Assigned Reading from Text:  Chapter 8.  Adaptation to the environment.  Skip pages 282-284.

Sample Essay Questions:

    a. Briefly describe two specific examples of stress.  For each describe two emotion-focused coping responses and two problem-focused responses.  Use different coping responses for the two examples of stress.
    b. Describe three ways in which personality is related to physical illness.  For each of these, label the personality characteristic, define it, and give a concrete example.
    c.  List five characteristics of someone high in Type A.  Explain how each of these characteristics might make this person more prone to having high blood pressure.
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A.  Adaptation.  Adjusting to one's environment to maintain well-being.  Can happen many ways.

B.  Stress.  Can come from traumatic events, illness or injury, daily hassles, discrimination, having a low status position, or unpleasant physical conditions.

C.  Lazarus Model of Stress Appraisal.  Includes primary and secondary appraisal.  Reappraisal also possible.  After appraisal, coping occurs:
    1.  Problem-focused.  Change the situation.
    2.  Emotion-focused.  Change how one feels about the situation.

D.  Choice of coping depends on personality,  the type of stress, and availability of social support.
    1.  Holahan & Moos (1987) study of the choice and effectiveness of various coping responses.  Active strategies were correlated with higher self confidence and family support.  Active strategies could be cognitive or behavioral.  Avoidance correlated with depression.
    2. Situational predictors of coping strategies.  Threat events (such as illness) and Loss events (such as the death of a loved one) associated with emotion-focused coping.  More problem-focused coping with Challenge events (such as getting married or other life changes).
    3.  Any coping response can be effective, but problem-focused coping generally seen as more effective.

E.  Personality, coping styles, and health.
    1.  People under stress are at greater risk for illness.
    2.  Psychosomatic disorders.  Real physical illnesses brought on or made worse by stress.
    3.  Hypochondriacal disorders.  Imagined illnesses.
    4.  High neurotics (Eysenck) report more physical symptoms and more life stressors.
    5.  Trait of hardiness (Kobasa) is the ability to cope well.  Related to feelings of personal control and liking change.
    6.  Generalized optimism or pessimism related to physical health, with optimistics more healthy.
    7.  Type A personality type associated with heart disease.  Related to hostility and competitiveness.  Characteristics include being impatient, responding aggressively when provoked, working harder and longer, even when very tired.  See themselves as smarter and more moral and more important than other people.  See time as passing quickly.  Appears to be more associated with frustrated power motivation than achievement motivation. Have higher cardiovascular reactivity than others.
    8.  Type B is the opposite in many ways from Type A.  Type B's are patient and relaxed.
    9.  Type C personality type associated with cancer.  Hold in emotions, but also related to feelings of hopelessness and depression.  Low on neuroticism.  Tend to be conventional and nice.  Industrious.  But, data here does not always replicate.