hans Seyle
Three stages:
1. Alarm Stage: fight or flight response of the sympathetic nervous system and the
associated peripheral nervous system reactions
2. Resistance stage: the body using its resources at an above average rate, even though
the immediate fight or flight response has resided
- Happens if the stressor continues
3. Exhaustion Stage: when physiological resources are depleted
- A person is most susceptible to illness and disease
Major Life Events
Major Life Events: events that require people to make major adjustments in their lives
- Death of a friend or family member, and divorce of parents are the most stressful
events, getting married
- People with high stress are more likely to have a serious illness
- People under chronic stress eventually deplete bodily resources and become vulnerable
to microbial infections
Daily Hassles
Daily Hassles: only minor daily hassles, but they can become chronic and repetitive
- Example: driving in traffic to work everyday
Varieties of Stress
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Week 11 notes: chapter 18: stress, coping, adjustment, and health. Stress: the subjective feeling produced by events that are uncontrollable or threatening. The response to the situation, not the situation itself. Interaction model: objective events happen to people, but personality factors determine the impact of those events by influencing people"s ability to cope. Personality influences the relationship between stress and illness. Transactional model: personality has three potential side effects: It can influence how the person appraises or interprets events. Stressful events don"t just influence the person, the person also influences events. Health behaviour model: personality affects healthy indirectly through health-promoting or health-degrading behaviours. Personality does not directly influence the relationship between stress and illness. Conscientiousness is a personality trait that is related to good health and predicts a longer life. Predisposition model: personality and illness are both expressions of an underlying predisposition. Associations exist between personality and illness because of a third variable that causes them both: genetics.
