STRESS AND STRESS MANAGEMENT

1. Chapter 14 STRESS AND STRESS MANAGEMENT

2. Causes of Stress • *Stress is any reaction or response made by the body to a new situation. • Two kinds of stress: • *Eustress is a positive, pleasant, and desirable stress. Example: wining a race. • Distress is negative stress. • Stressor is a situation or an event that causes the body to react.

3. Causes of Stress • Life changes and daily hassles • *Major life changes such as divorce increase daily hassles, causing stress. • Example is “During the past year, you got married, got a promotion, and moved into a bigger house.” • Daily hassles such as getting stuck in traffic or misplacing your keys cause stress in your life. • Even if stress is due to a pleasant change, daily hassles can occur.

4. Causes of Stress • Chronic stressors • Inescapable day-to-day situations or conditions that cause stress. • More stressful than daily hassles. • Not as stressful as a major life change. • Examples include poverty, abuse, long-term health problems, and racism.

5. Sources of Stress • External stressors • Stressors from outside sources that causes pain or discomfort, frustration, or conflict. • Frustration is the feeling people get when their goals are blocked. • *Inner conflict is the pressure felt when forced to make a choice. • The three types of inner conflict are approach-approach, approach-avoid, and avoid-avoid.

6. Sources of Stress • *Approach-approach conflict – Feeling of conflict one gets when torn between two desirable goals. • Approach-avoid conflict – Occurs when one is drawn towards and away from something at the same time. • *Avoid-avoid conflict – Occurs when one is torn between two undesirable options.

7. Sources of Stress • Internal stressors • One’s perceptions or interpretations of a stressor as well as personality factors. • Perceptions differ because of: • *Cognitive appraisal: Your “thinking evaluation” of an event or a situation. • *The unnecessary stress of irrational beliefs: An irrational belief system or, at worst, turning an irrational belief into an imagined catastrophe. • The stress of irrational beliefs can be reduced by the “rational emotive therapy.”

8. Sources of Stress Ellis’s ABC Approach to stress

9. Type A and Type B Personality Behavior • Type A and Type B personalities are associated with personality factors. • *Type A personality is characterized by impatience, hostility, perfectionism, and a sense of time urgency. • *Type B is characterized by flexibility, the ability to relax and delegate work, and a minimal sense of time urgency. Most top level executives are likely to be Type B people.

10. Type A and Type B Personality Behavior • Someone with a different kind of personality than type A or type B: • The survivor personality type manage things well even if the stressors and problems are impossible to overcome. • The hardy or resilient personality see • *1. challenges, have a sense of • 2. commitment, and a feeling of being in • 3. control. (the three C’s)

11. The Physical Effects of Stress • General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): • When confronted with stress, the body responds with an activation of the sympathetic nervous system – Fight-or-flight response. • *When the fight-or-flight response is activated, you enter the first stage of GAS – Alarm. • The second stage is adaptation where one adapts to the stressor and can usually return to normal. • *The third stage is exhaustion where one ends up using all the physical resources.

12. The Physical Effects of Stress • The immune system serves three basic functions: • Recognizing foreign cells and attacking them. • Developing antibodies to recognize foreign invaders in the future. • Sending white blood cells and other helper cells to the location of an injury or infection to speed healing. • Chronic stress can actually weaken your immune system and fall victim to an illness that you would normally fight off with ease.

13. The Cost of Stress in the Workplace • Job burnout is the physical and emotional exhaustion resulting from long-term stress or frustration in one’s workplace. • It leads to lower productivity, lost days of work, worker’s compensation claims, and lawsuits among others.

14. The Cost of Stress in the Workplace • Health effects on employees are headaches, back pain, exhaustion, anxiety, anger, insomnia, and digestive upsets. • Other effects include accidents on the job, excessive eating or smoking, anger outbursts, and alcohol/drug abuse. • Employees are seeking help for stress through employee programs.

15. The Cost of Stress in the Workplace • Causes of employee stress • Stress from management. • Having no say in decisions. • Too much/little structure. • Racism and sexism. • Frustrating company policies. • Low pay. • Stressful relationships with supervisors/peers. • Boredom. • Work overload; too much responsibility. • No promotions.

16. The Cost of Stress in the Workplace • Stress affects self-esteem. • It makes one overwhelmed. • It makes people less productive and less successful, which lowers self-esteem. • It impacts all areas of people’s lives.

17. Strategies for Success • Discard irrational beliefs: • Evaluate the consequences of the belief. • Identify your belief system. • Dispute the self-defeating belief. • Practice effective ways of thinking.

18. Strategies for Success • Change your behaviors to reduce stress: • Take charge of your life. • Use humor. • Compare yourself with others. • Take advantage of stress. • Learn to live with unavoidable stress.

19. Strategies for Success • Take care of yourself: • Use relaxation techniques. • Increase your fitness: Exercise, eat well, and reduce/quit smoking and drinking. • Make time for rest and leisure. • Get social support. • Try to reduce stress in the workplace. • Manage your time. • Stop procrastinating.