Stress Coping Theories – Behavioral sciences explore the cognitive processes within organisms and the behavioral interactions between organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through the study of the past, controlled and naturalistic observation of the present and disciplined scientific experimentation and modeling.
It attempts to accomplish legitimate, objective conclusions through rigorous formulations and observation. Generally, behavior science deals primarily with human action and often seeks to generalize about human behavior as it relates to society.
Stress Coping Theories
A stressor is any event, experience, or environmental stimulus that causes stress in an individual. These events or experiences are perceived as threats or challenges to the individual and can be either physical or psychological.
or
A Stressor is anything (physical or psychological) that produces stress (negative or positive) is considered a stressor. For example, getting a promotion is a positive event, but may also produce a great deal of stress with all the new responsibilities, work load, etc.
Symptoms of stress:
A. Physical Symptoms
- Muscle tension
- Colds or other illnesses
- High blood pressure
- Indigestion
- Ulcers
- Rapid breathing or pounding of heart
- Difficulty in sleeping
- Fatigue
- Backaches
- Headaches, back or neck problems
- Increased smoking or drinking alcohol
- Being more prone to accidents.
B. Cognitive Symptoms
- Forgetfulness
- Unwanted or repetitive thoughts
- Difficulty in concentration
- Fear of failure
- Self-criticism
C. Emotional Symptoms
- Irritability
- Depression
- Anger
- Fear or anxiety
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Mood swings.
Causes/Sources of Stress:
A. Life stresses can also have a big impact. Examples of life stresses are:
- The death of a loved one
- Divorce
- Loss of a job
- Increase in financial obligations
- Getting married
- Moving to a new home
- Chronic illness or injury
- Emotional problems (depression, anxiety, anger, grief, guilt, low self-esteem)
- Taking care of an elderly or sick family member
- Traumatic event, such as a natural disaster, theft, rape, or violence against you or a loved one
B. Causes of work stress include:
- Being unhappy in your job
- Having a heavy workload or too much responsibility
- Working long hours
- Having poor management, unclear expectations of your work, or no say in the decision-making process
- Working under dangerous conditions
- Being insecure about your chance for advancement or risk of termination
- Having to give speeches in front of colleagues
- Facing discrimination or harassment at work, especially if your company isn’t supportive
Effects of Stress:
The effects of stress are divided into three categories:
A. Physiological effects: Commonly appearing stress related bodily disorders are-
- Peptic ulcers,
- Hypertension,
- Chronic fatigue,
- Hormonal changes,
- Increased heart rate,
- Difficulty in breathing,
- Numbness of limbs,
- Heart disease and
- Reduction in immunity, etc.
B. Psychological effects:
- Anxiety,
- Depression,
- Hopelessness,
- Helplessness,
- Anger,
- Nervousness,
- Irritability,
- Tension and
- Boredom may be experienced.
C. Behavioral changes
- Decreasing efficiency,
- Making mistakes,
- Inability to take decisions,
- Under eating or overeating,
- Sleeplessness,
- Increased smoking,
- Develop addiction to alcohol and drugs,
- Forgetfulness,
- Hypersensitivity or passiveness,
- Accident proneness and interpersonal difficulties are seen.
Emotion or Manifestation of Distress Noticed During Hospitalization
Adverse emotion can complicate the course of recovery from illness, reduce the effectiveness of treatment, and even cause illness. This should be recognized by the health care team. There are four kinds of emotion or manifestation of distress noticed during hospitalization:
- Anxiety/fear
- Depression
- Irritability/anger and
- Dependence/submissiveness.
The patient’s anxiety can be relieved and ability to cope can be increased if nurses learn to increase communication with the patient and if they give the patient the relevant information. Patients and relatives have difficulties in coping with the fear of a diagnosis of cancer or with having these fears confirmed.
Any illness or treatment which results in disfigurement and consequent change of body image provokes stress. People need to talk about stressful life events. By doing so, they learn to cope with the feelings of helplessness and despair. Nurses can be of help if they can find time to listen often to stories repeatedly told.
In order to cope with their own emotional distress resulting from empathy with the patient, nurses need the support of their colleagues.
Adaptation Theory (Dr Hans Selye) (1945):
All stresses tend to produce a homeostatic change in the body. Though stress itself cannot be perceived, it can be measured by the structural and chemical changes that it produces in the body. These manifest themselves as the general adaptation syndrome (GAS) when affecting the whole body, and as local adaptation syndrome (LAS) when only a limited part of the body is exposed to stress. A syndrome is a particular pattern or grouping of symptoms.
General Adaptation Syndrome
The general adaptation syndrome occurs in three stages:
1. The alarm reaction.
2. The stage of resistance.
3. The stage of exhaustion
(FOR EQ)
A. The alarm reaction fight or flight response: The alarm reaction is essentially the emergency response of the body. It is the body’s initial reaction to a stressor. The stress responses which characterize the alarm reaction include:
- Heart rate and strength of cardiac muscle contraction increases. This circulates blood quickly to areas when it is needed to fight the stress.
- Blood vessels supplying to the skin and viscera, except heart and lungs constrict; at the same time blood vessels supplying to the skeletal muscles and brain dilate.
- These responses route more blood to organs active in the stress responses, thus decreasing the blood supply to organs which do not have in immediate active role.
- RBC production is increased, leading to an increase and the ability of the blood to clot. This helps control bleeding.
- Liver converts glycogen into glucose and releases it into blood stream. This provides the energy needed to fight the stressor.
- The rate of breathing increases and respiratory passages widen to accomodate more air. This enables the body to acquire more oxygen.
- Production of saliva and digestive enzymes reduces. This reaction takes place as digestive activity is not essential for counteracting stress.
B. Stage of resistance: A major feature of the stage of resistance is that certain hormonal responses especially in the adrenocorticotropic (ACTH) axis an important line of defense in resisting the effects of stresses. Prolonged activity of the adrenocorticotropic axis (or other hormonal systems) can impair the body’s ability to fight infection and can have other harmful effects.
C. In the stage of exhaustion: The body’s ability to respond to stresses has been seriously affected. At this stage or late in the stage of resistance, various psychosomatic (mind-body) disorders may occur.
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