STRESS AND COPING DISCUSS TWO STRESS THEORY

Stress and Coping Discuss Two Stress Theory



Stress and Coping Discuss Two Stress Theory

In the everyday usage of the word, motivation is defined as "a sense of need, desire, fear etc., that prompts an individual to act", and emotion is defined as "a strong feeling often accompanied by a physical reaction" (Webster's Dictionary, 1988). But in the field of psychology, both motivation and emotion are hypothetical constructs, processes which cannot be directly observed or studied. Motivation is thought of as a process that both energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior, as where emotions are subjective experiences, feelings that accompany motivational states (Weber, 1991). I believe that stress is primarily a process of motivation since it requires some sort of adaptation (coping) to the demand or set of demands. On the other hand, the emotions that we experience due to stress can also be studied. This does relate stress to emotions, but stress in itself is not considered a particular emotion. For example, one could experience different kinds of emotions due to stress, such as that of anger, anticipation, and fear.

Component Analysis of Coping

The effects of stress is directly linked to coping. The study of coping has evolved to encompass large variety of disciplines beginning with all areas of psychology such as health psychology, environmental psychology, neuro psychology and developmental psychology to areas of medicine spreading into the area of anthropology and sociology. Dissecting coping strategies into three broad components, (biological/physiological, cognitive, and learned) will provide a better understanding of what the seemingly immense area is about.

The body has its own way of coping with stress. Any threat or challenge that an individual perceives in the environment triggers a chain of neuroendocrine events. These events can be conceptualized as two separate responses, that being of sympathetic/adrenal response, with the secretion of catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine) and the pituitary/adrenal response, with the secretion of corticosteroids (Selye, 1978). The sympathetic/adrenal response takes the message from the brain to the adrenal medulla via the sympathetic nervous system, which secretes epinephrine and norepinephrine. This is the basic "fight or flight" response (Cannon, 1929), where the heart rate quickens and the blood pressure rises. In the pituitary/adrenal response, the hypothalamus is stimulated and produces the corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) to the pituitary gland through the blood veins, then the adrenal corticotropic hormone (ACTH) is released from the pituitary gland to the adrenal cortex. (Seyle, 1956).

Social support has also been established by studies to be linked to stress (Bolger & Eckenrole, 1991; House, et. al, 1988). This can be seen as a dimension of the biological component since it is closely linked to the biological environment of that individual. There are many aspects to social support, the major categories would be of emotional, tangible, and informational.

Personality types as so called Type A Personality have been defined to have such characteristics as competitive, impatient and hostile. Hostility has been linked to coronary heart disease which is thought be caused by stress ...