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Stress is such a variable experience for each of us. The
interpersonal interactions we experience each day out in world can be a
pleasant interlude for some of us or evoke a cascade of stress-triggered
hormones for others. So what makes one person activate a stress-response and
the other maintain without a single jump in heart rate? Are some people more
prone to stressors?
The obvious answer is yes, but there is a deeper interplay
acting out here. Stress is a curious thing, specifically in how we physiologically
react to it. It must be one of the only mechanisms that exchange stimuli
between our thoughts and our biology in a certain way that can psych our health
out of allostatic balance. What I mean to say is our perception of reality has
much to do with our proneness to stress.
The stress-response can be altered or even caused by
psychological factors, like a loss of outlets for frustration and social
support, a perspective of things worsening, lack of control and lack of
predictability. To many extents, certain stressors do not vary in the factors
just mentioned. However, we differ in how we psychological perceive stressors
in our lives. And some of these filters can create a far more stressful looking
world than others. For instance, a depressed person will tend to perceive low
control around stressors in their lives and their general state of being. This
can cause each new stressor to be perceived as more stressful than necessary
with a physiological response to match.
Many times there is a harmful affiliation between how
stressful a person sees the world and how stressful it actually is. Your
temperament, personality, attitude and perspective can greatly vary your perception
of opportunities of control when faced with a stressor. It can alter your view
of a situation as having mostly outcomes of good news or bad news. It can also
modulate your willingness to take advantage of social support.
There are several ways these factors, unique to each of us,
can set a person up for more stressors and a higher risk of stress-related
diseases. When there is mismatch between the degree of perceived stress/stress-response
and the degree of actual stress, a person may respond either in a hostile
manner or an anxious withdrawal. The individual may make matters worse for
themselves as well when they do not seek coping methods that are available to
them, as in some sort of perceived control or help in the form of social
support.
Anxiety disorders are a perfect example of this. They seem
to biologically involve the initial response in coping with stress, with high
levels or epinephrine and norepinephrine but not glucocorticoids (signaling
giving up coping) (Sapolsky, 2004). But most things that give us anxiety are
learned. This falls back on our perception of the world. This condition is
further instilled with time. The amygdala, that controls anxiety and fear, respond
readily to stress and glucocorticoids, creating more synapses and making them
more excitable.
There is another quality of personality that has gain popular
heights among stress-health fields that make one much more susceptible to
certain stress-related diseases. This personality type, and a specific
expressions of it, are common in my family so much so that it has developed
somewhat of a hackneyed term used to describe it: the ‘Stout trait’ or
sometimes the ‘Stout temper.’
This is certainly not to say that each member of my family
has the same personality or is dominated by the insinuated characteristics of
the Stout trait. But to give you a rough idea of what I’m talking about, let me
briefly explain. The Stout trait tends to describe a personality of high energy
and a constant sense of urgency, governed by the second hand of the clock. This
leads to impatience and multitasking. Stouts exhibit a high work involvement in
their undertakings but all as a means to get things finished. They may then
tend to not enjoy their accomplishments because they are preoccupied with the
next goal to finish. They often are very overachieving in there undertakings
that they usually carry out solely. Stouts can be quite competitive. They can
many times have a tendency to overreact or anger easily.
This may sound familiar to some of you. It describes one
part of an over-generalized dualism is personalities: type A and type B. I have
just described type A. This personality type just so happens to predispose
individuals to heart disease. In fact, Type A carries as much a cardiac risk as
does smoking or high levels of cholesterol. Evidently enough, cardiovascular
ailments claim the health of many in my family.
Although, it isn’t just being type A that predispose someone
to cardiac risk though. It is specifically having that time-pressured, hostile
tendency that does. Intuitively, a full expression of anger triggers a powerful
cardiovascular response. Furthermore, repressing the expression of strong
emotions generates an even more intense physiological reaction of the
cardiovascular system (Sapolsky, 2004).
Some of the cardiac risk is likely exacerbated in some type
A, hostile-prone individuals’ by behavioral factors, in which they’re more
likely to smoke, eat poorly or drink excessively. Plus, it makes sense that
hostile people lack the social support to cope with stress more than most
because they drive people away. Certainly, these other factors are not the sole
source of the risk though. Its interesting to know that the type A proneness to
stress may be moderated with therapy to reduce the hostility aspect and in so
reducing health risks (Sapolsky, 2004).
Supplementary studies have shown that personality and coping
behaviors correspond greatly. Among the Big Five personality dimensions -
extraversion (E), openness to experience (O), conscientiousness (C),
agreeableness (A), and neuroticism (N) – the first four are positively related
to coping with interpersonal, anger-eliciting stressful situations. Coping
methods that correlate with neuroticism often include disengagement,
withdrawal, wishful thinking, and focusing of negative emotions. (Geisler,
Wiedig-Allison, & Weber, 2009)
Furthermore, highly functional coping methods towards
interpersonal stressors predict a positively perceived personality (Geisler,
Wiedig-Allison, & Weber, 2009). This complements the notion stated earlier,
that hostile personalities would have a more difficult time dealing with stress
because of lack of social support. Other people would not perceive these type
A’s as having a positive personality. It makes sense that a hostile-type
personality would tend to score lower in openness and agreeableness in relation
to this study. This personality type views life as full of ominous stressors
that require overly attentive coping methods that necessitate a hostile nature.
So having a higher cardiac risk because of personality is
not deterministic, as with many things. Dealing with everyday situations in a
hostile manner is. This behavior is learned and can be unlearned. It makes me
wonder if the ‘Stout temper’ is exaggerated in members of my family because it
is learned as a method of coping with stressful situations. Perhaps the ‘Stout
temper’ is prominent among my family not only because of type A personalities
but because hostile behavior is learned through dealing with some hostile
behavior (hint: the ‘Stout temper’).
Though some of us can experience stress where others do not,
our perception and attitude have the largest influence on that. Psychiatric
disorders and certain personalities do indeed involve dealing poorly with
stress. However, our personality and experiences can prompt us to behavior or view
the world in a certain way that alleviate the strenuousness of stress. Those
behaviors, perspectives, and coping methods that help one deal successfully or
unsuccessfully with stress are learned. So poor coping methods, regardless of
personality, can be upgraded to better handle the stress-provoking lifestyles
we’re accustom to and create.
Reference:
Geisler, Fay C. M., Wiedig-Allison, Monika, & Weber,
Hannelore (2009). What Coping
Tells
about Personality. European Journal of Personality. 23: 289-306.
doi:
10.1002/per.709.
Sapolsky, Robert M. (2004). Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: The
Acclaimed Guide to
Stress,
Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin
Press.
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