The Emotional Correlates of Stressful Events - Literature review Example

All coping behaviours have one overall purpose: that of dealing with the emotional correlates of stressful events and creating a sense of control. Critically discuss this statement with specific reference to counseling practice. Philosophies have taught us that human knowledge and awareness are greatly influenced by their thoughts, beliefs, and expectations; these in turn impact the state of mind and its wellbeing. Immense research and study has been carried out in different streams including psychology, sociology, organisational behaviour and management, humanities etc. Most of these researches have concluded that the dogma of emotional intelligence determines one’s ability to thrive and prosper in their personal and professional lives. Some of these studies have also reported evidences wherein emotional intelligence had a strong impact on human being’s resilience to stress situations (Garg & Rastogi, 2009). Emotional strength is an innate quality that every human possesses in varying proportions, and is impacted by external and internal stimuli that create perceptions of experiences and situations on one’s mind. These perceptions sometimes form the cause for abnormal anxiety that can disrupt one’s mental strength and can lead to anxiety disorders in the form of stress. Retention of specific thoughts is referred to as the cognitive-transactional process in which the person tends to evaluate a specific instance or environment as stressful and taxing on his well-being (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Therapy for such individuals should focus on coping with anxiety emerging out of such specific situations or environments. Lazarus(1982) argued that human cognition works by serially receiving, registering, encoding, storing for the short or long run, and retrieving meaningless bits of information processing (cited Ingram, Miranda & Segal, 1998 p.7). When this cognition is negative in perspective, it leads to depression and distress, which have to be tackled in order to lead a healthy and normal life. Folkman and Lazarus (1980) have defined this tackling process, i.e. coping, as cognitive and behavioural efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate demands (cited by Shaffer & Wiese-Bjornstal 1999; p.43). Human beings are known to possess an inherent capacity to cope with stressful situations that they encounter on a daily basis. Although stressful situations elicit creativity in terms of dealing with the situations in different ways, they also tend to damage psychological and physical health because these situations if encountered on a long-term basis tend to trigger certain harmful physiological reactions in the body. A person’s ability to cope with such situations determines the extent of impact that the stress can produce. Hence, coping ability of human beings vary among different individuals, and in different situations. In order to help people who are unable to cope with stressful situations by themselves, many psychological, clinical, physiological and sociological coping strategies have been formulated by numerous practitioners and researchers. A few coping strategies as categorized by Carver, Scheler and Weintraub (1989) include active coping, restraint coping, social support for instrumental and emotional reasons, acceptance, inclination towards religion and spirituality, denial, behavioural or mental disengagement etc (adopted from Weiten et al, 2008). If the individual is unable to cope, modification of dysfunctional or negative cognitions and beliefs are caused by external agents, i.e. psychotherapists, and this process is referred to as cognitive therapy, founded by Aaron Beck (Nuys, 2008). Other major psychotherapies include Gestalt therapy, psychoanalytic therapy, Adlerian Therapy, Existential Therapy, Person-Centered Therapy, Reality Therapy, and Feminist Therapy (Corey, 2008). All these therapies include counseling sessions either done by professional counselor or facilitated through other members of the family, friends or relatives, as a part of the therapy in addition to other practices. Counselors and practitioners acknowledge and recognize that coping abilities vary among individuals, and so should the strategies. These strategies also vary in terms of pattern, approach and duration depending upon the intensity of stress, mental situation of the patient, psychological record, type of support available, external influencing factors such as social beliefs and customs, etc. In addition to these, cognitive-behavioural therapies and rational emotive therapies are also approaches that have been quite successful in helping people cope with stress (Hofmann, 2007). Moreover, people’s inherent coping abilities as well as their responses to coping strategies can produce positive and/or negative and even other unanticipated outcomes. Therefore, Weiten et al. (2008; p.106) assert that no coping strategy can guarantee a successful outcome. Counseling process more often focuses on treating the symptoms, but have minimal or no control over the causes of those symptoms. Although this aspect of truth is recognized by the counselees, counseling cannot completely guarantee that the individuals will not get withdrawn into the same distressing mental situation when the cause or problem recurs for some reason. Stress management interventions in workplace settings have produced positive results in the tests conducted by Cooper and Sadri (1995) and were spread over duration of three years. This research employed stress counseling