Psychology for Dummies (91 page)

Coping is more than just the actions that we take in response to stress. The way we cope also depends on the resources available to us. A billionaire who loses her job may experience a lot less stress than a suddenly unemployed day laborer who makes $30 a day. Our responses to stress are complex reactions that depend on our coping skills, environmental resources, and personal resources. Any life event that a person encounters is influenced by the interaction of the person’s ongoing life stressors, social coping resources, demographic characteristics, and personal coping resources. Further, the person’s cognitive appraisals of the stressor influence his or her health and well-being in both positive and negative ways. All of these approaches taken together represent an
integrative approach,
which takes into consideration the resources an individual possesses prior to a stressor or stressful event, the event itself, and the appraisal of the event in an attempt to predict the health outcome in light of the stressor.

An individual’s ability to resist stress is called
resilience.
Our resilience is the result of the interaction between our
personal
and
social resources
and our coping efforts. Personal coping resources include stable personality traits, beliefs, and approaches to life that help us cope:

One type of environmental resource that is helpful in coping is our
social resources.
They aid in coping by providing support, information, and problem solving suggestions. According to Holohan, Moos, and Schaefer, a few good social resources are family, friends, significant others, religious and spiritual organizations, and sometimes even coworkers and supervisors. Other environmental resources include money, shelter, health services, and transportation. These things can make all the difference in the world when we attempt to cope with stress.

Health psychologists engage in three types of prevention:

Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution to start doing something healthy — exercise more often, take a yoga class, eat better, get more rest, wear your seatbelt? Have you ever kept that resolution? Why not? Come on, be honest with yourself: It was harder than you thought, wasn’t it? Take a minute to think about what keeps you from doing what’s healthy?

This is a common problem with health-related behavior — we don’t stick to it. Part of this problem falls under the heading of
compliance
— whether or not we follow through with a physician’s recommendations or treatment or our own health-related plans. But what determines whether or not we engage in health-promoting behavior to begin with? Some people make it look so easy. They go to the gym. They eat right. They don’t smoke. There are numerous reasons why some of us do more healthy things than others.

For starters, a lot of people won’t start or stick with a health-related behavior if substantial barriers are in the way. It’s too easy to give up if something or someone makes it hard. I don’t go to the gym because it’s too expensive. I don’t sleep enough because I don’t have a nice set of pajamas. Money is a commonly cited barrier to engaging in healthy behavior. Another reason we don’t just do it is that the health-related behavior may cut into something more fun or necessary. If I went to the gym, I’d miss my television programs. If I ate right, I’d have to go to the grocery store, and then I’d have to cook, and then I’d never finish any of my other household duties.

Commitment to change is most often brought about when a person believes that he or she can make a difference. A lot of people have a
fatalistic
attitude toward their physical health — the “you go when you go” philosophy. They don’t see their behavior as contributing to their health and, therefore, don’t bother to change. This mindset is also known as having an
external locus of control
— thinking that control over something rests outside of oneself. Having the belief that the power to change a situation or event resides inside yourself, that it is under your control, is called an
internal locus of control.
When we feel that we can control something, we are more likely to do something about it.

After I’ve changed, either because of external rewards or because of my belief that I can make a difference, how do I maintain those changes? It’s easy to quit smoking for example, but staying smoke free is another story. After I’ve taken the plunge, I can maintain my commitment to healthy behavior by first, examining the pros and cons of either changing or not changing. This depends highly on having accurate information presented to me in a clear manner. Confusing health messages don’t quite do the job.

A number of factors influence our tendencies to listen to and believe a particular source of information. Research on
persuasion
— getting somebody to do something he may not do on his own accord — has supplied psychologists with much of their knowledge in the area of source believability. Who do we believe? For a message to be persuasive, it must grab our attention, be easy to understand, and be acceptable and worthwhile. We also have to remember it. If we don’t remember the message, who cares what it said? Persuasive arguments present both sides of an issue, making the arguments look fair and unbiased. What about those horrible, fear-inducing messages, such as some of the stop-smoking campaigns? They work best when steps toward improvement are mentioned along with the scary stuff.

Decisions to engage or not to engage in healthy behavior are based on many factors, including your beliefs about the behavior and your locus of control. Becker, in 1974, and Rosenthal, in 1988, came up with the
health belief model
to demonstrate the psychological processes we go through when making health-related decisions. The model is based on our beliefs about the following:

The answers to these questions play a role in determining the likelihood that we’ll do the healthy thing. If I arrive at a high severity-, high susceptibility-, high benefits-over-costs-, and high-efficacy conclusion, the likelihood that I’ll choose the healthy option goes up. Otherwise, I may need a real kick in the pants before I select the healthy path.

Information age

Many people have said that we live in the “Information Age,” and I’d have to agree that there’s a lot of information out there. At times, the world seems to suffer from an information overload. With all of these facts, figures, and opinions floating about, who and what information do we tend to believe? For example, do those stop-smoking ad campaigns really work? Media campaigns usually are only effective when they inform us about something we don’t already know. By now, almost everyone knows that smoking is harmful to one’s health. We didn’t always know about the health risks associated with smoking, and when that information finally became public knowledge, smoking rates dropped. But a lot of people kept smoking, and many people actually picked up the habit. Then again, many people feel that the mainstream media is not trustworthy. I’ve even heard people say that the idea that smoking causes cancer is bogus.

Working out with Walker

Do we believe celebrities? Usually we do, but only if they’re likable, enthusiastic, and perceived to be confident and trustworthy. Who wouldn’t trust an exercise machine promoted by Chuck Norris? He’s a Texas Ranger, he’s the law, and he kicks butt too!