Recently in Stress Category

This article talks about Two Ways To Be a Happier Parent. It's a sociologists perspective on being a parent and dealing with the stressful times. According to her it comes down to two questions:

1. When are you happiest with your kids?

2. What part of the normal day with your family routinely causes suffering?

She goes on to give a specific example she dealt with personally, and she explains how she changed their routine as a family to decrease the stress levels in their household.

I think parenting is one of the hardest things to do in life, so it is helpful to have any tips. While reading how the sociologist adjusted her family's mornings it seemed a little too military like. If it works than maybe that's all that matters. I just don't know if I liked her approach.

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100309/Activity-in-lateral-prefrontal-cortex-may-improve-emotion-regulation-in-day-to-day-life.aspx

 

I found this to be a rather interesting article. I think it directly relates to the material we studied in Chapter 3 (dealing with the emotional brain). One of the main reasons I found it interesting is because it seems to go against common sense, or at least against conventional wisdom. Many of us have undoubtedly heard others tell us not to go to bed angry, but this study suggests that "brain activity (specifically in the lateral prefrontal cortex) is a far better indicator of how someone will feel in the days following a fight with his or her partner." Generally those who had high activity in this area had a better mood than those who had low activity in this area. I believe what helps set this recent study apart is that it did not take place entirely in a laboratory, but also involved real situations/relationships. In other words, one can probably be more confident of its external validity.

 

In our textbook (starting on p. 61 in Chapter 3), Reeve writes about the relationship between the prefrontal cortex and affect. Here it mentions that, "the limbic system receives incoming sensory stimulation (that) activate rather automatic emotional reactions... stimulation of the cortex can generate emotional states." Reeve also makes the point that one must make a distinction between the left and right side of the prefrontal cortex because each is qualitatively different from the other. Reeve also makes reference to the Behavioral Inhibition System, which includes the two dimensions of personality, one of which is "how sensitive versus stable a person is to threats, punishments, and the experience of negative emotion (Reeve 2009, p.61)."

 

 I was actually rather impressed with the physiological measures used - researchers used an fMRI, recorded facial expressions, and tested cognitive skills. As I mentioned before, the researcher (Hooker) found that  the level of activity in their lateral prefrontal cortex may be a significant factor in predicting a person's experiences, ability to bounce back, etc.

 

The main reason why I chose this article and wanted to share it with others is because I am rather fascinated by the unconscious activity that takes place in the brain. As others probably have heard, there have been studies that suggest people actually have a tendency to make better decisions having slept on it - I think I heard about this in Social Psychology. I believe I also heard data that supports this in my BioPsychology course. While sleeping, our brain continues to process information. It's very interesting to think of the possibility that being angry while we go to sleep may actually help us better deal with our problems, confront them face on with our subconscious attention. This may be drifting a little bit from Motivation and Emotion, but I find it very interesting how I have often woken up with solutions to some of my problems that I had never thought of before - I believe my mental activity throughout the night has sometimes helped me come up with effective solutions.

 

In any case, this study  does provide insight and understanding into physiological activities, such as the activation of certain brain structures and subsequent impact on emotional states. For the reasons I have mentioned, I actually believe this type of research is very important and may lead to more effective interventions for people facing certain problems, such as depression.

 

The article ends with the following...

  

While Hooker acknowledges that more work must be done to develop clinical applications for the research, it may be that lateral prefrontal cortex function provides information about a person's vulnerability to develop mood problems after a stressful event. This raises the question as to whether increasing lateral prefrontal cortex function will improve emotion regulation capacity.

 

I liked this article because for one I think a lot of people are getting cabin fever, they are ready for sunshine and nice warm weather.  Let's face it, when a winter gets too long and cold we get grumpy.  Stress and how we cope with stress is a key factor in feeling happier.  How we react to events can make a difference in our lives.  With midterms going on things around all of us can get very stressful.  Take a deep breath and try these four things.
-Too much of a good thing, is a bad thing
-Now is the moment.  Enjoy it!
-Find your mouse hole
-Conflict can be okay
What do you do to be happy?  What relieves your stress?

