Read the book    Weiten, W., Hammer, E., & Dunn, D. (2014). Adjust. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.  Chapter 3 and chapter 7 After reading Chapter 3&7 and reviewing the Stress and Social Development PPT, plea

Stress and Social Development

Biopsychosocial Model of Illness

• Holds that physical illness is caused by a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors

• Biological factors operate in a psychosocial context that can also be highly influential

• Health Psychology is concerned with how psychosocial factors relate to the promotion and maintenance of health and with the causation, prevention, and treatment of illness

Stress, Personality, and Illness

• How does personality impact wellness?

  • Strong link found between anger and hostility and coronary disease

    • If you walk around angry all the time you’re going to have a bad time

• Many findings to link (correlational) stress and illness in the body

• Stress undermines the body’s immune functioning

• Why Zebra’s Don’t Get Ulcers, Robert Sapolsky

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ePYet3Fbts

Stress and Relationships

• Chronic stress has the potential to negatively impact social, familial, and romantic connections

• Individuals who struggle to effectively manage stress are prone to emotional outbursts

  • Can contribute to higher frequency or intensity in interpersonal conflicts

• Who we blame when we are stressed

  • Do you blame yourself and as a result experience decreased self esteem

  • Do you blame others and as a result experience decreased relationship satisfaction

Stress and Social Development

• Stress and social functioning impact each other in a circular way

  • Stress impacts relationships/relationships impact stress

    • Can be positive or negative

• Low self-esteem causes increased stress in social interactions

• Stressful social interactions may decrease individual’s desire to create meaningful relationships

• Unmanaged stress can turn into chronic anxiety

  • Social anxiety, social phobia, generalized anxiety

What is wellness?

• Well being is defined as being both healthy and happy

• How do we achieve this?

• What is the difference?

Is there a relationship between the two?

Six Dimensions of Wellness

• Physical

  • How well does your body work?

  • Exercise, nutrition, rest, sleep, stress management, self care

• Intellectual

  • Learning new things, expanding your knowledge base as well as your brain

  • Mental Illness – breakdown in the way your brain processes information

• Emotional

  • Positive and realistic self concept

  • Emotional Intelligence

  • Resiliency

• Social

  • How we connect and interact with people

  • How meaningful are these connections?

• Career

  • Job satisfaction, career ambitions, work performance

• Spiritual

Having a sense of inner peace and contentment

How do we improve these dimensions?

• One step at a time

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JPa2mvSQ4

• Cultivate and maintain meaningful relationships (Social)

• Identify and express your emotions (Emotional)

• Proper sleep hygiene, regular activity, frequent self care, diet (Physical)

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9IZDInBv1M

• Continually seeking opportunities to learn, brain games, DOING YOUR HOMEWORK (Intellectual)

• Meditation, yoga, self reflection, focusing on obtaining inner peace (Spiritual)

• Set goals, plan for the future, acknowledge your accomplishments along the way (Career)

• Stay committed to your changes

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MVJOI8RbnQ

Managing Stress as a Path to Wellness

• Mindfulness

  • Defined as an intentional, nonjudgmental awareness and observation of our experiences in the present moment without seeking to change them immediately (much is taken from the Buddhist philosophies)

• Mindfulness increases our ability to develop Meta Awareness

  • An awareness of what we are experiencing right now

  • Am I physically and mentally present?

    • Worrying about things means you are not mentally present

• Mindfulness is an important component of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

  • Often used in treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder, Bipolar, or other mood disorders

  • Helps to increase emotional regulation

  • Develop coping skills to successfully manage triggers and reactive states

• Allows for stronger therapeutic presence and emotional awareness in session

• Challenges to just mindfully be with the problem/issue instead of always seek to change it immediately

• Promotes openness, humanity and acceptance of clients

• Effective self-care technique

• Increase ability to shift attention, rather than letting emotions determine the focus

• Create a non-judgmental and objective perspective of emotions, thoughts and sensations

• Develop ability to live in the moment and not in the past or future-focus on here and now experiences

Mindfulness Resource

• www.calm.com

• Can also be downloaded as a free app on your smart phone

• Provides guided meditations, body scan activity, mindfulness skill building, and many more resources

• Useful to learn about the practice of mindfulness and to build up skills

• Practicing mindfulness daily has positive benefits

Baby Steps: Applying what you’ve learned

• ASK YOURSELF:

  • What are you going to do this weekend to try and improve one of your own personal wellness dimensions?

  • Identify a goal

  • Commit yourself to a plan of action

  • Tell a friend or invite someone to join you to create accountability