Introduction
I have recently been employed as an assistant psychologist and as part of my job role I have
been asked to produce pieces of work that look at health issues and how people deal with
them. For my third piece of work I have been asked to produce an essay that explain the
different models of stress and the possible coping strategies available in stressful scenarios.
What is stress?
Stress is our body’s reaction to a change that needs a response from the body, the body can
react to stress both mentally and physically. (Cleveland Clinic 2015) Stress affects the body
physically by changing our blood pressure, altering our pulse rate, affecting the immune
system or altering the body’s hormone levels. Stress affects the body mentally by affection
our cognitive function and our emotional response the stressful situation. Stress are caused
stressors these could be people in a scenario or just the type of scenario that is taking place.
An example of this is if someone feels threatened by someone in a situation then they it
could cause a stressful response.
Different stressors
Internal stressors are the source of stress that comes from inside us and it the type of stress
that is most common, the stressors of internal include the thoughts that are in your head
that can cause you to have low self-esteem and make you feel anxious when there might be
no reason to feel anxious or have low self-esteem. (Anxiety UK 2018) There are external
stressors that come from situation that happen around us such as pressure from work or
from college and stress from people. (Anxiety UK 2018) There is also stress that stems from
a mixture of internal and external stressors this is called interactional stressors which also
believes that stress can be caused by the stressor and how the individual reacts to the
stress.
Development of stress models
There are many different stress models that try to explain our body’s reaction or coping
strategies when it comes to stressful situations. The different reactions that the body has to
stress can be useful in some situations but unhelpful in other.
The fight or flight model is how our nervous system and our bodies react to stress. Our
automatic nervous system is responsible for our response during stressful situations there
are two different responses they are the fight or flight response or the counter shock
response. The fight or flight response is a short-term response which gives us a lot of energy
to either fight or run away. In the long-term the response will lead to high blood pressure
and could lead to heart problems or cause a stroke. The effects the response has on the
body is your pupils dilate, heartbeat increases, salivation decreases, the lungs expand, your
sweat glands increase, you sweat more and your digestion slows down. (Cherry, K 2019)
To bring your body back to its normal state after a stressful situation the body uses the
counter shock response this can also be known as the general adaptation syndrome. The
first six hours to forty-eight hours of the general adaptation syndrome is called the alarm
I have recently been employed as an assistant psychologist and as part of my job role I have
been asked to produce pieces of work that look at health issues and how people deal with
them. For my third piece of work I have been asked to produce an essay that explain the
different models of stress and the possible coping strategies available in stressful scenarios.
What is stress?
Stress is our body’s reaction to a change that needs a response from the body, the body can
react to stress both mentally and physically. (Cleveland Clinic 2015) Stress affects the body
physically by changing our blood pressure, altering our pulse rate, affecting the immune
system or altering the body’s hormone levels. Stress affects the body mentally by affection
our cognitive function and our emotional response the stressful situation. Stress are caused
stressors these could be people in a scenario or just the type of scenario that is taking place.
An example of this is if someone feels threatened by someone in a situation then they it
could cause a stressful response.
Different stressors
Internal stressors are the source of stress that comes from inside us and it the type of stress
that is most common, the stressors of internal include the thoughts that are in your head
that can cause you to have low self-esteem and make you feel anxious when there might be
no reason to feel anxious or have low self-esteem. (Anxiety UK 2018) There are external
stressors that come from situation that happen around us such as pressure from work or
from college and stress from people. (Anxiety UK 2018) There is also stress that stems from
a mixture of internal and external stressors this is called interactional stressors which also
believes that stress can be caused by the stressor and how the individual reacts to the
stress.
Development of stress models
There are many different stress models that try to explain our body’s reaction or coping
strategies when it comes to stressful situations. The different reactions that the body has to
stress can be useful in some situations but unhelpful in other.
The fight or flight model is how our nervous system and our bodies react to stress. Our
automatic nervous system is responsible for our response during stressful situations there
are two different responses they are the fight or flight response or the counter shock
response. The fight or flight response is a short-term response which gives us a lot of energy
to either fight or run away. In the long-term the response will lead to high blood pressure
and could lead to heart problems or cause a stroke. The effects the response has on the
body is your pupils dilate, heartbeat increases, salivation decreases, the lungs expand, your
sweat glands increase, you sweat more and your digestion slows down. (Cherry, K 2019)
To bring your body back to its normal state after a stressful situation the body uses the
counter shock response this can also be known as the general adaptation syndrome. The
first six hours to forty-eight hours of the general adaptation syndrome is called the alarm
