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Strategies for coping with stress

Strategies for coping with stress. Learning Questions: What is coping? How do coping strategies have context-specific effectiveness? What is coping flexibility? How does exercise help to cope with stress? What are approach and avoidance coping strategies?. To start - Stress celebrity heads.

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Strategies for coping with stress

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  1. Strategies for coping with stress Learning Questions: What is coping? How do coping strategies have context-specific effectiveness? What is coping flexibility? How does exercise help to cope with stress? What are approach and avoidance coping strategies? To start - Stress celebrity heads

  2. Coping with Stress • Coping is a process involving ‘cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage specific internal and/or external stressors that are appraised as difficult or exceeding the person’s resources in a stressful situation. • A coping strategy is something, behavioural or psychological, that people use to manage or reduce the stress produced by a stressor. • What do you do to cope with stress?

  3. Context-specific effectiveness • There are situational determinants of coping effectiveness. • If there is a good match between the coping strategy used and the stressful situation, a coping strategy is said to have ‘context-specific effectiveness’. • For example… • For the coping strategy to be effective, it also needs to take into account the personal characteristics of the individual • For example…

  4. Coping Flexibility • Coping flexibility - we must also be willing and able to recognise when a coping strategy is not working and modify a strategy or implement a new one if necessary • What are the characteristics of coping flexibility?

  5. Coping Flexibility • Coping flexibility is thought to be an adaptive personality attribute that enables us to adjust our thoughts, feelings or behaviours according to changing situational circumstances. • People with high coping flexibility easily adjust their coping strategies if a particular strategy they are using is not working. • Those with low coping flexibility consistently use the same type of coping strategies across different stressful situations, even if they are not working. • Create your own scenario to illustrate high and low coping flexibility • Complete the coping flexibility scale

  6. Physical exercise is physical activity that is usually planned and performed to improve or maintain one’s physical condition Aerobic exercise is best for physical and mental health, although anaerobic exercise is better than no exercise at all. What is the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise? Give 2 examples of each Physical exercise

  7. Physical Exercise • Aerobic exercise: requires a sustained increase in oxygen consumption and promotes cardiovascular fitness • Anaerobic exercise: involves short bursts of muscle activity that can strengthen muscles and improve flexibility

  8. Physical Exercise • Benefits • Those with high levels of aerobic fitness and are able to reduce their anxiety levels and cope with stress more effectively than those who don’t. • Strenuous physical activity leads to chemical changes in the body - beta-endorphins released by the brain during exercise relieves pain and leads to a sense of wellbeing and relaxation • Can divert a person’s attention away from stressors • How else can exercise be used to cope with stress?

  9. Approach and Avoidance Coping Strategies • The aim of both approach and avoidance coping strategies is to reduce stress and increase the ability to cope. • Approach coping strategies involve efforts to confront a stressor and deal directly with it and its effects. • For example… • Avoidant coping strategies involve efforts to avoid a stressor and deal indirectly with it and its effects • For example…

  10. Approach and Avoidance Coping Strategies • Which type of coping strategy do you think will be most effective? Why? • What are the dangers of excessive reliance on avoidance strategies? • What are the benefits of avoidance strategies? • In what type of situation might both approach and avoidance strategies be used?

  11. Eustress and Distress Reflection • Use 3.13 on page 45 to help you complete your flow chart. • Make links between the following stress-related issues on your paper chain. You need to be able to explain the reasoning behind your links. Cortisol Fight-flight-freeze Exercise

  12. Homework • Complete all of learning activity 3.23 • Create a meme to explain a particular concept of your choice from chapter 3

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