Meeting Life Challenges Notes

Concept and Nature of Stress

1. Stress comes from the Latin word ‘strictus’ (noun) meaning narrow and
‘stringere’ (verb) meaning to tighten.
2. Stress can be described as a Pattern of responses an organism makes to a
stimulus event which disturbs the equilibrium state of an individual and
hinders the person’s ability to cope.
3. Hans Selye, the father of modern stress research, defined stress as “the
non-specific response of the body to any demand” that is regardless of the
cause of stress, the individual will respond with the same physiological pattern
of reaction. Many researchers do not agree with this definition.
4. Stress is further of two types:
○ Eustress is good for the individual and keeps a person motivated.
Eustress is instrumental in attaining peak performance in an important
task.
○ Distress is not good for the individual as this level of stress definitely
hinders the person’s ability to cope and distress exhausts an individual
emotionally, mentally and physically. It causes our body’s wear and
tear.
5. The reaction to external stressors is called ‘strain’

Cognitive Theory of Stress

Cognitive theory of stress along its nature is explained below-

1. Cognitive theory of stress was proposed by Lazarus and his colleagues.
2. According to the cognitive theory of stress, perception of stress is dependent
upon the cognitive appraisal (evaluation) of the situation along with the
resources available to deal with it.
3. Lazarus has distinguished between two types of appraisal i.e. Primary and
Secondary appraisal.
4. Primary Appraisal- refers to the perception of a new or changing
environment as positive, negative, or neutral. Negative events in life are
appraised on three bases-
○ Harm- is the assessment of the damage that has already been done by
the event
○ Threat-it is defined as the assessment of the possible future damage
that may be brought by the event.
○ Challenge- Challenge appraisal are associated with more confident
expectations of the ability to cope with the stressful event, the potential
to overcome and even profit from the event.
5. Secondary Appraisal-When we perceive the event as stressful we are likely
to make a secondary appraisal. It is defined as the assessment of one’s
coping abilities and resources and whether they will be sufficient to meet the
harm, threat andchallenge of the event. These resources may be mental,
physical, personal or social. If one thinks one has a positive attitude, health,
skills, aand social support to deal with the crises, s/he will feel less stressed.
6. These appraisals are very subjective and will depend on factors like:
○ Past experiences - If one has handled similar situation very
successfully in the past, they would be less threatening for him/her.
○ Controllability- it means whether one has mastery or control over a
situation. If one believes they can control the onset of a negative
situation, or its adverse consequences, will experience less amount of
stress than those who have no such sense of personal control
7. Stress can be experienced due to various kinds of stressors like:
○ Environmental stressors- eg noise, air, pollution, etc.
○ Social Stressors - eg break-up with a friend, loneliness, etc.
○ Psychological Stressors- eg Conflict, frustration, etc.

8. VARIOUS RESPONES/REACTIONS TO STRESS

The two level appraisal process determines our cognitive, behavioural,
emotional and physiological responses. Moreover, these stressors result in
variety of stress reactions like.
 ○ 1) Physiological Response- At this level, arousal plays a key role in
stress- related behaviours. The hypothalamus initiates actions along
two pathways.
○ The first pathway involves the automatic nervous system (ANS).
The adrenal gland release large amount of catecholamines
(epinephrine and norepiphrenine) into the blood stream. This leads to
physiological changes seen in fight-and-flight response.
○ The second pathway involves the pitutary gland, which secretes the
corticosteroid (cortisol) which provides energy.
○ 2) Emotional Response- The emotional reactions to experience of
stress include negative emotions such as fear, anxiety,
embarrassment, anger, depression, or even denial.
○ 3) Behavioural Response- are virtually limitless, depending on the
nature of the stressful event. However, 2 categories of responses are
common. First is fight response - it is the confrontative action against
the stressor. Second is flight response - withdrawal from the
threateningevents
○ 4) Cognitive response- include beliefs about the harm or threat an
event poses and beliefs about its cause or controllability. These include
responses like inability to concentrate, and intrusive, repetitive or
morbid thoughts.

