Ch01 Print indd

 

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Females are not only wired for fight-or-flight, 

but also have a survival dynamic called “tend and 

befriend,” a specific nurturing aspect that pro-

motes social support in stressful times.

 

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The association between stress and insomnia is 

undeniable. The United States is said to be a sleep-

deprived society, but techniques for stress man-

agement, including physical exercise, biofeedback, 

yoga, and diaphragmatic breathing, are proven 

effective to help promote a good night’s sleep.

 

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Stress can appear at any time in our lives, 

but the college years offer their own types of 

stressors because it is at this time that one 

assumes more (if not complete) responsibility 

for one’s lifestyle behaviors. Stress continues 

through retirement with a whole new set of 

stressors in the senior years.

 

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Sociology is described as the study of human 

social behavior within family, organizations, and 

institutions. Societal stress is a force to be reck-

oned with in today’s culture. No one is exempt 

from the sociology of stress.

 

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Techno-stress is a term used to describe the over-

whelming frustrations of sensory bombardment 

and poor boundaries with the plethora of tech-

nological gadgets. Techno-stress began with per-

sonal computers but has since evolved with the 

advent of and addiction to social networking. 

The body’s physiology wasn’t designed to be “on” 

all the time. The result can be burnout and phys-

ical health issues.

 

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Social stress includes a decline in social etiquette. 

A lack of civility, demonstrated by rude, impatient 

behavior, is on a dramatic rise in the United States.

 

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Experts suggest that one aspect of societal stress 

is an environmental disconnect: a growing dis-

regard of the environment by humanity, such 

that dramatic changes, from dwindling sup-

plies of fresh water to declining food quality 

to environmental pollution, will all have a sig-

nificant impact on each individual’s lifestyle 

and health.

 

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Race and gender issues have always been part of 

the social fabric and continue to contribute largely 

to stress, especially as people express themselves 

with reckless abandon in the digital age.

harmony to mind, body, spirit, and emotions becomes 

much easier, and arriving at the place of inner peace is 

easier to achieve.

Chapter Summary

 

■

The advancement of technology, which prom-

ised more leisure time, has actually increased the 

pace of life so that many people feel stressed to 

keep up with this pace.

 

■

Lifestyles based on new technological conve-

niences are now thought to be associated with 

several diseases, including coronary heart disease 

and cancer.

 

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Stress is a term from the field of physics, meaning 

physical force or tension placed on an object. It 

was adopted after World War II to signify psy-

chological tension.

 

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There are many definitions of stress from both 

Eastern and Western philosophies as well as sev-

eral academic disciplines, including psychology 

and physiology. The mind-body separation is 

now giving way to a holistic philosophy involving 

the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual 

components of well-being.

 

■

Cannon coined the term fight-or-flight response to 

describe the immediate effects of physical stress. 

This response is now considered by many to be 

inappropriate for nonphysical stressors.

 

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There are three types of stress: eustress (good), 

neustress (neutral), and distress (bad). There 

are two types of distress: acute (short-term) and 

chronic (long-term), the latter of which is thought 

to be the more detrimental because the body does 

not return to a state of complete homeostasis.

 

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Stressors have been categorized into three 

groups: (1) bioecological influences, (2) psychoin-

trapersonal influences, and (3) social influences.

 

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Holmes and Rahe created the Social Readjust-

 

■

ment Rating Scale to identify major life stressors. 

They found that the incidence of stressors corre-

lated with health status.

 

■

Selye coined the term general adaptation syndrome 

to explain the body’s ability to adapt negatively to 

chronic stress.

 

The Nature of Stress

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Previous approaches to stress management have 

been based on the mechanistic model, which 

divided the mind and body into two separate enti-

ties. The paradigm on which this model was based 

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the causes as well as the symptoms of stress.

 

■

Effective stress-management programming must 

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Chapter 1

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