CBSE Class 12 Psychology Meeting Life Challenges Assignment Set B

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question. What is task-oriented coping?
Answer: Task-oriented coping involves using alternate courses of action for coping. For example,scheduling your time better or using better methods to solve problems.

Question. What is psycho-neuro-immunology?
Answer: Psycho-neuro-immunology focuses on the links between mind, brain and the immune system. It studies the effects of stress on the immune system.

Question. Explain emotion-oriented coping strategy.
Answer: Emotion-oriented strategy involves venting feelings of anger and frustration or deciding that nothing can be done to change things. For example, to stop worrying.

Question. Give the causes of environmental stress.
Answer: Environmental stresses are caused by air pollution, crowding, noise, heat of the summer,winter cold or disasters such as fire, earthquake, floods etc.

Question. Explain the behavioural effects of stress.
Answer: Behavioural effect of stress include disrupted sleep patterns, increased absenteeism and reduced work performance.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question. What are the signs and symptoms of stress?
Answer: Response to stress varies depending upon personality of an individual. Every person has his/her own pattern of stress response. Warning signs of stress vary from individual to individual depending upon intensity. Physical symptoms of stress can be palpitation or sweating,emotional symptoms can be confusion and irritability which are manifested in behavioural symptoms such as withdrawal or restlessness. If any of these symptoms are left unresolved, they may lead to suicide, burnout, a psychological disorder or a medical disease.

Question. How social support can lead to positive health and well-being? Discuss.
Answer: Availing social support leads to less medical and psychological complications such as observed in pregnant women, who by getting social support and protection against stress cope life more successfully. The types of social support are tangible support, information support and emotional support. Tangible support involves assisting one with money, goods and services such as providing notes to a friend, who has been absent.
Information support is providing one with certain resources such as a student who has appeared in a board exam helps his friend in telling him how the board exams are conducted. Emotional support helps to overcome anxiety, loss of self-esteem by the ones who love and care for you. Social support reduces psychological distress, depression or anxiety during times of stress. It helps in providing psychological well-being.

Question. State the dimensions of stressors.
Answer: The stresses which people experience vary in terms of intensity (low intensity vs high intensity), deviation (Short-term vs long term), complexity (less complex vs predictable).
The outcome of stress depends on the position of or particular stressful experience along these dimensions usually, more intense, prolonged or chronic, complex and unanticipated stresses have more negative consequences than have less intense, short term, less complex and repected stress. An individual’s experiences of stress depend on the physiological strength of that person. Thus, individuals with poor physical health and weak constitution would be more inalterable than would be those who enjoy good health and strong constitution.

Question. Explain the concept of stress. Give examples from daily life.
Answer: Stress is described as the pattern of responses an organism makes to stimulus event that disturbs the equilibrium and exceeds a person’s ability to cope. Stressors like noise, crowding, a bad relationship, daily commuting to school or office are events that cause our body to give the stress response. Happenings in our daily lives such as noisy surroundings, commuting, quarrelsome neighbours, electricity and water shortage, traffic snarls cause stress. Attending to various emergencies are daily hassles experienced by a housewife.

Question. Describe the factors affecting the appraisal of the stressful events.
Answer: The factors affecting the appraisal of the stressful events are:
(i) Past experience: If one has handled similar situations very successfully in the past, they would be less threatening for him or her.
(ii) Controllable: A person who believes that she/he can control the onset of a negative situation or its negative consequences will experience less amount of stress than those who have no such sense of personal control.

Question. Explain the concept of stress giving examples from daily life.
Answer: Stress is described as the pattern of responses an organism makes to stimulus event that disturbs the equilibrium and exceeds a person’s ability to cope. Stressors like noise, crowding, a bad relationship, daily commuting to school or office are events that cause our body to give the stress response. Happenings in our daily lives such as noisy surroundings, commuting, quarrelsome neighbours, electricity and water shortage, traffic snarls cause stress. Attending to various emergencies are daily hassles experienced by a housewife.

Long Answer Type Questions

 Question. Describe the effect of stress on the immune system.
Answer: Release of stress hormone results in weakening of our immune system thus affecting mental and physical health. Weakened immune system has a serious effect on the individuals’ health. Stress has physiological effects and can affect natural killer cell cytotoxicity, which is of major importance in the defence against various infections and cancer. Reduced levels of natural killer cell cytotoxicity have been found in people who are highly stressed, including students facing important examinations, persons who have lost a loved one and those who are severely depressed. Psychological stress is accompanied by negative emotions or burnout situation and associated symptoms such as depression, anxiety, irritability and aggression. Individuals may have panic attacks or show obsessive behaviours, mood swings or phobias. These individuals have feelings of hopelessness which is worsened by injury or disease. Studies reveal that immune functioning is better in individuals receiving social support.
Emotions such as fear, anger or hostility are associated with anger outbursts, tantrums,withdrawal symptoms and feelings of hopelessness thus leading to weakening of the immune system thus affecting mental and physical health.