9. Dimensions Of Stress
The stressors which people experience also vary in terms of:
○ Intensity- low vs. high intensity
○ Duration- short term vs. long term
○ Complexity- less complex vs. more complex
○ Predictability- unexpected vs predictable
○ Note- Usually more intense, prolonged or chronic, complex, and
unanticipated stresses have more negative consequences than have
less intense, short-term, less complex, and expected stresses.
10. Person’s characteristics and background will also determine the appraisal
and response to stress.
○ Psychological characteristics- like mental health, temperament, and
self-concept are relevant to the experience of stress.
○ Physiological characteristics- like physical health, constitutional
vulnerabilities (basic physiological tendency that is believed to
contribute to personality, temperament, or specific mental disorders)
○ Cultural context- in which we live determines the meaning of any
event and defines the nature of response that is expected under
various conditions.
○ Resources- of a person such as money, social skills, coping styles,
support, network, etc. will also determine stress appraisal.
Signs and Symptoms of Stress
1. Everyone has their ow pattern of stress response, so warning signs may vary, as may
the intensity.
2. Symptoms of stress can be physical, emotional, cognitive and behavioural.

Types of Stress (IMPORTANT)

Various types of stress are explained as follows-
1. Physical and Environmental Stress
○ Physical stresses are demands that change the state of our body. We
feel strained when we overexert ourselves physically, lack a nutritious
diet, suffer an injury, or fail to get enough sleep.
○ Environmental stress are aspects of our surroundings that are often
unavoidable such as noise and air pollution, crowding, heat of summer
and dirty surroundings etc, which causes us stress. Another group of
environmental stresses are catastrophic events or disasters such as
fire, earthquake, floods, etc.
2. Psychological Stress
○ Stresse that we generate ourselves in our minds is called psychological
stress and it is subjective in nature
○ Various sources of psychological stress are:
○ a) Frustration- results from the blocking of needs and motives by
something or someone that hinders us from achieving a desired goal.
There could be a number of frustration such as social discrimination,
interpersonal hurt, low grades in school, etc.
○ b) Conflicts- may occur between two or more incompatible needs or
motives, eg, whether to study dance or psychology. There may be a
conflict of values when you are pressurised to take any action that may
be against the values held by you.
○ c) Internal Pressure - stem from beliefs based upon expectations from
inside us to ourselves such as, “I must do everything perfectly.” Such
expectations can only lead to disappointment.
○ d) Social Pressure- may be brought about from people who make
excessive demands on us. This can cause even greater pressure whn
we have to work with them. Also, there are people with whom we face
interpersonal difficulties, ‘a personality clash’ of sorts.
3. Social Stress
○ These are induced externally and result from our interpersonal
relationships and interactions with other people.
○ Social events like Break up with a friend, death of a close family
member, illness ini family, strained relationships troublles with
neighbour.
○ Social stress is also subjective in nature.
Sources of Stress
various sources of stress are explained as follows-
1. Life Events
○ Changes, both small or big, sudden and gradual, that affect our life
from the moment we are born.
○ some of them are pre-planned, hence easy to cope up with, like
changing schools.
○ Some big changes happen in life as well which are unpredictable in
nature and are not easy to deal with. For eg, the death of a close family
member.
2. Traumatic Events
○ These include being involved in a variety of extreme events. For
example, Rape, Terrorist Attack, etc.
○ The effects of these events may occur after some lapse of time and
sometimes persist as symptoms of anxiety, flashbacks, dreams,
intrusive thoughts, etc.
○ Severe trauma can also strain relationships.
3. Hassles
○ These are the personal stresses we endure as individuals, due to the
happenings in daily life
○ Examples- Day to day stressful situations like noisy surroundings,
commuting, quarellsome neighbour, stressful jobs, add up to our stress
level.
○ Hassles may sometimes have devastating consequences for the
individual.
○ The more stress people report as a result of daily hassles, the poorer is
their psychological wellbeing.
○ Social support in such case is important as it helps an individual coping
with hassles

