Pearson BTEC National Applied Psychology: Book 2

A1 Psychological definition of health and ill health, addiction and stress Definitions and characteristics of health and ill health, addiction and stress. ● Health and ill health: biomedical, biopsychosocial, health as a continuum. ● Stress: definition of a stressor, psychological stress, stress and perceived ability to cope. Specification content How we perceive a stressor (and our coping abilities) is what really matters. Does that explain why two people can face the same stressor and respond completely differently? How could you apply that to a common stressor such as getting divorced? An issue to consider Stress Stress is an emotional response to situations of threat. Such threats are called stressors . They may be physical (a lion is attacking) or psychological (you are worried about your exams). In both cases your body produces a response – a response which is affected by your perceived ability to cope. Stressors A stressor is the threat that creates stress. Physical stressors There are many things in the environment that create stress, such as temperature, noise and overcrowding. Psychological stressors Later in this unit (content area B) we will be looking closely at four very important and common psychological stressors – major events in our lives (e.g. getting married or divorced, coping with bereavement), everyday niggles and annoyances (‘hassles’ such as sitting in a traffic jam), the workplace and our own personalities. The stress response It is useful to distinguish between physiological and psychological stress. Physiological stress refers to how the body physically responds to a stressor. We are all familiar with the bodily symptoms of a stressful experience (e.g. increased heart rate, sweating, sick feeling in your stomach, etc.). We look at this in more detail on page 46. Psychological stress is the emotion you experience when a stressor occurs. Perceived ability to cope Just because a stressor happens to you, this does not mean you will experience psychological stress. It depends on how you think about the stressor and about your ability to cope with it. To put it technically, psychological stress occurs when the perceived demands of your environment are greater than your perceived ability to cope with them. Consider a common example of ‘perceived demands’: You must have noticed that students can respond very differently to the stressor of an exam. Most people experience some ‘stress’ when they think about an upcoming exam – feeling anxious, their heart rate increases, they feel sick. But other students find the thought of exams bothers them very little. The different responses occur because of different perceptions of the exam – some think of it as a threat, others feel very confident, some even see it as a challenge. It is these perceptions of the stressor that affect the response itself. Of course, whether you become stressed by the demands of your environment depends on another factor… Perception of available resources This refers to how we think about our ability to deal with stressors. The key feature of coping is our perception of the resources we have available to combat the stressor. Resources can be internal or external. Internal coping resources are psychological and include resilience (the ability to persist and to ‘bounce back’ after a setback), as well as self-efficacy (discussed on page 26). External coping resources include social support, the networks of friends, family and other people who we can call upon when we experience stressors that threaten to overwhelm us. In both types of resource, perception is crucial. You may not actually have many friends, or you never really stick to a task for more than five minutes. But what matters is that you believe your coping resources are enough to overcome the stressor. So, a student who knows they have revised thoroughly for an exam is likely to cope better than someone who fears they have done very little. But someone who manages to kid themselves they have revised will probably also cope fairly well (although they may experience more stress when the results come out). Stress isn’t all negative – the term eustress describes positive stress. Some people enjoy the adrenaline rush of a bungee jump. Personally, we prefer to limit our flying to the inside of an aluminium tube. Exam-style questions Meera is her mother’s main carer and has been doing this for two years with hardly any time off. She finally had to give up a job she enjoyed to continue caring for her mother. Meera tells her doctor that she keeps getting headaches and is feeling depressed. The doctor takes Meera’s blood pressure and says she could have a chemical imbalance in her brain. He prescribes some antidepressants to put it right. Meera then tells the doctor that her partner has left her. The doctor says that Meera might benefit from some psychological therapy as well as antidepressants. 1. What are the stressors in this situation? (2) 2. Meera is suffering from psychological stress. Explain what this means in the context of her situation. (2) 3. Explain one definition of health/ill health. (2) 4. Explain what is meant by ‘health as a continuum’. (2) 5. Explain one aspect of Meera’s conversation with her doctor in terms of the biomedical definition and one in terms of the biopsychosocial definition. (2 + 2) 6. Meera is worried that she cannot cope with her situation. Explain how Meera’s perceived ability to cope may affect her stress levels. (3) You can read about assessment issues on pages 34, 70 and 108. Health, stress and sleep S leep is increasingly seen as a crucial part of being healthy.We need decent quality sleep in order to feel well.When we are ill we often cannot sleep properly, and this makes us feel worse. Stress can also prevent or disrupt sleep. The Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) will help you assess your sleep quality: tinyurl.com/y2l9vtwl 1. Fill in the PSQI. Is your score what you expected? 2. How does stress affect your sleep patterns? 3. How do you feel when you don’t get enough sleep? ACTIVE GET 11