Several instruments have been developed to assess perceived levels of stress. Some measure state or situational anxiety. Others measure trait anxiety, which is a stable tendency to respond with anxiety across different situations.
Questionnaires developed to assess Type-A behaviour include items such as:
If you have an appointment, you tend to: Be casual about when you arrive – Show up early.
You would say that you are: Not a very competitive person – A very competitive person.
You always tend to feel a bit rushed and under pressure: False – True.
You tend to: Take on as many tasks as you can handle – Do one task as a time.
If you are frustrated, you: Should not be provoked – Are likely to withdraw a little.
Imagine you are ready to go but have to wait for people in your group to be ready: It’s not that big of a deal, you’ll amuse yourself in the meantime – You are probably going crazy with impatience.
Do you typically wear a watch? Yes – No.
You: Have trouble falling asleep – Sleep like a baby.
When someone takes a long time to express his or her thoughts, you: Get frustrated – Listen patiently.
According to older studies, Type-A behaviour individuals are twice as likely to suffer cardiovascular problems. It appears, however, that Type-A behaviour does not tend to be a strong predictor of coronary heart disease. Later research (Smith, 1992; Williams, 2001) has shown that sarcasm and aggressiveness in response to frustration and failure are the only behaviours that relate to cardiovascular disease.26 Yet Type-A is only one of the factors associated with the development of heart diseases; others include heredity, diet, exercise, and smoking.
Hardy Type-A individuals do not seem to be at any greater risk from stress than Type-B individuals. In other words, you may be running around all day doing chores. If you are enjoying it, you should not worry that much about the potential negative health effects associated to Type-A behaviour.
OTHER MEDIATORS
Social support
There is a lot of evidence confirming the buffering effects of social support. Social scientists consider it best “medicine” for divorcees, for instance, significantly reducing the impact of the stress involved in a separation.
Research has indicated that people who have good social support networks are less likely to suffer from genital herpes and AIDS. In addition, female cancer patients with a social support group live two years longer than those who do not receive any social support (Spiegel et al., 1989).
According to other research27 on patients diagnosed with leukaemia, 54 percent of those with social support were still alive two years later, compared to only 20 percent of those without social support.
Why and how does social support reduce stress? The following pathways have been proposed to explicate the buffering effect of social support:
– It offers emotional support, by providing a sense of being listened to and understood.
– It involves material resources and practical assistance with pending issues.
– It provides information and/or advice (e.g., brainstorming in the direction of problem resolution).
– It supplies necessary feedback, reflections on the question “how am I doing?”
– It meets a social need, the need for company.
– It increases the production of a type of antibodies (immunoglobin-a) that help combat gastric, urinary, and respiratory system infections.
Sense of humour
A good sense of humour relates to better health and less stress (Anderson & Arnoult, 1989). By contrast, people with aggressive or derogatory humour are less healthy (Caroll, 1990). Even the babies of cheerful mothers suffer fewer respiratory system infections, possibly because they receive more antibodies through their mothers’ milk (Dillon & Totten, 1989).
Humour is thought to buffer stress in the following ways:
– It can mitigate the impact of stress either through the secretion of endorphins or by diverting attention (Martin & Lefcourt, 1983).
– It short-circuits negative events and makes dire circumstances appear less threatening.
– It attracts social support (Nezu et al., 1988).
Apparently, large USA companies send their top executives to laughter therapy clinics. A sense of humour is difficult to teach in the traditional sense of the word. However, it may be cultivated through reducing social anxiety, learning to accept and welcome change, building self-confidence, and not taking one’s self too seriously. The joy of life endows people with a sense of humour!
Oops. I wonder if I need private lessons …
Let us now move on to Part Two and stress coping strategies.
PART II: COPING WITH STRESS
There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. – Sylvia Plath
I FIRMLY believe we have a far greater ability to control our mood and emotions than we think. If this is true and some of us live in stress, then perhaps we are suffering unnecessarily, simply because we are not taking the time to develop our knowledge and coping skills. In this part, we will do exactly that.
Before we move onto every day practical applications for dealing with stress, which is what Part III is all about, I think it is important for us to agree on certain basic points, such as what determines how we feel, and what can we do about it.
Chapter 5: How are you feeling?
If you wish to improve your mood, pay attention to two basic factors: a) the chemicals that run in your body and b) the thoughts that run in your mind.28
YOU MAY well have problems to deal with. You may also believe that your problems are more serious than the rest of us, which may be very true!
Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately – most of us fight minor or “imaginary” problems on a daily basis. The truth is, some of our fellow humans, including those suffering from difficult or incurable diseases (e.g., cancer, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis) or dealing with serious physical disability or mental disorders, and the people who care for them, face immense challenges that demand constant adjustment. By comparison, I assure you, our own everyday problems pale into insignificance and appear quite unimportant.
Most people, including you I imagine, believe that their mood depends on their problems and that while these problems remain unresolved, they will continue to feel accordingly. If this is true, then a significant number of people, such as those suffering from serious health problems, are condemned to a chronic and unpleasant state. This is the theory. Because, in practice, it seems that the ability of humans to adapt – even in the most difficult situations – is unsurpassable.
For example, people who have lost limbs report similar levels of happiness as their able-bodied counterparts. Surprisingly enough, on the other hand of the continuum, six months after winning the Lottery, the lucky winners stated that they were as happy as they were before they won the money.
Apparently, we not only get used to negative events that affect our everyday conditions, but we also lose the initial excitement that those new material possessions or accomplishments generated. Our new car does not smell the way it did when we first sat behind the wheel in the dealer’s store. We now need two new pairs of shoes, a new Gucci bag, or a new partner. Our graduation, a promotion, a golden medal feels so good, but only for a short while. The adaptation level hypothesis, getting used to new conditions, is