SOURCES OF STRESS

A. Identifying and Understanding Stressors
1. Specific vs. non-specific effects
2. Relationship to appraisal
3. Relationship to vulnerability and coping
4. Implications
  a. Assessment
  b. Treatment
  c. Prevention

B. The Family
1. Reciprocal interaction of family and stress
  a. Positive feedback loops
  b. Family as stress vs. family as support
2. Family as system
  a. Distinguishing individual and family stress
  b. Family homeostasis
  c. Family roles
3. Patterson’s FAAR model
  a. Amount of change required plus vulnerability equals amount of stress
  b. Appraisal plus resources (integration, adaptability) equals vulnerability
4. Common family stressors
  a. Transitions
    (1) Creation
    (2) Additions
    (3) Subtractions
  b. Separation and divorce
    (1) Causes
    (2) Consequences
  c. Family violence
    (1) Child abuse and neglect
    (2) Sibling violence
    (3) Partner abuse
    (4) Sexual abuse of children

C. Work and School
1. Job stress
  a. Defined
  b. Costs (to the individual, to the organization)
  c. Symptoms
    (1) Cognitive and emotional
    (2) Physical
    (3) Behavioral
  d. Sources of stress at work
    (1) Overload and underload
    (2) Responsibility
    (3) Dangers and hazards
    (4) Role ambiguity
    (5) Interpersonal issues
    (6) Organizational factors
    (7) Job security issues
    (8) Career issues
  e. Burnout and “going postal”
  f. Coping strategies
    (1) For the individual
    (2) For the organization
2. School stress
  a. Stage-of-life issues
    (1) Separation and individuation
    (2) Identity
    (3) Growing up
  b. Pressures to succeed
  c. Interpersonal  issues
  d. Coping strategies
    (1) Time management
    (2) Study skills

D. Stress and Society
1. Societal theories
  a. Linking societal health to personal health and adjustment
  b. Epidemiology: are different groups more/less at risk?
  c. Cause and effect: social causation vs. social drift/selection
2. Social change
  a. Technological and lifestyle changes
  b. Anomie, demoralization and cults
  c. Life-change and illness
    (1) Holmes and Rahe and the SRRS
    (2) Studies of life-change and illness
    (3) Arguments against
3. A multicultural model of stress
  a. Race, religion, ethnicity and status
    (1) Conflict
    (2) Prejudice and discrimination
  b. Cultural differences in beliefs about health
4. Victimization
  a. PTSD
  b. Fear of crime
  c. Victimology
    (1) Who is at risk?
    (2) Reducing risk
    (3) Vulnerability and recovery

E. Environmental Stress
1. Theories of environmental stress
  a. Arousal
  b. Conditioned reactions
  c. Behavior constraint and learned helplessness
2. Types of environmental stress
  a. Disasters
    (1) Natural and human-made
    (2) Acute and long-term effects
    (3) Emotion-based and problem-based coping
    (4) Critical incident debriefing
  b. Pollution
  c. Overcrowding

Copyright ©1998 Beverly J. Volicer and Steven F. Tello, UMass Lowell.  You may freely edit these pages  for use in a non-profit, educational setting.  Please include this copyright notice on all pages.