Chapter 13 Introduction

13Stress and Health

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© Fotosearch/age fotostock

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  • Sources of Stress: What Gets to You

    • Stressful Events
    • Chronic Stressors
    • Perceived Control over Stressful Events
    • HOT SCIENCE Can Discrimination Cause Stress and Illness?

  • Stress Reactions: All Shook Up

    • Physical Reactions
    • Psychological Reactions

  • Stress Management: Dealing with It

    • Mind Management
    • Body Management
    • Situation Management
    • CULTURE & COMMUNITY Land of the Free, Home of the…Stressed?

  • The Psychology of Illness: Mind over Matter

    • Psychological Effects of Illness
    • Recognizing Illness and Seeking Treatment
    • Somatic Symptom Disorders
    • On Being a Patient
    • Patient–Practitioner Interaction

  • The Psychology of Health: Feeling Good

    • Personality and Health
    • Health-Promoting Behaviors and Self-Regulation
    • OTHER VOICES Freedom to Be Unhealthy?

“I HAVE A KNIFE TO YOUR NECK. DON’T MAKE A SOUND. Get out of bed and come with me or I will kill you and your family.” These are the words that awoke 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart in the middle of the night of June 5, 2002. Fearing for her own life and that of her family, she kept quiet and left with her abductor. Elizabeth was kidnapped by Brian David Mitchell, a man Elizabeth’s parents had hired previously to do some roof work on their home. Mitchell and his wife Wanda Ileen Barzee held Elizabeth in captivity for 9 months, during which time Mitchell repeatedly raped her and threatened to kill her and her entire family. Mitchell, Barzee, and Smart were spotted walking down the street by a couple who recognized them from a recent airing of the television show America’s Most Wanted and called the police. Mitchell and Barzee were apprehended, and Elizabeth was returned to her family.

Elizabeth suffered unimaginable circumstances for a prolonged period of time in what can be thought of as one of the most stressful situations possible, especially for a 14-year-old girl. Fortunately, Elizabeth is now safe and sound, happily married, and working as an activist and commentator for ABC News. She endured life-threatening stressors for months, and those experiences undoubtedly affected her in ways that will last her entire lifetime. Yet, despite the very difficult hand she was dealt, she appears to have bounced back and to be leading a happy, productive, and rewarding life. Hers is a story of both stress and health.

This smiling young face is that of Elizabeth Smart, who, between the times of these two photographs, was kidnapped, raped, and tortured for nearly a year. Stressful life events often affect us in ways that cannot be seen from the outside. Fortunately, there are things that we can do in response to even the most stressful of life events that can get us smiling again.
SLCPD UPI Photo Service/Newscom

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FORTUNATELY, VERY FEW OF US WILL EVER HAVE TO ENDURE the type of stress that Elizabeth Smart lived through. But life has its stressors, specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten the person’s well-being. Although such stressors rarely involve threats of death, they do have both immediate and cumulative effects that can influence health.

stressors

Specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten the person’s well-being.

In this chapter, we’ll look at the kinds of life events that produce stress, the physical and psychological response to internal or external stressors; typical responses to such stressors; and ways to manage stress. Stress has such a profound influence on health that we consider stress and health together in this chapter. And because sickness and health are not merely features of the physical body, we then consider the more general topic of health psychology, the subfield of psychology concerned with the ways psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illness and the maintenance of health. You will see how perceptions of illness can affect its course and how health-promoting behaviors can improve the quality of people’s lives.

stress

The physical and psychological response to internal or external stressors.

health psychology

The subfield of psychology concerned with ways psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illness and the maintenance of health.