Effects of Stress on Psychological Functioning and Health

(IMPORTANT)
The effects of stress on psychological functioning are explained as follows-
1. Emotional effects
○ People who suffer from emotional stress experience a lot of mood
swings and become emotionally unstable which alienates them from
their family and friends as a result of which self-confidence and
self-esteem are hampered.
 ○ Examples- feelings of depression and anxiety, increreased physical
tension and mood swings
2. Physiological Effects
○ Certain hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are produced in our body
in stressful situations and that can be effective in short-run but in long
run, it does hamper our well-being
○ Examples of Physiological Effects include an changes in heart rate,
blood pressure, metabolism, and physical activity, release of
epinephrine, and norepinephrine, slowing down of digestive system,
expansion of air passages in lungs, increased heart rate, constriction of
heart vessels etc.
3. Cognitive Effects
○ Too much stress leads to mental overload and hinders our cognitive
abilities like memory, decision-making, concentration etc.
○ Examples- poor concentration, reduced short-term memory, etc.
4. Behavioural Effects – Stress affects our behaviour in the following manner-
○ Less intake of nutritious food.
○ Increase intake of stimulants such as caffeine
○ Disturbed sleep pattern
○ Increased absenteeism
○ Poor work performance
○ Consumption of cigarette, alcohol and drugs like tranquillisers
(Tranquillisers are addictive and have side effects such as loss of
coordination, and dizziness) .

Stress and Health (IMPORTANT)

Impact of stress on health is explained as follows-
1. When stress is prolonged, it affects physical health and imparis psychological
functioning. People experience exhaustion and attitudinal problems when the
stress due to demands of environment and constraints are too high and little
support is available from family and friends.
2. The physical exhaustion is seen in the signs of chronic, fatigue, weakness
and low energy.
3. The mental exhaustion appears in the form of irritability, anxiety, feelings of
helplessness and hoplessness.
4. This state of Physical,emotional and mental exhaustion is called burnout.
5. There is also convincing evidence to show stress can produce changes in the
immune system and increase the chances of someone becoming ill.
6. Stress is the Major root cause of cardiovascular disorders, High BP, and
psychosomatic disorders including ulcers, asthma, allergies, and headaches.
7. Researches estimate that stress plays important role in 50-70% 0f all physical
illness.
8. 50-60% of medical visits are because of stress related problems.
General Adaptation Syndrome(GAS) (IMPORTANT)
It answers the question- What happens to the body when stress is prolonged?
Key features of GAS model are explained as follows-
1. Selye subjected animals to a variety of stressors like high temperature,
X-rays, Insulin injections in the laboratory over a long period of time.
2. He also observed patients with various injuries and illnesses in hospitals.
3. Selye noticed a similar pattern of bodily responses in all of them. He called
this pattern the General Adaptation Syndrome(GAS)
4. According to him, GAS involves three stages. These three stages of GAS are-
○ Alarm Reaction Stage
○ Resistance Stage
○ Exhaustion Stage
5. The stages of the GAS model are explained below-
6. Alarm Reaction Stage- The presence of a noxious stimuli or stressor leads
to activation of the adrenal- pituitary cortex system. This triggers the
release of hormones producing the stress response (fight or flight) like
adrenaline and cortisol. Now individual is ready for fight or flight.
7. Resistance Stage- If stress is prolonged it leads to the resistance stage and
the parasympathetic nervous system calls for careful use of body
resources. The organism makes efforts to cope with the threat as through
confrontation.
8. Exhaustion Stage- Too much exposure to same or additional stressors,
drains the body of its resources and it leads to exhaustion stage.
Physiological systems involved in the alarm reaction stage and resistance
stage become ineffective and susceptibility to stress-related diseases such as
high BP becomes more likely.
9. Limitation of Selye’s GAS model- A very limited role is assigned to
psychological factors in stress. And researchers have reported that
psychological appraisal of events is important for determination of stress.
Stress is also influenced by people’s perceptions, personalities and biological
constitutions.
Stress and Immune System
The relationship between stress and immune system is elaborated below-
1. There is a direct correlation between increase in level of stress and
impairment in working of the immune system.
2. Taking too much stress can hamper the working of the immune system
which is responsible for protecting the body from the attackers within the body
and outside the body.
3. Psychoneuroimmunology studies the link between mind, brain and immune
system and the effect stress has on the working of the immune system.

