Df Week 4

Natoshia Quander

DF WK 4

1. Define stress, distress, and strain.

Stress – stress is for a person to be under a mental strain that results from different circumstances.

Distress – to be under extreme anxiety resulting from different aspects of life

Strain –  to be pressured

1. Compare four different approaches to stress.

Action-Oriented Approach – In this approach to stress, whatever is creating the stress is confronted and dealt with directly. Changes are made either to the person or the environment around them to help resolve the stress.

Emotion-Oriented Stress – In this approach to stress, the person does not have the ability to change the environment or the situation around the problem creating the stress. The person must change themselves personally to interpret the situation differently, resolving the stress.

Accepted- Oriented Stress – In this approach the person does not have any ability to change the situation causing the stress directly or indirectly. Instead, the person must come to terms with the situation instead to change it. By doing this, they come to terms with the problem and thus resolve the situation causing the stress.

Adaption-Oriented Stress – In this approach to stress, the person tries to adapt to the situation causing the stress, instead of trying to fight it, they go along with it, and this ultimately causes them to become part of the problem causing the stress.

1. Explain the psychophysiology of the stress response.

To begin, stress is both a biological and psychological response that happens when we face a threat we feel we do not have the resources to deal with.  Our body physically responds to stress by: increasing heart rate, increase in breathing, showing a decrease in digestive activity, or you don’t feel as hungry, or the liver releasing glucose for energy. Our body decides on if a situation is useful or not by recalling on past memories and the things we see and hear, and if it’s judge as being stressful then the hypothalamus at the base of the brain is activated.  When the hypothalamus is activated, it sends a response to two other parts of the brain: the pituitary gland and the adrenal medulla.  The responses produced by these two arts of the brain are better known as the Fight or Flight response. This term is regarded as the method for handling a ‘’threating situation, whether or not we fight it or we run from it.

1. Identify work and non-work causes of stress.

Work related causes of stress include long hours of work, deadlines, (completing the work by the deadlines given), work relationships, resources and communications, and job security. Non work stress related issues include:  family and friend illnesses, commuting pressures, financial problems, caring for the sick, relationship issues, bereavement and loss.

1. Describe the consequences of stress.

The most common consequences of stress are anxiety, depression, panic attacks, sudden mood swings (bi polar), lack of interest, increase/decrease in the amount of food you intake and amount of weight gained.