Personality Psychology Chapter 18 Stress, Coping

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Personality Psychology
Chapter 18 Stress, Coping, Adjustment, and Health
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Health Psychology

• Does personality type really predispose us to
  disease?
• Do people with various illnesses develop some of
  the same personality traits?
• How do stress and trauma affect personality?
• How do our personalities influence the ways in
  which we handle stress and trauma?

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Health Psychology

• Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP)
• Type B Behavior Pattern (TBBP)
• Type C Behavior Pattern (TCBP)

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Personality and Cardiovascular Disease

• Type A Behavior
• (Friedman and Rosenman, 1974)
• A syndrome of several traits
• Achievement motivation and competitiveness
• Time urgency
• Hostility and aggressiveness

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Personality and Cardiovascular Disease

• Type A Behavior
• Early research found a relationship between Type
  A and risk for heart attack
• Later research couldnt replicatewhy?
• What part of Type A is most lethal?

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Personality and Cardiovascular Disease
Hostility

• Is it the specific trait of Hostility, rather
  than the general syndrome of Type A, that is a
  better predictor of heart disease?

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Personality and Cardiovascular Disease

• Hostility
• The toxic-core
• Most significant feature for risk of heart
  disease and mortality
• Explosive reaction to stress
• Some theorists distinguish from Type A and call
  Type H
• More noncompliant with medical advice

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Personality and Cardiovascular Disease

• How Are the Arteries Damaged by Hostility?
• Flight or fight increases blood pressure
• More blood going through small arteries
• Arteriosclerosis

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Personality and Disease
Type B The absence of Type A behaviors more
relaxed and laid-back
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Personality and Disease

• Type C
• Cancer-prone personality
• Suppression of emotion
• Compliant and conforming
• Arousal ? Heightened activity ? No outlet ?
  Remain in state of heightened activation ?
  Reduction of immune system functioning ? Greater
  vulnerability to disease

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Coping Strategies and Styles

• Disclosure and Telling Secrets
• Keeping things to ourselves can be a source of
  stress
• Getting something off your chest can be a
  relief from stress which can benefit your health

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Models for Personality Behavior Patterns

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Models for Personality Behavior Patterns

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Models for Personality Behavior Patterns

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Models of Personality-Illness

• Interactional Model
• Transactional Model
• Health Behavior Model
• Predisposition Model
• Illness Behavior Model

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Two kinds of appraisal in the Transactional Model

• Primary and Secondary Appraisal
• Primary Appraisal person perceives that the
  event is a threat
• Secondary Appraisal person concludes that they
  dont have resources to cope with the threatening
  event

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Coping Strategies and Styles

• Attribution Style
• The dispositional way of explaining the causes of
  bad events
• External vs. Internal
• Unstable vs. Stable
• Specific vs. Global

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Coping Strategies and Styles

• Optimism and Physical Well-Being
• Optimistic appraisal has been shown to predict
• Good health
• Immune system functioning
• Faster rehabilitation
• Living longer

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The Concept of Stress

• A subjective feeling that is produced by
  uncontrollable and threatening events
• Must have both primary and secondary appraisal to
  qualify as stress
• Stressors
• Extreme in some manner
• Produce opposing tendencies
• Are outside of our power to influence

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The Concept of Stress

• Daily Hassles
• Minor sources of stress in most peoples lives
  are termed daily hassles
• Like major events, people with a lot of minor
  stress suffer more than expected from
  psychological and physical symptoms

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The Concept of Stress

• Major Life Events
• Point system of determining stress levels
• Most points most likely to have a serious
  illness

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When is Stress Overwhelming?

• The Stress Response
• When the body endures a prolonged Flight or
  Fight response
• General Adaptation Syndrome
• Alarm
• Resistance
• Exhaustion
• Breakdown in immune functioning, strength of
  cardiovascular system

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Trauma and Personality

• Definition of trauma
• Those at increased risk for slow post-trauma
  recovery
• Outside factors
• Personality factors

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Coping with trauma

• Coping and personality characteristics
• Pennebakers research on illness support groups
• Changes in personality due to trauma
• Tedeschis research on post-traumatic growth
• Coping strategies
• Changing attribution style
• Disclosure Pennebakers research
• Managing emotions