Stress and Lifestyle

The next topic that comes in the Meeting Life Challenges Class 12 notes is
relationship between stress and immune system which is explained below:
1. Lifestyle is defined as the overall pattern of a person’s day to day decision
making and the way he/she lives a life that determines their health and quality
of life.
2. There is a direct correlation between high levels of stress and an unhealthy
lifestyle.
3. People who are highly stressed have poor nutritional habits, disturbed sleep
patterns and no fitness regime to look after their health and well-being.
4. A proper and healthy lifestyle has the following prerequisites-
○ Positive thinking
○ Nutritious Diet
○ Exercise
○ Social support

Coping with Stress (IMPORTANT)

- Coping is defined as a dynamic situation specific reaction to stress. It is a set
of concrete responses to stressful situations or events that are intended to
resolve the problem and reduce stress.
- Coping is also relative in nature. The way we cope with stress often depends
on rigid deep-seated beliefs based on experience. For eg, when caught in
traffic jam we feel angry, because we believe that traffic ‘should’ move faster.
- People who cope poorly with stress have an impaired immune response and
diminished activity of natural killer cells.
- Various strategies have been suggested by psychologists to deal with
stressful situations which are discussed below-
1. Endler and Parker gave 3 coping strategies:
 ○ Task oriented strategy- focuses on obtaining information about the
stressful situation and about alternative courses of actions and their
probable outcome. It also involves deciding priorities and acting so as
to deal directly with the stressful situation. For eg, schedule my time
better, or think about how I have solved similar problems.
○ Emotion Oriented strategy- lays focus on maintaining hope and
controlling one’s emotions. It can also involve venting feelings of anger
and frustration, or deciding that nothing can be done to change things.
For eg, tell myself that it is not really happening to me, or worry about
what I am going to do.
○ Avoidance Oriented Strategy- involves denying and minimising the
seriousness of the situation; it also involves conscious suppression of
stressful thoughts and their replacement by self- protective thoughts.
Eg- watching TV, phone up a friend, or try to be with other people

2. Lazarus and Folkman

○ They conseptualised coping as a dynamic process rather than an
individual trait. Coping refers to constantly changing cognitive and
behavioural efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the internal or external
demands that are created by the stressful transactions.
○ According to them coping response can be divided into two categories:
○ 1) Emotion Focused strategies focus on psychological changes
designed primarily to limit the degree of emotional disrution caused by
an event, with minimal effort to alter the event itself. For eg, “I did
somethings to let it out of my system.”
○ 2) Problem Focused Strategies attack the proble itself, with
behaviours designed to gaiin information, to alter the event, and to alter
belief and commitments. They increase a person’s awareness, level of
knowledge, and range of behaviour and cognitive coping options. They
can act to reduce threat value of the event. For eg, “I made a plan of
action and i folowed it.”
○ Research suggest that people used problem-focused coping more tha
emotion focused.

