Emotions, Stress, and Health

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General Psychology

• Chapter 11
• Emotions, Stress, and Health

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Visualization Exercise

• Visualize yourself opening the refrigerator.
  Visualize yourself taking out a lemon. Hold the
  lemon in your palms. Feel the texture of it's
  waxy, yellow peel and its smoothness, and feel
  the yellow peel ending at a point. Slightly press
  the lemon in your palm, and feel the presence of
  fresh juice inside. Take a sharp knife and cut
  the lemon in two halves. Freshly released
  molecules of the lemon fragrance hit your nose.
  Smell the lemon fragrance. Now bite into the
  lemon.

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What did you feel?

• What sorts of things came to mind?
• Did you experience
• Memories?
• Emotions or feelings?
• Sensations or physical reactions?
• Recall neural networks and memory activating one
  node of a neural network activates the
  surrounding area

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EmotionsThree Interacting Components
Sympathetic Nervous System Parasympathetic
Nervous System
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Theories of Emotion

• James-Lange Physiology produces emotion and
  cognition
• Environment triggers physiology, then
  emotional/cognitive response to physiology
• Cannon-Bard Emotion and physiology occur
  simultaneously
• Environment triggers emotion and physiology
  together
• Schachter and Singer (and Lazarus) Cognition and
  physiology produce emotion
• Cognitive appraisal of environmental events
  identifies (names) emotion

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Video

• Physiology, cognition, and Emotion

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The Experience of EmotionLevels of Analysis
Physiological arousal Evolutionary
adaptiveness Response pathways in the
brain Spillover effect
Cognitive labeling Gender differences
Expressiveness Presence of others Cultural
expectations
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Stress

• What do you find stressful?

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Stress

• Definition (from your text) the process by which
  we perceive and respond to certain events, called
  stressors, that we appraise as threatening or
  challenging

Threat
Stressed
Stressful Event
Challenge
Aroused, focused
Appraisal (value)
Response
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The Stress Response

• Walter Cannon (1929) Fight or Flight
• Add Freeze
• Hans Selye General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
• Alarm activation of sympathetic nervous system
• Resistance the fight
• Exhaustion the bodys reserves are depleted
  (more vulnerable to illness)

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Video

• Selyes Stress Response Studies

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Consequences of Stress

• Psychophysiologic Illness
• Coronary heart disease, hypertension (high blood
  pressure)
• Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) how psychological,
  neural, and endocrine (hormone) processes effect
  immune system

Heart disease
Persistent stress and negative emotion
Release of Stress Hormones
Immune suppresssion
Autonomic Nervous System Effects
Unhealthy behaviors
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Top 10 Hassles versus UpliftsLazarus

• Hassles
• Concern about weight
• Health of family member
• Rising prices of common goods
• Home maintenance
• Too many things to do
• Misplacing or losing things
• Yardwork or outside home maintenance
• Property, investment, or taxes
• Crime
• Physical appearance

• Uplifts
• Relating well with your spouse or lover
• Relating well with friends
• Completing a task
• Feeling healthy
• Getting enough sleep
• Eating out
• Meeting responsibilities
• Visiting, phoning, or writing to someone
• Spending time with family
• Home pleasing to you

What are your hassles and uplifts?
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• What are your hassles and uplifts?
• What do you do to manage stress?

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Managing Stress

• Exercise
• Biofeedback, Relaxation, Meditation
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Alternative medical systems (homeopathy,
  traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda)
• Mind-body interventions (meditation, prayer,
  mental healing, art, music, dance)
• Biologically based therapies (herbs, foods,
  vitamins)
• Manipulative and body-based methods
  (chiropractic, osteopathic manipulation, massage)
• Energy therapies (qi gong, Reiki, therapeutic
  touch)
• Spirituality