High-Stress Condition

Stress can come from anything we do in our daily lives, even if it is a positive or negative change. To measure the amount of stress a single event can cause two men named Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe came up with the Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Over time this scale has been modified to accommodated for

This article related to a few topics in psychology such as depression, anxiety, and stress. The author explains the

(February 2014) Similar to this study I used a stress scale although, I reduced mine to a scale between: 1-5. “5” being the highest level of stress. The Stress in America study used a Perceived Stress Scale that participants self-monitored their stress levels by answering where they would answer such questions as “how often have you felt irritable and angry in the last month” and they could answer,(very often, sometimes, never etc.) For my purposes I asked myself the following three questions and used the following rating system to determine my stress levels that day.(Angus, n.d.)

They will often have strong reactions to even minor negative events and have a hard time handling stressful situations. Conversely, someone who is low on neuroticism will rarely experience strong negative states and will be much more stable emotionally. They will generally stay calm and handle stressful situations well. Choosing neuroticism as our second independent variable allows us to fill gaps in the previous research by examining the possibility of implicit egotism caused by negative self-associations and learning more about how personality traits affect implicit egotism.

Selye, H. (1975). Confusion and Controversy in the Stress Field. Journal of Human Stress, 1(2), 37-44. doi:10.1080/0097840x.1975.9940406

There are some categorized behaviors that allude to high stress based studies. There are two types, A and B. The type A person is very aggressive at all times when it comes to being the best at any position. This person has to be number one by any means necessary. They are self-driven with high intensity. In addition to that, they are very argumentative and lack people skills which keep them on edge.

In order to test this hypothesis, three human subjects were subjected to various mental activities in the form of quizzes of increasing difficulty (low, medium, and high stress). Before the experiment, each test subject was given a pre-survey to fill out. The answers each subject gave in their pre-survey allowed us to explain or understand any anonymous data that was obtained. The pre-survey asked questions about the subject’s lifestyle, such as how many hours a week they work, study, or sleep. The subjects were asked if they often exercise, solve puzzles, or if they have test anxiety. We also asked each subject to rank their average stress level, their current stress level, and how often they meditate or partake in de-stressing activities.

Biopsychosocial Framework The biopsychosocial framework is a general model or framework stating that the unavoidable interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors, all play a significant role in human functioning in the context of health. The biopsychosocial framework is used to organise the biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces on human development (David, et al., n.d) Middle Adulthood Middle age is the prime of life, many of the major life events of middle adulthood, such as parenting and work, span several decades of one’s life. During this time, there are significant developmental events, such as changes in reproductive capacity, developing expertise in well-exercised areas, and transitions in family

Coping strategies have been shown to have a significant impact on the mental and physical health of various populations (Lehavot, 2012). Two types have coping strategies are commonly discussed: problem focused and emotion focused. Problem-focused coping is action oriented and involves trying to change the stressful situation. Examples of problem focused coping strategies include seeking information, planning, and taking action. Problem focused coping strategies are adaptive and are associated with positive adjustment after stressful events. Emotion focused coping involves changing the emotional aspects of the situation and includes both active and avoidant strategies. Examples of emotional focused coping include focusing on positive aspects of the situation, seeking emotional support from others (active strategies), and mental or behavioral disengagement (an avoidant strategy). Active emotion-focused strategies are generally considered to be adaptive, and avoidant emotion-focused coping strategies maladaptive. However, findings have shown mixed results.

Stress is commonly known to have damaging effects on our bodies. One might argue that we exhibit feelings of depression, anxiety, social discomfort, fatigue, weight changes and other undesirable symptoms. However, the most crucial consequence of long-term stress is brain damage. Long-term exposure to glucocorticoids results in deterioration of neurons that are located in the hippocampus (Carlson, 2013). The hippocampus hosts the formation for learning and memory. When this area is damaged due to exposure to long-term stress, memory and learning can be impaired. Impaired hippocampal neurogenesis is also an essential role player in cases of depression (Thomas, Hotsenpiller & Peterson, 2007; Carlson, 2013). Jensen, Genefke and Hyldebrandt (1982)

Scientific journals follow critical reading guidelines that establish your credibility. Elizabeth N. Burris and Shevaun D Neupert from North Carolina State University explore this topic in relation to Mood Repair and Daily stressors. In their article Mood Management: Mood Repair and Daily Stressors Correlate with Daily Affect they are looking for whether individual differences in mood repair would predict emotional reactivity to daily stressors. In this study Elizabeth N. Burris and Shevaun D. Neupert focus on a sample of 43 community dwelling older adults who were part of a larger study called Anticipatory coping Every Day and completed a 8 day daily diary. When picking potential participants if they got a score greater than or equal to 8 on the Short Blessed Test, cognitive impairment screening, were admitted into the study. This study used different tasks to measure the Daily Positive and Negative Affect and Daily Stressors. In conclusion this study found that there was a increase in the amount of negative

As stated previously, there are differences between people in their resilience to stress. One factor influencing this is personality traits as they influence the cognitive processing of stressful events, the appraisal (Lyons, Rench, Riffle & Schneider, 2011). Examining the Five Factor Model of Personality (Costa & McCrae, 1985), low levels of neuroticism has been shown to heighten reactivity which affects how major and minor life stressors are perceived (Suls, 2001). Armeli, Cohen and Gunthert (1999) support this by finding that people high in neuroticism

The study conducted was a longitudinal study. The sample of this study was groups of undergraduate students (n=164 the second week and n=134 the final week of the course) who were either registered in abnormal psychology courses or business and social psychology courses (Curtin et al 2004, p. 52). The latter two were used as the control groups for the study. The students who participated were asked to complete a demographic and mental health questionnaire as well as the Symptom Check-List-90-Revised and the NEO-Five Factor inventory. They were given each of these questionnaires twice, the first time it was administered was during the second week of the semester and the second time was during the last and final week of the semester.

Coping strategies refer to the specific efforts, both behavioral and psychological, that people employ to master, tolerate, reduce or minimize stressful events. There are two general coping strategies which have been distinguished. Problem-focused strategies are efforts to do something active to alleviate stressful circumstances, where as emotion-focused coping strategies involve efforts to regulate the emotional consequences of stressful or potentially stressful events. Typically, people use both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping in their stressful episodes, which suggests that both types of coping are useful for most stressful events (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980).

“Stress is a silent disease” (Doctor Hobel). Over the years, stress has played a major rule in a large majority of people’s lives throughout the United States. When thought about, it is said to be extremely surprising as to how many people really have stress in each individual’s life. People do not consider what the reasons are for the feelings and emotions they experience. There are all different types of stress, and stress can do a lot to a person. Each person also handles stress in a different way. Some can handle more than others, because every single person’s body works in a different way. Stress has also been told to cause people to act out of character (Dr. David Posen). They often do not act the way they usually would while under