1. SECTION 3: COPING STRATEGIES

2. PSYCHOLOGICAL COPING STRATEGIES
Cognitive appraisal: the interpretation of an event that helps determine the stress impact
Key is to approach stressors in a positive way
View them as challenges, not obstacles

3. DEFENSIVE COPING STRATEGIES
Denial: when a person decides the event is not really a stressor
Intellectualization: when a person analyzes the situation from an emotionally detached viewpoint

4. ACTIVE COPING STRATEGIES
Involve changing our environment or modifying a situation to remove stressors
ACTIVE COPING STRATEGIES

5. HARDINESS
Refers to the personality traits of control, commitment, and challenge
Control: we have the ability to affect an outcome
Commitment: establishing/ pursuing our goals
Challenge: actively confronting/ solving problems

6. PROBLEM SOLVING Regarding conflicts as problems to be solved
Problems become positive challenges rather than negative setbacks
It involves a rational analysis of the situation that will lead to an appropriate decision
A very healthy strategy that sharpens insights and attention to detail and develop flexibility

7. EXPLANATORY STYLE Martin Seligman---2 types of thinking: 1) Optimist
2) Pessimist

8. RELAXATION Many techniques
Progressive relaxation: lying down comfortably and tensing and releasing the tension in each major muscle group in turn---developed by Dr. Edmond Jacobson
Meditation: focusing of attention with the goal of clearing one’s mind and producing an “inner peace”

9. BIOFEEDBACK
The process of learning to control bodily states by monitoring the states to be controlled
Usually need machinery

10. HUMOR “Laughter is the best medicine” Can increase blood flow
Laughing releases tension
It helps us deal with intense emotional pain of a loss

11. EXERCISE Stimulates and provides an outlet for physical arousal
Burns off stress hormones
David Holmes: aerobic exercise reduces cardiovascular response and arousal following stressful events

12. OTHERS Support groups and Professional help
Training: preparation eases stress
Improving Interpersonal skills: most stress stems from interpersonal relationships

13. SECTION 4: STRESS IN YOUR LIFE
For many people , college and work involve adjustment and stress

14. AUTONOMY
The ability to take care of oneself and make one’s own decisions
This is what growing up is all about

15. CHOOSING A COLLEGE One of the 1st big steps toward autonomy
Most go in with unrealistic aspirations and expectations
Most experience “college shock”--- unaware of realities of responsibility required for college

16. SOURCES OF CHANGE IN COLLEGE
New friends
Friendships may challenge ideology
Developmental friendships: friends force one another to reexamine their basic assumptions and perhaps adopt new ideas and beliefs

17. COPING WITH CHANGE
Some practice resynthesis: combining old ideas with new ones and reorganizing feelings in order to renew one’s identity

18. WORK SATISFACTION AND DISSATISFACTION
Examined by Industrial/organizational psychs
High job satisfaction leads to higher productivity
5 major sources of work satisfaction:
1) Resources
2) Financial reward
3) Challenge
4) Relations with coworkers
5) Comfort

19. CHANGING CAREERS
Career: a vocation in which a person works at least a few years
Most will change careers many times in their life
Work satisfaction is major cause of change
Availability of jobs effects the level of dissatisfaction tolerated in current career

20. COMPARABLE WORTH
Idea that women and men should receive equal pay for jobs calling for comparable skill and responsibility
Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Civil Rights Act of 1964 protect against discrimination in the workplace