Stress Management Issues - Case Study Example

?Psychology Case Study What are the causes of stress in Jennifer’s life? How is stress affecting Jennifer’s health? Jennifer is suffering from chronic stress or cumulative stress which occurs when the person is suffering from stress over a period of time. Though Jennifer is a successful woman with right work attitude and principles, marriage to the man she loved, and loving in-laws, several factors around her have subjected her to chronic stress. Potential stress factors in her are miscarriage and inability to conceive further on, pressure from in-laws to beget children, grief about loss of mother, poor health in father and frustration about taking decisions about him against his will like shifting to skilled nursing care facility, commutation to work, pressure at work place to perform well and keep up her good performance record, household work, responsibilities of role of wife, daughter, employee and daughter-in-law and possible lack of sleep due to stress, work pressure and physical ailments. Chronic stress in Jennifer has affected her health physically. She has developed various physical ailments like backaches, headaches and indigestion. She also feels tired often. Though she visits doctor frequently, no obvious physical cause has been identified. These ailments actually lead to loss of sleep which further affects health and thus chronic stress is a vicious cycle of events. Chronic stress can lead to depression, anxiety, somatization, chronic fatigue and psychotropic drug consumption. It can lead to decreased immunity to infections. It can cause hypertension, precipitate diabetes, gastritis, gastroesophageal reflux and angina. It can also lead to poor eating habits, irregular sleep patterns, drug abuse and avert socialization, causing further worsening of health (Nevid and Rathus, 2005). How are these stressors affecting Jennifer’s self-concept and self-esteem? It is a well known fact that chronic stress impacts not only the physical health of the individual, but also the mental health, including self-esteem and self-concept. Though Jennifer is a successful woman with excellent organizational qualities and good work performance record, several losses in her life like loss of conception, loss of mother and deteriorating health of father have impacted her performance and endurance. Added to these, long distance commutation, responsibilities at home and frustration over not being able to conceive and also not able to help her father out of suffering have undermined her very sense of achievement. Though Jennifer meets doctor often and has found no obvious reason for physical ailment, she does not admit going through stress. Being an ambitious woman and wanting to be perfect in every role of her life, she has unnecessarily put too many pressures on her shoulders. However, stress has reduced her level of self-esteem and self-concept. Jennifer, a once confident woman, is now beginning to question her effectiveness as a daughter, daughter-in-law and wife. Due to innumerous mistakes at workplace, she is beginning to question her work performance. Also, inability to conceive after the previous miscarriage has shattered her confidence levels and she feels that she is not able to live up to the expectations of her in-laws who love her very much. She also feels guilty that she is not able to take care of her father in the manner he expects and thus feels that she is not able to live upto the expectations of her father whose health is deteriorating. Stress can lead to overwhelming fatigue, headache, abdominal pain, and impaired sleep. It can cause deterioration in social skills (Nevid and Rathus, 2005). Individuals in the midst of burnout often lose patience more easily, appear to be moody and depressed, withdraw from others, and do not interact with others as they did in the past. They may become more abrupt, cruder and abrasive in their dealings with others. Jennifer could be suffering from these problems too. How might Jennifer’s situation illustrate adjustment? How might this situation become an opportunity for personal growth? Personal challenges and stress in life are actually potential points for personal growth and outcomes, only if the individual acts appropriately, develops a healthy outlook and has expectations which are reasonable (Nevid and Rathus, 2005). Jennifer however, is losing the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and grow by setting expectations of high standard and which are unreasonable. Jennifer wants to be perfect in every role of her life and achieve in every aspect. The past four years have seen several changes in Jennifer's life- marriage, conception and miscarriage, inability to conceive after that, pressure from in-laws to beget children, loss of mother and deterioration of health of father. Jennifer could take this crucial time as an opportunity for personal growth. She and her husband could move to a new place near her office and decrease time for commuting. Jennifer could shift her father's place of care to her house and hire a full-time nurse and thus decrease her frustration of not able to fulfill her father's wishes. She can meet a gynecologist and start investigation and treatment for conception and inform to her in-laws that she is concentrating on begetting children and that she would need some time for herself. Thus, she can relax from the pressure of conception. At the work front, Jennifer can adopt projects with deadlines that are comfortable for her. After all, with increasing roles in life and commitments, she may not be able to perform the same way as she was doing prior to marriage. Even she should not expect too much of her self, because; unreasonable expectations can lead to increased stress and worsen her work performance. On the other hand, she must take this opportunity to spend more time with