Chapter Twelve

Stress, Coping, and Health

Chapter twelve starts out about stress. The chapter explains what stress is and the different types of stress people experience. The different approaches to stress are as a stimuli ( that is focusing on identifying different types of stressful events), transaction ( how people interpret and cope with stressful events), and as a response (psychological and physical reactions to stressful circumstances). The chapter also discusses the creation of the Hassle scale. This scale is used to determine how stressful events are associated with poor health. The next section of the chapter is how one adapts to stress and the challenges associated with change. Also discusses the different types of responses to stress. The next section is about how the brain and body reacts to stress. This section also discusses events that can cause a weak immune system or diseases, such as coronary heart disease. The next section is about coping with stress and different strategies offered to help. Also explains how some ways of coping are better for some rather then others. The next section is about how to live a less stressful life. This section provides techniques to make living a healthy lifestyle easier.
What interested me most when reading the chapter was that stress is studied with three different approaches. I found it interesting because I didn't know there were different kinds of stresses. I thought one would just be stressed. Its interesting to find that different kinds of stresses affect how one should approach to cope with stress. Another aspect I found interesting was that not everyone deals with stress the same way. I also found it interesting how one can measure their stress. By using the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) one can see how stressful events have effected their life and if they are susceptible to illness or mental health problems. It was interesting to see how stressful events can affect the mind.