Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

502 CHAPTER 12 Stress, Health, and CopingIn a poverty-stricken neighborhood, people are likely to be exposed to negativelife events and to have fewer resources available to cope with those events. Thus,daily hassles are also more common. People in lower socioeconomic groups—whohave low incomes, low levels of education, and who are either unemployed or workin low-status occupations—experience more health and economic problems andmore incidents of violence than people in higher-status groups (Hatch & Dohrenwend,2007). Teenagers and young adults report the highest levels of stressfulevents, especially traumatic, violent, or life-threatening events. Men experiencemore traumatic events than women. But women are more likely to become upsetby the negative events that are experienced by friends and family. We’ll return tothat aspect of stressful experience later in the chapter.Given their higher exposure to stressful circumstances, it’s not surprising that peoplein the lowest socioeconomic levels tend to have the highest levels of psychologicaldistress, illness, and death (Mays & others, 2007). They also tend to have higher levelsof stress hormones than people in higher-status groups (Cohen & others, 2006).Interestingly, how someone perceives his or her own social status can influence thephysical effects of stress. This was demonstrated in a recent study in which volunteerswere exposed to a cold virus. The volunteers who saw themselves as being low on thesocial status totem pole had higher rates of infection than volunteers who objectivelymatched them on social status measures but did not see themselves as being of lowstatus (Cohen & others, 2008).Racism and discrimination are another important source of chronic stress for manypeople (Contrada & others, 2000; Ong & others, 2009). In one survey, for example,more than three-quarters of African-American adolescents reported being treated asincompetent or dangerous—or both—because of their race (Sellers & others, 2006).Such subtle instances of racism, called microaggressions, take a cumulative toll (Sue &others, 2008). Whether it’s subtle or blatant, racism significantly contributes to thechronic stress often experienced by members of minority groups.Stress can also result when cultures clash. For refugees, immigrants, and their children,adapting to a new culture can be extremely stress-producing (Berry, 2003; Chun& others, 2003; Jamil & others, 2007). The Culture and Human Behavior box, “TheStress of Adapting to a New Culture,” describes the factors that influence the degreeof stress experienced by people encountering a new culture.Physical Effects of StressThe Mind–Body ConnectionKey Theme• The effects of stress on physical health were demonstrated in research byWalter Cannon and Hans Selye.Key Questions• What endocrine pathways are involved in the fight-or-flight response andthe general adaptation syndrome?• What is psychoneuroimmunology, and how does the immune system interactwith the nervous system?• What kinds of stressors affect immune system functioning?acculturative stress(ah-KUL-chur-uh-tiv) The stress that resultsfrom the pressure of adapting to a newculture.From headaches to heart attacks, stress contributes to a wide range of disorders, especiallywhen it is long-term, or chronic (Cass, 2006; Krantz & McCeney, 2002).Basically, stress appears to undermine physical well-being in two ways: indirectly anddirectly (Schneiderman & others, 2005).