her father and discuss all her feelings with her husband who, due to her love towards her, can help her. This can increase the bonding and relationship between Jennifer and her husband. What defensive coping methods is Jennifer using? What active coping methods might be healthier for Jennifer to use? Explain why you would recommend these methods. Jennifer is suffering from chronic stress and the best way she can overcome that is by stress coping strategies. There are mainly 3 types of stress coping strategies. These are cognitive or reframing strategies, action-based strategies and emotion- based strategies. The cognitive strategies which help an individual cope stress are re-framing the situation and laughing it out and deliberate positive reinterpretation. Action-based strategies recommend involvement of problem-solving skills and solution of the problem by systematic approach. Emotion-based strategies are the most commonly recommended strategies to deal with stress. These strategies are based on distraction, blunting and relaxation. Examples of emotion-based strategies are listening to music, playing with pet, praying, meditation, deep breathing, muscle relaxation, gardening, creative activity, shopping and watching a movie (Curtis, 2009). It appears that Jennifer is not using any coping method to relieve stress and improve her situation. Actually, she denies the fact that she is stressed out. Jennifer needs to realize that she is is suffering from stress and hence adopt various coping strategies to relieve from stress. One healthy coping strategy is by openly communicating with every one in the family about how stressed she is and how it has affected her physical health and happiness. Since every one in her house love her, they will understand her situation and try to help her. Jennifer can postpone attempts to beget children next year so that currently, she does not have the pressure to conceive immediately. She can discuss about this to her in-laws and her husband. She can enhance relaxation by going for shopping, restaurants, movies and resorts with her husband or family members or friends. Jogging, walking and other physical exercises are also relaxation techniques. If she needs to continue commuting long distances, she can enjoy that time by listening to favorite music. Music is a great relaxation technique. Select one theory of personality and use this theory to tell Jennifer how this theory explains his or her situation. Cognitive-learning theory is the most appropriate theory that can be applied to Jennifer based on the case study provided. (Nevid and Rathus, 2005) Jennifer has many stressors in her life. However, she is moving ahead without decreasing her expectations and without faltering, because of which the stress is manifesting as various physical ailments. Jennifer is basically a well-organized and committed person with strong ambitions, specific values and definite expectations. Previously, she was an achiever at work. However, because of stress, she is unable to perform well and this has caused a conflict between her expected performance and current performance at work, home and relationship. She is not able to maintain her self-efficacy and her self-esteem has been undermined. She feels torn between personal life where she has demanding in-laws and father and work place where she needs to perform and keep up her good work record. In what stage of development is Jennifer and what factors about this stage might be affecting her perspective of this situation? Jennifer is in the stage of young adulthood. During this development stage, individuals strive to establish membership in the society. Both society and community are relative to each other. The community of Jennifer is a multifaced one and is filled with household chores, work expectations, expectations from her family and also extended family and also expectations of society n general. New challenges in life include meeting the expectation of her extended family, especially her in-laws and husband, overcoming the grief of her mother's death, taking care of her father whose health is deteriorating, meeting demands at work even in a situation when time is to be diverted between personal life and work. In this age of development, individuals are equipped with several positive aspects like increased physical fitness, lack of chronic age related diseases and increased mental capabilities (Nevid and Rathus, 2005). However, in Jennifer, these are overshadowed because of cumulative stress and lack of adjustment. What relationship factors or considerations might be influencing Michael’s or Jennifer’s problems? Factors contributing to Jennifer's problems include high expectations of self at work even when more responsibilities and commitments have peeped into her life. While her in-laws are expecting her to give them a grand child, her husband is probably expecting her to spend more time with him. Her father wants to be taken care of at home itself and refuses admission to a nursing home. Her mother has deceased and hence there is no help or moral support from her parent's side. Being a perfectionist, Jennifer wants to perfect in every relationship in life. Thus, she is finding it difficult to realign her situation in life and prioritize her relationships. Presently, she has to take care of her father, who is in dire need of help and hence he must be the first priority. Her husband must be her support and hence Jennifer must confide in him her problems and seek his moral support and help. References Curtis, J. (2007). Stress Management. WebMD. Retrieved on 28th January, 2010 from http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-management-topic-overview Nevid, J. S. & Rathus, S. A. (2005). Psychology and the challenges of life: Adjustment in the new millennium (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Read More