Earlier in the semester we talked about the brain and how certain hormones influence or are activated due to emotions. Neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and endorphins are just a few that have been shown to influence mood and emotion. What we did not go in detail about was the parts of the brain that make contribute to moods, emotions, and behaviors. I found an article that discuss' this very topic.
Arousal is a process that involves cortical, behavioral, and autonomic mechanisms (Reeve, 2009, p. 374) This article talks about the cortical (activity of the brain) part of being aroused and the emotional reactions that can evolve from being aroused. Reeve (2009) lists four principles to explain arousal's contribution to motivation. There are two that relate to the study explained below:
1) A person's arousal level is mostly a function of how stimulating the environment is.
2) People engage in behavior to increase or decrease their level of arousal.
A new study was done to test if the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) was a region of the brain that could help people control emotional reactions such as negative moods, rumination (not being able to get something off your mind), and substance abuse. After having several people in stable, healthy relationships journal daily and have brain scans done while viewing positive, negative, and neutral facial expressions of their partner, it was found that LPFC activity did predict how one would react to an interpersonal conflict. When there was a day of no interpersonal conflict, the LPFC activity was not related to the next day's mood or behavior. On the contrast, when there was a day when interpersonal conflict did occur LPFC did predict mood and behavior the next day. Low levels of LPFC activity was related for high levels of negative moods, rumination, and substance abuse.
This study is helpful when talking about coping with stress. To avoid bad coping strategies like over-eating or substance abuse, people can become aware and learn to introduce positive strategies such as counting to 10. If you are a person who has low LPFC function, it is possible you may become more susceptible to such behaviors.
Link:
http://news.oneindia.in/2010/03/03/howto-control-emotional-outbursts-in-front-of-yourpartner.html

      In a study done on stress in the workplace and how it affect our productivity the outcomes was interesting. It seems to be that merely having the ability to control the source of ones stress is beneficial in coping with the situation. A study broke people up into two groups. Both groups had to write/journal about anything the desired. In the middle of the writing there would be a big annoying sound that started to interrupt their thought. One group was told that if the large noise came they could not make it stop. The other group was told that when the large noise happens they had a choice to stop the distraction. Interestingly enough, those individuals who were not able to control the situation showed a lack of emotion in their writing. They had not excitability, creativity or motive to write at all. Whereas the group which could stop the disruptive sound had an increased amount of emotion, creativity, and motive in their writing AND not one of the people in that group asked someone to stop the disruptive noise (Even though they had the CONTROL to do so). Therefore, it appears that its not the disruptive aspects of our lives that are stressing us out, it's the uncontrollable disruptive aspects of our life that produce the most stress to individuals.

 

http://www.humannatureatwork.com/Workplace-Stress-2.htm

NBA superstar and Dallas Maverick's player Caron Butler has an addiction. Actually he has two of them.  For his most recent addiction, the NBA has now gone on to ban this behavior during games due to safety concerns.  What is it you ask?  Has to be something performance enhancing or drug related right? Actually, the NBA has banned Butler for chewing straws during the game, of which he goes through at least 12 a game--60 per day!  Talk about quite an oral fixation.  This got me thinking, why does he do this?  There's obviously a reason for this behavior.  Well Butler stated in his blog that this habit calmed him down, especially helpful during NBA games I imagine.  His motivation for this behavior was to satisfy his physiological response of stress and anxiousness.  Arguably, this was a performance enhancer of sorts for him.  It'll be interesting to see how much the extinction of this behavior will affect him.  Looking back, this behavior could possibly be correlated/as a consequence of his first habit:

In summer 2009, Butler blogged on NBA.com that he had lost 11 pounds just by giving up his daily "addiction" of drinking at least six 12-ounce bottles of Mountain Dew.

"I was going through withdrawals," Butler said on NBA.com. "... Honestly, those first two weeks without The Dew [were] the roughest two weeks of my life. I'm talking headaches, sweats and everything."

Like the straws became a psychological need and fixation, Butler had conditioned his body to the physiological extremes with his habitual caffeine intake.  It had really become an addiction. 

It will be interesting to see how Butler's behavior will be affected by the NBA's banning of chewing straws during games.  Will he take up another habit to help calm him down?  We'll see.  Here's a link to a video clip and article discussing the situation.  It's funny to watch the video and see all the fans and radio broadcasters who came to the game chewing straws in support of Butler's behavior.  It's also interesting to note in the sportsnation poll that 54% of people in America enjoyed chewing on straws...:

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nba/news/story?id=4945104

I was intrigued by meganr's recent posting regarding health, heart problems, and stress.

I found an interesting article on the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier website.

http://www.wcfcourier.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/article_2ea45aab-df99-5e02-868e-ea221e16b85c.html

It was an article based off a study published in the European Heart Journal.  The article in the newspaper discussed the main point of the study which was happiness can help your heart and decrease risk for a heart attack.  Even if you aren't a naturally happy person, simply acting happy can help your heart, says Dr. Karina Davidson.  Being stressed damages heart muscles, blood vessels, clogs arteries with plaque. 

