Running head: EMOTIONS AND STRESS: A PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION 1

Emotions and Stress: Personal and Professional Reflection

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EMOTIONS AND STRESS: A PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION 2

Emotions and Stress: A Personal and Professional Reflection

Physicians alongside lay people, including me, a psychology scholar, have for a long

time believed that the state of health of a person is highly influenced by their state of mind. Also,

according to our studies and course books, there is the extant notion that emotional dispositions

as well as severe acute and chronic stress reactions bear a long term negative impact on ones

personal health (Suls, Davidson, & Kaplan, 2010). Although such beliefs are compelling,

intuitive, and widely shared, convincing evidence has not been found on solidifying proofs.

However, as seen in class discussions and lectures, there is an accumulation of evidence pointing

to the idea that negative emotions and states of the mind, and intense stress levels have a high

correlation, and in togetherness, they are known to cause deleterious effects on personal well-

being. Conversely, a positive state of the mind will have a beneficial effect on the physical well-

being and the health of an individual. There still lies a challenge in regard to proving that

positive mind states bear positive effects on the health of a person. As a reflective paper, it is

crucial to look into the extant literature on emotions and stress and the existing correlations, a

relation of the topic from a professional perspective, a personal perspective, and how the topic

can shape the future, both personally and professionally. Studying emotions and stress as well as

their existing correlations can help in the enrichment of behavioural medicine study, therefore

going a long way in shaping the advancement of psychological understanding by practitioners on

how differences in emotional dispositions at an individual level may relate to certain ailments, or

resistance to the same.

Extant Literature on Emotions and Stress

In considering how various stress responses and emotional reactions work in tandem with

each other to influence the health of an individual, it is crucial to first look into the existing

connections between the body and mind that are in support of the relationship between health
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and behaviour. Suls, Davidson and Kaplan (2010) frame the term behaviour as encompassing

any overt individual characteristics, states of emotion, subjective experiences, as well as any

other states of the brain that may be directly associated with them. Easily put, our innate life,

including our emotions, thoughts or other reactions that are subjective in nature are very much

part of our inherent behaviour, just as much as our observable behaviour is.

As Waugh (2013) puts it, emotions can be viewed either constructed partially in a social

context, totally constructed socially, or natural. However, the characteristics that define emotions

do not lie so much on their nature, but on the capability of individuals to bring out their emotions

without repressing them. Conversely, stress, a concept dating back to the mid 20th Century in

defining the term biologically, is mostly viewed as a subset of emotion. As such, stress can be

defined as the emotional experience that is usually accompanied by foreseeable psychological,

behavioural, and biochemical changes (Waugh, 2013; Arsenio & Loria, 2014). During the

industrial revolution, stress was perceived as a social problem, mostly emanating from poor

working conditions, as well as an individual problem that required solutions at a personal level

to manage it. Up until the 1970s, stress became an increasingly popular topic or concept outside

the realms of science, although most work regarding it was often disregarded or termed as

controversial.

Extant literature form research studies as well as stress reports from the American

Psychiatric Association (APA) show that approximately 48% of Americans attribute significant

levels of negative impacts in their lives to be caused by stress; while over 70% admit that they

regularly experience psychological and physical stress symptoms (Beiter et al., 2015; Suls,

Davidson, & Kaplan, 2010; Waugh, 2013). Unmanaged stress levels can become chronic,

leading to other health problems that include insomnia, chronic pains, obesity, weak immune

systems, and high blood pressure. Actually research studies have linked high levels of stress to
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the development of major illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders, and various heart

conditions. Despite a significant coverage of stress management by the media, only 17% of

Americans reportedly admit to be effectively managing their stress levels (Beiter et al., 2015).

As such, extant literature helps us re-define stress as way of tackling it in a more effective

manner: by terming it as an accumulation of distressing emotions, which come in a number of

varieties. Basically, as Arsenio and Loria (2014) posit, the stress faced by an individual as well

as the problem associated with it all come from various emotions, including being

misunderstood, denied, ignored, or suppressed. As such researchers have found out that when

personal distressing emotions are not taken care of productively, the give rise to the most

common personal issues such as unending relationship conflicts, substance abuse, overeating,

mismanaging money, and in most cases, poor health.