Question. Explain the nature of stress giving examples. Discuss avoidance-oriented strategy of coping.
Answer: Nature of Stress:
The term ‘stress’ has been originated from the Latin word Strictus, meaning tight or narrow.Stress is described as the pattern of responses an organism makes to stimulus event that disturbs the equilibrium and exceeds a person’s ability to cope. Stressors like noise,crowding, a bad relationship, daily commuting to school or office are events that cause our body to give the stress response.
Eustress describes the level of stress that is good and positive and is one of a person’s best assets for achieving peak performance and managing minor crisis. Distress is the manifestation of stress that causes our body’s wear and tear. It produces unpleasant effects, hampers our productivity, emotionally upsets us and causes our performance to deteriorate. Stress is often explained in terms of characteristics of the environment that are disruptive to the individual. Stressors are events that cause our body to give the stress response.
Such events include noise, crowding, a bad relationship, or the daily commuting to school or office. The reaction to external stressors is called ‘strain’.
                                                                    OR
Lazarus has distinguished between two types of appraisal, i.e. primary and secondary.The perception of stress is dependent upon the individual’s cognitive appraisal which is of two types, primary and secondary. Primary appraisal refers to the perception of a new or changing environment as positive, neutral or negative in its consequences. Negative events are appraised for their possible harm, threat or challenge. Harm is the assessment of the damage that has already been done by the event. Threat is the assessment of the possible future damage that may be brought about by the event. Challenge is associated with expectations of the ability to cope with the stressful event. Secondary appraisal is the assessment of one’s coping abilities and resources and whether they will be sufficient to meet the harm, threat or challenge of the event.Selye observed that animals exposed to stressors show a similar pattern of bodily response. He called this pattern General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). According to him GAS involves three stages Alarm reaction, Resistance Stage and Exhaustion stage. Coping is a dynamic situation-specific reaction to stress. E.g. watching TV, phone up a friend or try to be with other people.
Avoidance-oriented strategy: This involves denying or minimizing the seriousness of the situation. It involves conscious suppression of stressful thoughts and their replacement by self-protective thoughts. Examples of this are watching TV, phone up a friend or try to be with other people.

Question. Distinguish between eustress and distress giving suitable examples. Discuss the different sources of psychological stress.
Answer: Eustress describes the level of stress that is good and positive and is one of a person’s best assets for achieving peak performance and managing minor crisis. Distress is the manifestation of stress that causes our body’s wear and tear. It produces unpleasant effects, hampers our productivity, emotionally upsets us and causes our performance to deteriorate.
The various sources of stress are:
(i) Life Events: Changes due to life events such as moving into a new house, break-up of a long-term relationship cause stress.
(ii) Hassles: Happenings in our daily lives such as noisy surroundings, commuting,quarrelsome neighbours, electricity and water shortage, traffic snarls cause stress.
Attending to various emergencies are daily hassles experienced by a housewife.
(iii) Traumatic Events: Effects of extreme events such as fire, train or road accident,robbery, earthquake, tsunami persist as symptoms of anxiety, flashbacks, dreams and intrusive thoughts. Severe trauma can also strain relationships or can lead to disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Question3. Describe the GAS model and illustrate the relevance of this model with the help of an example.
Answer: Selye observed that animals exposed to stressors show a similar pattern of bodily response. Selye studied this issue by subjecting animals to a variety of stressors such as high temperature, X-rays and insulin injections, in the laboratory over a long period of time. He also observed patients with various injuries and illnesses in hospitals. Selye noticed a similar pattern of bodily response in all of them. He called this pattern General
Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). According to him GAS involves three stages:
(i) Alarm reaction: The presence of a stressor leads to activation of the adrenal-pituitarycortex system. This triggers the release of hormones producing the stress response. Now the individual is ready for fight or flight.
(ii) Resistance Stage: Under prolonged stress, the para-sympathetic nervous system calls for more cautious use of the body’s resources in which the organism makes efforts to cope with the threat.
(iii) Exhaustion stage: Continued exposure to the same stressor or additional stressors drains the body of its resources and leads to the third stage of exhaustion. The physiological systems involved in alarm reaction and resistance become ineffective and susceptibility to stress-related diseases increases.