I thought this article was interesting because it supports the idea of satisfying psychological needs.  Being happy and positive increases our positive well-being.  An individual's understanding of his or her motivation or perceived locus of causality is important to note. 
A person's internal locus of causality reflects the individuals understanding of his or her behavior.  Being happy or even acting happy can provide positive health benefits and reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/16-and-pregnant-season-2-ep-1-jenelle/1631955/playlist.jhtml

I'm not much of a TV person, but when I find a show I like, I try to follow it.  One in particular has been 16 & Pregnant.  I find some of the stories compelling and extremely interesting to watch.  But why?  I have no desire to be pregnant any time soon nor do I like watching people suffer through hard decisions and break ups.  But I found myself recently being angry that I missed the premiere last night of the second season.  So I decided to watch it online.  Not only did this first episode make me feel embarrassed, but I couldnt help but wonder why these people put themselves out there to be seen by the whole world in these stressful situations.  There may be people out there who have a situational interest; maybe themselves or a close friend got pregnant at a young age, or even just pregnant in general.  For me, I had an individual interest to watch the second season because the first season had everything-- crazy moms, cute babies, boyfriend mishaps and love.  I had seen all of these things and expected something great. 

Her mothers actions made me uncomfortable just as I sat and watched by myself.  I wanted to yell at both her mother and her for how they were handling this situation.  I dont believe I would want my life videotaped through such a dramatic experience- I can only imagine how embarrassed I would be if it actually WERE me. 

Janelle and her mother both had the same goals in mind throughout her pregnancy; they wanted the best for her baby... at least I think that's what they both were.  Janelle's mother made it clear that the baby was most important, while Janelle made it clear she would not give up her social life.  Janelle's mother even suggested if she couldn't take care of the baby maybe she should give the child up for adoption.  Of course Janelle found this crazy and kept reassuring her mother that she could do it.  There are many hidden costs to having this little boy (the reward) that Janelle hasn't come to see yet.  Janelle is stuck in the world of a 16 year old, when in reality she has a child and needs to take on the role of a mother.  Janelle's mother, on the other hand, babysat the child as Janelle went out. 

IJanelle needs to realize what her life is now and see that she needs to take on these 'hidden costs' for having this child.  While still in school (which is great), she continuallly went out on the evenings leaving her mother to care for her baby.  Something needs to change in this mother-daughter relationship before "Grandma" becomes more of a mom than 'Mom' does. 

I figured there is no time better than the present to touch of the drive and story of an Olympic athlete. I think we all know by now, being an Olympian takes much more than an occasional practice. Being an Olympian takes commitment, determination, drive, and natural ability. These athletes practice for hours on end. Then, when they are done, they go to sleep and wake up to do it all over again. Training is nothing less that extreme. Anything other than being the best is not acceptable, because no one goes to the Olympic games with out the desire to bring home gold. Every athlete dreams of being an Olympian, and every Olympian dreams of being recognized as the best... to be positively reinforces with a gold circle draped from their neck. 

First, read this article:

http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/content/art1965.html

I ran upon this article while looking at a link from Dr. Walsh's Drugs & Individual Behavior class, and I thought it would fit with some of the material we are currently covering. The article basically details how our bodies react to stress via natural physiological processes. These responses are why we feel physical symptoms to a perceived stressor. The stressor itself may not be anything that is physically challenging or even mentally challenging, but our perception of it can be manifested in both of these ways.  On Tuesday we mentioned cortisol as being a stress hormone that can have negative physical consequences, but it actually does more than that. It helps our bodies deal with the other physiological processes that respond to stress through allostasis, or the process of maintaining homeostasis. If cortisol levels do not respond properly to an acute stressor and are too low, other bodily processes can "run out of control" and cause physical damage (e.g. an autoimmune condition). Conversely, if cortisol levels are higher than they should be in response to stress, this can lead to decreased functioning of other bodily processes (hyperglycemia eventually leading to type 2 diabetes).  The article also describes how our own behaviors can affect how our body handles stress. I thought this article would be something that everyone might like to know in terms of staying healthy and a little of the physiology behind dealing with stress.  Next time you are feeling stressed out you can just say "man, I have a huge allostatic load that's bothering me right now" and see how people respond.    

http://www.themedguru.com/20100114/newsfeature/people-happiest-during-weekends-study-86131803.html

I found this article to be rather interesting, the study suggests that weekends have a significant effect on the body. Researchers suggest that, "simply being in charge of your own day, spending quality time with family, provides better mood, greater vitality and (fewer) physical ailments from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon."

 

While the results of this study are probably to be expected - most people are visibly happier on the weekends -  it is interesting to hear about what they believe specifically causes physiological changes, such as hormone release, and a more positive attitude overall.

