1. Chapter 12 Stress and Crisis in Relationships

2. Chapter Sections 12-1 Personal Stress and Crisis Events
12-2 Positive Stress-Management Strategies
12-3 Harmful Stress-Management Strategies
12-4 Family Crisis Examples

3. Stress and Crisis Events
a reaction of the body to substantial or unusual demands
Process rather than single event
Affects health, relationships, and sex life

4. Stress and Crisis Events
Situation that requires changes in normal patterns of behavior
Requires a new set of responses
Often called stressors—create stress
Examples of crises: losing one’s job, diagnosis of illness, death in the family

5. Stress and Crisis Events
Resiliency: the ability to respond to a crisis in a positive way
Family resilience: the successful coping of family members under adversity that enables them to flourish
Discussion: What factors lead to resilience? What are the characteristics of resilient families?

6. Positive Stress-Management Strategies
Changing basic values and perspective: finding positive meaning
Exercise
Network of relationships: friends and relatives
Love
Religion and Spirituality
Sanctification: viewing marriage as having divine character
Discussion: How does religion lead to marital quality and successful stress management?

7. Positive Strategies
Biofeedback: process in which information that is relayed back to the brain enables people to change their biological function
Humor
Sleep
Deep muscle relaxation
Education
Pets
Discussion: How do pets help us cope?

8. Harmful Stress Management Strategies
Keeping feelings inside
Blaming others
Denying or avoiding
Men are more likely than women to use potentially harmful strategies.

9. Family Crisis Examples
Physical illness and disability
Includes cancer, heart disease, accidents
Palliative care: health care focused on the relief of pain and suffering and support for loved ones
Increasing obesity of children requires family change.
Discussion: How is childhood obesity a source of stress for families?

10. Family Crisis Mental illness Middle-age crazy
Includes depression, anxiety disorder, impulse control
Economic cost
Relationship costs
Middle-age crazy
Midlife crisis experienced by less than 25%
Usually related to other stressor

11. Family Crisis Extramarital affair
A spouse’s sexual involvement with someone outside the marriage
Include brief encounters, paid sex, instrumental affairs, coping mechanisms, paraphiliac affairs, and new love.
Extradyadic involvement: emotional or sexual involvement between a member of a pair and someone other than the partner
Discussion: Is emotional involvement just as damaging as sexual involvement? Why?

12. Family Crisis Extramarital affair
Reasons for an affair: variety or excitement, workplace friendships, relationship dissatisfaction, revenge, homosexual relationships, absence from partner
Affairs have negative effects on health, relationship, and children.
Successful recovery involves forgiveness and new commitment to relationship.

13. Family Crisis Unemployment Substance abuse
Often related to other stressors
Effects may be more severe for men
Substance abuse
Adds to individual’s marital and family problems
Al-anon: an organization that provides support for family members and friends of alcohol abusers

14. Family Crisis Death of a family member
Deaths that are not expected are more stressful: death of a child, suicide.

15. Chapter Summary
Stress involves a process of responding to demands of the environment.
A crisis is a situation that requires changes in the normal patterns of behavior.
Resilient families use successful coping strategies.
Positive stress-management strategies include: changing perspective, exercise, and having a network of friends and relatives.

16. Chapter Summary
Family crises include: physical illness and disability, mental illness, extradyadic affairs, unemployment, substance abuse, and death of a family member.

17. Chapter Review What is stress? What is crisis?
What is family resilience?
What are the positive stress-management strategies?
What are the harmful stress-management strategies?
What are some examples of family crisis?