procedure on employees of an organisation who attended individual counseling sessions with trained psychologists. The point to note is that such researches do not focus on long term effectiveness of the intervention programs. Moreover, some of the issues related to stress may be created by socioeconomic conditions. Psychotherapeutic approaches are based on concept of targeting the thought process of the individual, but have minimum or no control over surroundings, society and environment; this becomes a limitation in the counseling process. Counseling is more effective in combination with other therapies. For example, Rigotti’s (2002) report on treatment of tobacco use and dependence identifies that both counseling and pharmacotherapy strategies are helpful in causing cessation of smoking among both men and women; however, both these therapies in combination produce better results in shorter span. For counseling to be effective, it has to be provided by trained and skilled counselors. Usually patients are given pharmacotherapy within hospital settings, and availability of a trained counselor could be a challenge. Also, the probability of the attending physician to be trained in counseling skills is also quite low. Rigotti (2002) points out that most successful treatment studies were conducted in people who were self motivated to quit smoking. In people who were not willing to quit smoking, the counseling technique of ‘motivational interviewing’ was suggested; however its success rates were not too high. In such situations, other psychiatric conditions need to be assessed and simultaneously treated. Attempts to assess the co-existing psychiatric conditions could be very tedious. Patients undergoing acute stress and depression have a history of other conditions such as chronic alcohol and/or substance abuse, distressing life events of the past, strong nicotine dependence, social exclusion, lack of confidence, schizophrenia etc. Treatment of such complex psychological disorders requires intensive treatments for longer periods and great commitment from the patient as well as the treating personnel. The approaches used in counseling techniques vary with different individuals and situations. Earlier counselors believed that individuals’ thought processes and behaviour are greatly influenced by the dominant culture of that region. However, this approach had to be changed with growing diversity in populations of the world. Moreover, personnel involved in cognitive counseling methods believed that individuals tend to misinterpret their experiences owing to cultural influences. For example, women of colour in the United States may have different beliefs that may interfere with the counseling approach. Attributed to such possibilities, counselors adopt a combination of cultural and behavioural approaches. For example, Constantine, Greer and Kindaichi (2003) point out that cognitive-behavioural approach that reinforces self-reliance, choice and responsibility may not fit well with cultural beliefs of non-Americans. Counselors are required to explore values and core beliefs of clients in a diversified and multicultural region. In addition, gender-specific values also differ. Awareness of these diversities although will help, the procedure and approach should vary with individuals. For example, making an Asian American understand how their cultural beliefs could be the reason for their situation has to be done only after spending ample time; if done at the beginning of the sessions, the client may feel misunderstood and may distance from counseling process (Corey, 2008). Counseling through humanistic approach focuses on the individual as a sole entity, and tries to help the individual own the responsibility of their actions and equip him/her with skills or habits that help in facing the challenge. However, this approach does not suit women disturbed by sociocultural issues and societal malpractices; for example, African-American, Islamic and Asian women often encounter such challenges. These women may not feel comfortable with too much of verbal interactions as they might find it interfering and intrusive. Coker’s (2004) article illustrates various internal and external factors that determine people’s usage of counseling therapy by African American women. A few factors that withhold these women from going for counseling include their perception of counseling as a social stigma, and perception of self as ‘superwoman’ that enhances fear and stigma towards counseling. On the other hand, acculturation process brings about changes in beliefs and values leading to conflicts between traditional and contemporary values and beliefs for non-native residents. Counselors have the challenge to assess level of acculturation among these people based on place of birth, number of years spent in a different culture, socioeconomic status etc. Moreover, counselors may find it even more difficult to work with newly arriving immigrants. The other issues that may influence the counseling process include existence of family dysfunctions (McEachern & Kenny, 1999) . Corey (2008) points out that counseling job is highly complex; in addition to the process of counseling, it also requires adherence to ethics, codes of conduct, professionalism, and moral and legal obligations attached to counseling. Although trained counselors are aware of the ethical obligations and codes of conduct to be followed, some situations in the counseling process may contain blind spots and distortions of reality that may mislead the clients. Counselors need to have a high degree of self