 

They attribute some of these changes to higher feelings of autonomy. At first, I wondered if this effect was mainly seen in those with relatively low paying jobs (those with consistently low autonomy throughout the week), but the effect was found regardless of occupation, age, gender, or relationship status.

 

I actually found it very interesting that even those with high status jobs experience this effect on weekends. I have generally thought that workers with high status already tend to have significantly higher levels of autonomy and leisure, so the presence of the weekend would not make as much of a difference to them. According to this study, I may be wrong.

 

 I wonder if another reason for this affect is that people are often able to rest more on weekends. In BioPsychology I remember the author (John Pinel) mentioning that over time people can gradually reduce the amount of time they sleep to as little as two hours per night with only minor effects, but I have not yet looked at the studies on which he based those statements. I wonder how much of a role (perhaps 2 additional hours) additional sleep can play in improving one's mental and physical condition. I find studies involving sleep to be among the most interesting, and from what I have read it seems like much more research needs to be conducted in this area.   

 

Another question I have is, "Why don't the effects seem to carry past Sunday afternoon?" I suppose the answer may lie in their original report, but if it does it would be rather odd for them not to have included it in the article. I have often heard people say that they will be revitalized and refreshed for work after the weekend, but in my experience I'm not sure people tend to be any better or any worse at their jobs whether it is a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. In any case, I think some of the questions that arise from this article merit further research.

The recent down turn in the economy has placed a negative effect on many people's emotions, often causing anxiety and depression. Julie Cohen who is a licensed marriage and family therapist gives some helpful hints to overcome the some of the emotional problems that can arise due to the economy. Julie encourages you to think positively, remember the positive things in your life, thinking about what you value can be very comforting. She also realizes that just thinking positively is not always going to be enough to get you through these hard times. She also offers some small steps you can take to help ease the financial stress you may be feeling, such as clipping coupons, and she gives you a link to a coupon site, as well as just making more economically appreciate choices for the situation you are in. And last but not least she tells you to take an honest look at your own financial situation and to consider getting help or guidance if needed.

http://www.dailystrength.org/experts/julie-cohen/article/as-the-economy-suffers-so-do-our-emotions

 

I found an article that discussed the first study to find that exercising during or before work hours not only has physical benefits but mental benefits as well. They found that people who worked out before work or during their lunch break were more productive, happier, and less stressed at work compared to those who opted not to exercise. The employees moods improved on the days they exercised and were less calm on days in which they did not exercise. Exercising employees also reported improvements in time management, mental and interpersonal performance, and work load management.

Link to article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1095783/People-exercise-work-days-happier-suffer-stress-productive.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100119133519.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+(ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News)

I was rather intrigued by the research presented in this article. The main finding is alluded to in the title of the article - recent research suggests that those less motivated to achieve will excel on tasks seen as fun and those more motivated to achieve will not perform as well on tasks that are intended to be for fun. Obviously, this suggests that different students may need different types of motivation to excel. The students that are competitive and serious tend to be significantly less motivated when they think the task is just being performed for fun. Many other students do not take academics so seriously and work better when the task is fun.

Although these two groups are not all-inclusive (plenty of people lie somewhere in the middle of the extremes), I believe these differences do exist in the real world. As some individuals strive for excellence, they can become rather obsessed with perfection and get in the habit of avoiding anything fun-related to maximize their reputation of achievement. Given the incredible amount of time that many of these perfectionists put into their work, it is very hard for others to remain competitive without also putting a tremendous amount of effort into their academics. Because of this, I think many people stick to a more balanced (and perhaps more natural) life, in which they strive for excellence rather than perfection and are okay with not being labeled "the best."

Although I think many people are able to eventually find a balance between work and fun, there will always be those who are unable to achieve such a balance. I have not read much of the literature pertaining to this subject, but I wonder what the common causes of "overacheiving" are. It seems likely to me that some of these overly competitive individuals may be trying to compensate for low feelings of self-worth and others may be motivated by a need to feel superior. Whatever the reasons may be, I think most people realize is better for one's physical and mental health to not be overly competitive, but as people get older I think it becomes increasingly difficult for such people to change because the tendency to be that way has become a fundamental component of their personality. I think this research supports the idea that we can get too carried away and we can be overly motivated. Moderation is key in a great many areas of life.

 

Another questions that arises here is, "Does this research support the idea that people motivated by different approaches should be taught in separate groups (each given the learning style that works best for them)?" If we put more and more highly competitive people together into a single class though, would we also be creating the potential for even higher, even more unhealthy work ethics to arise? I suppose the questions I am posing here rest on the assumption that it can be unhealthy to be overly competitive, but I think this assumption is justified considering that those highly motivated become less able to do tasks that are supposed to be fun.