Question. What are the types of stress?
Answer: The major types of stress are:
(i) Physical and Environmental Stress: Physical stresses are caused when we overexert ourselves physically, lack a nutritional diet, suffer an injury or fail to get enough sleep. Environmental stresses are caused by air pollution, crowding, noise, heat of the summer, winter cold or disasters such as fire, or natural disasters such as earthquake,floods, drought, land-slides, volcanic eruption etc.
(ii) Psychological Stress: This is caused by
(a) Frustration: It results from blocking of needs and motives while achieving a desired goal. Causes of frustration are social discrimination, interpersonal hurt, low grades in school.
(b) Conflicts: It may occur between two or more incompatible needs or motives, e.g.,whether to learn dance or study psychology.
(c) Internal pressures: These stem from beliefs based upon expectations from inside us to ourselves such as, ‘I must do everything perfectly’.
(d) Social pressures: These are brought about from people who make excessive demands on us, e.g., parents and teachers.
(iii) Social Stress: These result from our interaction with other people, such as death or illness in the family, strained relationships, trouble with neighbours, etc. For example,attending a party could be stressful for a person who is an introvert and staying at home for a person who is a party lover.

Question. Describe how life skills can help meet life’s challenges.
Answer: Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are described below:
(i) Assertiveness: Assertiveness is a behaviour or skill that helps to communicate clearly and confidently, our feelings, needs, wants and thoughts. It is the ability to say no to a request, to state an opinion without being self-conscious, or to express emotions such as love, anger openly. An assertive person feels confident, has high self-esteem and a solid sense of his identity.
(ii) Time Management: Managing time helps to relieve pressure, organizing our life and thus leading a balanced life. Learning to plan and delegate responsibilities helps to relieve pressure. It requires one to be realistic, deciding on the task to be done and organizing your life.
(iii) Rational Thinking: This involves challenging your distorted thinking and irrational beliefs, driving out potentially intrusive negative anxiety-provoking thoughts and making positive statements.
(iv) Improving Relationships – This involves listening to what the other person is saying, expressing how you feel and what you think and accepting the other person’s opinions and feelings even if they are different from your own.
(v) Self-care: This involves keeping ourselves healthy and relaxed which prepares us physically and emotionally to tackle the stresses of everyday life.
(vi) Overcoming Unhelpful Habits: This involves overcoming unhelpful habits such as perfectionism, avoidance or procrastination. Perfectionists are persons who want everything to be just right, find it difficult to relax, are critical of self and others.
Avoidance is to put the issue under the carpet and refuse to accept or face it.Procrastination means putting off what we need to do and to be done at a later hour.It involves deliberately avoiding and confronting fears of failure or rejection.

Question. Discuss the factors that lead to positive health and well-being.
Answer: Positive health includes good physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. This includes a healthy body free from disease, effective personal relationships, a sense of purpose in life, self-regard, and resilience to stress. This requires maintain of the following:
(i) Diet: A balanced diet can lift one’s mood, give more energy, feed muscles, improve circulation, prevent illness, strengthen the immune system and make one feel better to cope with stresses of life. The key to healthy living is to eat three main meals a day and eat a varied well-balanced diet.
(ii) Exercise: Regular exercise manages stress, reduces tension, anxiety and depression.It helps the individual to maintain good physical and mental health. Exercise requires changing one’s life-style. These produce a calming effect and may include yoga, aerobic exercises, jogging, swimming and cycling.
(iii) Positive Attitude: Some of the factors leading to a positive attitude are: having a fairly accurate perception of reality; a sense of purpose in life and responsibility; acceptance and tolerance for different viewpoints of others; and taking credit for success and accepting blame for failure. Finally, being open to new ideas and having a sense of humour with the ability to laugh at oneself help us to see things in a proper perspective.
(iv) Positive Thinking: This involves being an optimist and avoid having a pessimistic outlook towards life. Optimists use problem-focused strategies, seek help and advice from others.
(v) Social support: Availing social support leads to less medical and psychological complications such as observed in pregnant women who after getting social support and protection against stress cope life more successfully. The types of social support are tangible support, information support and emotional support. Tangible support involves assisting one with money, goods and services such as providing notes to a friend who has been absent. Information support is providing one with certain resources such as a student who has appeared in a board exam helps his friend in telling him how the board exams are conducted. Emotional support helps to overcome anxiety, loss of self-esteem by the ones who love and care for you. Social support reduces psychological distress, depression or anxiety during times of stress.
It helps in providing psychological well-being.