Relationship Stress
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You must read each slide, and complete any questions on the slide, in sequence.
Chapter 5: Coping with Stress
Critical Thinking Exercise: Relationship Stress
Coping is a dynamic, ever-changing, long-term process. It refers not only to the cognitive processes involved in understanding and dealing with stressful situations, but also in understanding behavioral and emotional reactions that can provide additional complicating factors. In Chapter 5, three coping strategies are identified: problem-focused, emotion-focused, and emotional-approach coping. Use what you learned about coping and the various coping styles to answer questions about the scenario below.
Amy and her husband, Dale, have been married a little less than a year. This is their first time living together in their own home, and they have been working to renovate their place and make it fit their personalities. The renovation is taking longer than either of them anticipated and is over budget. Dale and Amy have tried to be upbeat about the setbacks, but recently Amy has been arguing with her husband and is beginning to speak poorly of and complain about him to friends and family. Dale is confused about why their relationship is so tense. Amy has difficulty identifying and understanding her own feelings when asked about her marriage, but she refuses to discuss her concerns with her husband. Dale has started to experience feelings of anxiety and depression related to their marital disagreements. Amy and Dale have come to an impasse and need to make a decision about not only their marriage, but their own individual well-being.
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Amy may want to consider the emotional-approach strategy, since it is important for her to understand what specifically in her and her husband’s relationship is triggering such negative emotional responses to her husband.
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The buffering hypothesis refers to the mitigating influence of social support, which helps individuals cope more effectively with stress. If Amy and her husband both have empathetic social support systems, then they are more likely to take advice that could be helpful in their marital disagreements.
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Amy’s friend likely suggested getting a pet because she knows that pet ownership can physically reduce symptoms of stress and also ease feelings of loneliness. Pet ownership has been found to lower blood pressure and reduce stress-related hormones (e.g., cortisol).
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Research has indicated that there are gender differences in emotional reactions to upsetting or stressful news. Men tend to regulate and try to control their emotions, similar to what is used in the emotion-focused strategy; however, this strategy can result in difficulty connecting with emotions later in life and a fostering of dysfunctional processing of emotions. This dysfunction has been linked to a poorer prognosis for men diagnosed with chronic illnesses.