Stress Management Techniques

Various stress management techniques are explained as follows-
1. Relaxation techniques-
● an active skill that reduces symptoms of stress and incidence of illness
like high BP, and heart diseases.
● Muscle relaxation usually starts from ower part of body and progresses
up to facial muscles in such a way that whole body is relaxed.
● Deep breathing is used along with muscle relaxation to calm mind and
relax body
 2. Meditation -
● The yogic method of meditation consists of sequence of learned
techniques to refocus attention that bring about an altered state of
consciousness.
3. Biofeedback-
● It is a procedure to monitor and reduce the physiological aspects of
stress by providing feedback about current physiological activity and is
often accompanied by relaxation training.
● It involves three stages: i) developing an awareness of particular
physiological response eg heartrate; ii) learning ways of controlling that
physiological response in quiet conditions; iii) transferring that control
into the conditions of everyday life.
4. Creative Visualisation-
● It is an effective technique for dealing with stress.
● It is a subjective experience that uses imagery and imagination.
● This reduces risk of interference from unbidden thoughts and provides
the creative energy needed for turning an imagined scene into reality.
5. Cognitive Behavioural Techniques-
● These techniques aiim to inoculate people gainst stress
● Stress inoculation training is one effective technique developed by
Meichenbaum.
● Essence of this approach is to replace negative and irrational thoughts
with positive and rational ones.
● 3 main phases are: i) assessment;ii) stress reduction techniques;iii)
application and follow-through
6. Exercise
● Can provide an active outlet for the physiological arousal experienced
in response to stress.
● helps in controlling BP, Heart Rate, strengthens immunity, controls
blood sugar level, enhances function of lungs, maintains good
circulation, etc.
● Swimming, walking, running, cycling, skipping helps to reduce stress

Promoting Positive Health and Well-Being

Concept and ways of promoting positive health and well-being is explained as
follows-
1. Stress Resistant Personality Recent studies by Kosaba have shown that
people who experience high levels of stress but low levels of illness exhibit 3
characteristics, which are referred to as personality traits of hardiness. It
consists of “3Cs”like Commitment, Control and Challenge
2. Life Skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable
individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday
life.Some of the life skills necessary for our overall development are-
○ Time management- Major way to reduce stress is to reduce change
one’s perception of time. The central principle in T.M. is to spend your
time doing things that you value, or help you to achieve your goals.
○ Assertiveness is a behaviour or skill that helps to communicate clearly
and confidently, our feelings, needs, wants, and thoughts. It is the
ability to say no to a request, to state opinion without being self
conscious, or express emotions such as love, anger, etc, openly.
○ Rational Thinking- Some principles of R.T. are: challenging your
distorted thinking and irrational beliefs, driving out potentially intrusive,
negative, anxiety-provoking thoughts and making positive statements.
○ Overcoming unhelpful habits like avoidance, procrastination,
perfectionsims, etc.
○ Self-care
○ Improving relationships with others- Key to sound lasting
relationship is communication. It consists of 3 skills: listening others,
expressing how you feel and what you think, and accepting the other
person’s opinions and feelings, even if its different. It also requires us
to avoid misplaced jealousy and sulking behaviour

3. Positive health means a state of complete physical, mental, emotional, social

and spiritual well-being. Positive health is not just about the absence of
disease and factors responsible for Positive Health are explained below:
○ Diet – One should have a balanced diet as it prevents illness, controls
BP, Heart Rate and blood sugar level and determining factors for an
individual with regard to diet are Health History, Genetics, Activity
level. A balanced diet helps in coping with stress.
○ Positive attitude – There is a direct correlation between positive
health and positive well-being. Some of the ways of enhancing a
positive attitude are having a definite aim in life, taking flaws positively
etc.
○ Exercise – There is a direct correlation between exercise and positive
health and exercise strengthens our immune system, controls the
amount of fat and BP as well.
○ Positive Thinking - Optimism, which is inclination to expect favourable
life outcomes, has been linked to psychological and physical
well-being.
○ Social Support- is defined as the existence and availability of people
on who we ca rely upon, people who let us know that they care about,
value, and love us.