Factors of Stress

tors of stress

FACTORS OF STRESS

PSY101/CASE 3

Stephanie Drane-Thomasson

Trident University International

FACTORS OF STRESS 1

My friend Tom was married two months ago. He recently confided with me that he is unhappy in his marriage. He feels that he and his wife seem to fight all the time and nothing ever gets resolved. He is a very high strung individual and I feel like he has a Type A personality. The stress from the events is taking a toll on his personal life. He feels like it is affecting his life and his health. Since Tom knows that I am in a psychology class, he has ask me for my advice on what to do with his situation and if his marriage can survive this. I gave Tom advice by addressing factors that may be related to his situation. I am going to briefly discuss these factors.

Predictability of the stressor can be a good and bad stress. It is good when you want to know something’s coming that could cause stress. For example if you are going to lose your job you would like to have an advance warning of the situation so you can prepare for the big news so it’s not such a shock. It can also be a bad thing. If you know that stress is coming because it is a continued event that keeps coming back, predicting and assuming that the stress is going to be there can cause more turmoil on you than if you relax until and if it happens. In Tom’s situation, he predicts that his marriage is going to fail and he also predicts that the marriage is going to continue to suffer through arguments with no end. The prediction makes him nervous and unhappy. He needs to stop assuming and focus on how to handle the stress when it arrives.

Social support is an important aspect of living with stress as long as you have the right social support. You want positive people in your life and in your social network. You don’t want to talk to someone who just recently went through a nasty divorce to give you advice on your marriage. Talking with people who is going or...