Stress and Coping

Emotions matter because they influence your behavior, and one of the most powerful impacts on emotional experiences is stress. According to stress researcher Hans Selye, stress is defined as a set of physiological responses that occur when someone fails to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats. Stress is your body’s natural response to demands called stressors.

Stressors can be positive or negative experiences, and include life events and internal factors. Unlike life events, internal stressors are self-generated. Most internal stressors come from your own thoughts and beliefs. This can cause worry, fear, and thoughts of uncertainty. The list below provides some common examples of stressors.

Life Events

• Break up of a romantic relationship
• Decline in school grades
• Graduation
• Moving
• Financial problems

Internal Stressors

• Worry or anxiety
• Feeling pessimistic
• Negative self-talk
• Perfectionism
• Frustration

 

Types of Stress

Just as there are different stressors, there are also different types of stress. Some stress is caused by the appearance of a sudden stressor. Other stress can occur in everyday life. Overtime, the buildup of this stress can become chronic. In this interactivity, you will explore the two main types of stress, acute stress and chronic stress. Click the player to begin.

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Physical Effects of Stress

The father of stress research, physiologist Hans Selye (1907–1982), studied stress by examining how rats responded to stressors. The rats’ “stress” consisted of things such as extreme cold, infection, shock, or excessive exercise. The results indicated that regardless of the stressor, the rats experienced the same series of physiological changes if the stress was for a prolonged period of time. Selye created the term general adaptation syndrome to refer to the three distinct phases of physiological change that occur in response to long-term stress. In this interactivity, you will discover details about the general adaptation syndrome. Click the player to begin.

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Managing Stress

Recent research has shown that the more people feel negative emotions from chronic stress, the more likely they are to develop health issues. Specifically, if someone experiences strong negative emotions as a result of everyday hassles, or responds to stress with anger, he or she is more likely to have health issues. In other words, don’t sweat the small stuff.

How do you manage with stress? Do you talk with a friend or relative? Do you exercise? Maybe you write down your experiences in a journal. Learning to manage and deal with stress is extremely important. There are many management techniques that exist for coping with stress. In this interactivity, you will learn about a few researched-based strategies to help manage stress. Click the player to begin.

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Stress and Coping Review

Now that you have learned a bit about stress and coping with stress, review your knowledge in this non-graded activity. Click the player to get started.