The phenomenon of stress. Effects on the human body and psyche

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Psychology - Clinic and Health Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, grade: 2,7, University of Lüneburg, language: English, abstract: The reason to write this paper about stress was obvious to me. Like many students, I also suffer from stress. Whether exam stress, performance or time pressure. All this may not have a positive effect on the life of a student. The consequences are headaches, inner restlessness, irritability, nervousness, which in turn has a negative effect on performance - a vicious circle. In my work I would like to deal with the phenomenon of stress in order to learn something for my everyday life and how to deal with stress. In the first section I will clarify what is generally understood by stress or what stress actually is. Under point 2.1 I will first develop a definition of the term as a basis for further discussion of the topic. Furthermore, in the following section 2.2. I will introduce two of the most well-known stress models or theories. On the one hand there is the General Adaptation Syndrome according to Selye and on the other hand the Transactional Stress Model according to Lazarus. Finally, I differentiate the four levels of stress reaction in section 2.3. In section 3 I show different stress reactions and their possible negative consequences on health. To mention are at this point not diminished arousal, chronic load, weakened immune authority as well as health risk behavior. In the last part of my work I deal under point 4 with various anti-stress methods. I will present different methods of stress management or prevention, such as physical exercise training, muscle and breath relaxation, hatha yoga and autogenic training. Finally, I will comment on the topic of stress as well as on the described anti-stress measures.