awareness, and must build the capability to recognize such blind spots and vulnerable situations. Counselors need to be aware of their own emotive strengths in order to avoid their emotions permeating or influencing the counseling process. In this regard, Corey (2008; p.38) asserts that counselors need to be aware of their personal traits that may influence the clients, such as the need for control and power, the need to be nurturing and helpful; the need to change others in the direction of their own values; the need for feeling adequate; need to be respected and appreciated. Legal obligations attached to ethical codes also impact the effectiveness of counseling process. Corey (2008;p.39) explained that many practitioners are so anxious about becoming embroiled in a lawsuit that they gear their practices mainly toward fulfilling legal minimums rather than thinking of what is right for their clients. This fear of getting sued will block the counselors’ creativity and hamper conscious awareness of the situation. Ethical decision making is another challenge that counselors constantly face, partly contributed by the codes of conduct formulated by legislation as well as hospital or practice governance. This effort by the government to enhance counseling may actually adversely affect the process and its outcomes. To conduct effective and appropriate counseling while following these codes often requires discreet judgment by the counselors; this also requires good experience in counseling. In conclusion, counseling practice in psychology is meant to help victims of stress to cope with the situation and build an emotionally strong mind. This stream of study has received immense attention in the last century, and has resulted in development of various psychotherapeutic approaches for distinct groups of individuals. On one hand this development may be considered as commendable by practitioners of psychology and psychiatry, and on the other, it is an alarming sign of increasing undesirable events and activities in people’s lives. Although the latter issue may be of interest to the criminal and governmental sectors, its spread and outcomes can be controlled by psychotherapists to a great extent if dealt appropriately. Counseling, from a psychiatric perspective, requires sound expertise and knowledge, and appropriate training and guidance in order to achieve the desired results. However, issues that accompany counseling, or sometimes emerge form specific situations within counseling have always been and continue to be the area of interest for many therapists and researchers. Although psychotherapists cannot control such outcomes, they can ensure maximum contribution to achieve optimum impact by following ethical and legal obligations, acquiring appropriate training, and cultivating the right mindset for the counseling job. References Books: Constantine, M.G, Greer, T.M and Kindaichi, M.M. (2003). Theoretical and Cultural Considerations in Counseling Women of Colour. In Kopala, M and Keitel, M.A’s Handbook of Counseling Women. SAGE: California. Cooper, C.L and Sadri, G. (1995). The Impact of Stress Counseling at Work. In Crandall, R and Perrewe, P.L’s Occupational stress: a handbook. 2nd ed. CRC Press: U.S.A. Corey, G. (2008). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. 8th ed. Cengage Learning EMEA: U.S.A. Ingram, R.E, Miranda, J and Segal, Z.V. (1998). Cognitive vulnerability to depression. New York: Guilford Press. Lazarus, R.S and Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer Publishing Company. McEachern, A.G and Kenny, M.C. (1999). Sexual Abuse in Asian and Pacific-Islander Populations: Current Research and Counseling Implications. In Sandhu, D.S’s (ed.) Asian and Pacific Islander Americans: issues and concerns for counseling and psychotherapy. Nova Publishers: New York. Shaffer, S.M and Wiese-Bjornstal, D.M. (1999). Psychosocial Intervention Strategies in Sports Medicine. In Ray, R and Weise-Bjornstal, D.M’S Counseling in sports medicine. Human Kinetics: U.S.A Weiten, W et al. (2008). Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century. 9th ed. Cengage Learning: U.S.A. Articles and Journals: Coker, A. D. (2004). Counseling African American women: Issues, challenges and interventions strategies. In G.R. Walz, & R. Yep (Eds.), VISTAS: Perspectives on Counseling 2004 (pp. 129-136). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association and Counseling Outfitters/CAPS Press. Retrieved March 10, 2010 from, http://counselingoutfitters.com/vistas/vistas04/13.pdf Garg, P and Rastogi, R. (2009). Emotional Intelligence and Stress Resiliency: A Relationship Study. International Journal of Educational Administration. Vol: 1 No: 1 (2009), pp. 1-16© Research India Publications. Retrieved March 10, 2010 from, http://www.ripublication.com/ijeav1/ijeav1n1_1.pdf Hofmann, S. G. (2007). Cognitive Factors that Maintain Social Anxiety Disorder: a Comprehensive Model and its Treatment Implications. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Vol. 36 Issue 4, p193-209. Retrieved March 10, 2010 from, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2151931/ Nuys, D.V. (2008). An Interview with Judith Beck, Ph.D. on Cognitive Therapy and Weight Loss. MentalHelp.net. Accessed March 10, 2010, from, http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=28542&cn=219 Rigotti, N.A. (2002). Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence. New England Journal of Medicine. Vol: 346, No.7. pp: 506-512. Accessed March 8, 2010 from, http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/cd42/rigotti.pdf Read More