Another approach in defining the extant relationship between emotions and stress is by

looking into personal resilience. The term resilience, which is considered to a be a metallurgy

term, means the ability of a metallic object to bear stress (be twisted or bent), and eventually

rebounding to its former shape or form when the deforming force or stress is withdrawn. In

psychological terms, resilience is thus seen as the personal ability to withstand high levels of

stress and be able to bounce back to their original form or functionality when the stress is

subdued (Kent, Davis, & Reich, 2013). Positive emotions that happen during periods of stress

are not just unprecedented happy moments, but are a crucial show of resilience. A study

conducted by Kent, Davis, and Reich (2013) involved measuring undergraduate trait levels of

resilience before the 9/11 attacks and their responses after the attacks and found out that students

who showed higher pre-attack traits of resilience showed a lower incidence of post-attack stress

and depression symptoms, and were characterized by mediated incidences of positive emotions.

As suggested by Waugh (2013), the extant positive emotions in people who are more resilient do
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not necessarily mean that they have fewer negative emotions; it means that in their stressful

situations, they have a co-occurrence of negative and positive emotions which may be due to the

ability of such people to adapt their emotive responses towards the situation at hand.

A Personal Reflection Regarding Emotions and Stress

I can relate vastly with the topic of emotions and stress from my childhood experiences

to the current day as an adult. During my upbringing, I recall facing the challenge of having to

constantly deal with stress due to domestic issues. While I have been brought up in a rather well-

up family, I can attest that the situation was not always the same during my early to mid-

childhood days. My parents would constantly argue about everything which often occurred in

my presence. As a result, this continued arguments and hulling of insults at each other would

make me feel deserted, terrified, and I would sometime harbour a huge feeling of hatred towards

my dad who would mostly flee our home after long bouts of arguments with my mother, leaving

us alone for significant periods of time. I did not understand why the parents of my colleagues at

school would seem so happy, dropping off and picking my friends together while I was left to

take the bus. The feelings of anger and loneliness made me seclude myself from my colleagues

during most occasions such as swimming lessons, football, and the like. My heightened

emotions also meant that I would take almost everything very personally, especially those small

jokes people tell to each other while in class or while waiting to go home. However, as I grew up

into my teenage years, and with my parents amicable reconciliation, I was able to learn how to

manage my stress levels by controlling my emotions through the help of a psychiatrist.

I chose the topic on Emotions and Stress because I feel that I have a personal as well as

professional relation to it, through my childhood experiences to my current studies towards

being a physical therapist. From what I have learnt through my personal life and studies, I feel I
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can make a resounding difference as a physical therapist for people who have stressful time

period during their recovery after grievous accidents.

A Professional Reflection

As a student looking into mastering in the field physical therapy, the topic on Emotions

and Stress is highly significant as it touches base on the issues that I am looking forward to be

tackling as a professional which is helping people recover after life-changing physical injuries. A

good example of my professional reflection with this topic is an episode that my friend, Jasper,

once shared with me. Jasper, a psychology major, was doing an internship as a psychology

trainee. His lead trainer allowed him to have sessions with some of the clients, while trying to

get to the bottom of their stress-related issues. In one particular interesting session, he was with a

patient called Alison. Alison was facing some stress management issues. As she put it, she was

putting a lot of hard work in her job, constantly having severe headaches, being stressed out, a

constant feeling of exhaustions even with long hours of sleep, and weight gain around her waist,

all of which are classical symptoms of stress. She also highlighted a rise in some behavioural

problems which are associated with stress such as picking up fights with her husband, and

increasing her wine intake. He advised Alison to keep track of the emotions she felt for a week.

During the next session, she actually revealed how envious and angry she had been for a while

since she decided to take on some extra work at her job, which turned out that she was actually

doing her supervisors job while he enjoyed the perks of a higher salary and a title. By being

specific and highlighting what she felt exactly, Alison was able to progressively cope and solve

her distressing emotions. Actually, by just labelling each emotion she felt as a contributor to

stress, she was able to be achieve lower stress levels.

As a major in physical therapy, I can relate to Alisons stress-related predicaments; once

I become a certified practitioner, Alisons case will help me understand the emotions shown by
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people while struggling to recover maybe from an accident that left them partially maimed. The

journey to physical recovery can be quite stressful to a patient especially when they do not see

any anticipated outcomes from their physical therapy sessions. As such by applying the

knowledge instilled in me by my colleague on the effective ways of dealing with stressful

situations that patients face by outlining their emotions and tackling them, I can say I am now

better positioned as a physical therapy major for my future practice. Therefore, the topic helped

me realize the intricate relationship between emotions and stress and how I will best help others

tackle such issues as a future physical therapist.

The study discussions, lectures, book readings, and other extant literature have

underlined the intuitive relationship that exists between stress and emotions, while highlighting

the most practical approaches in dealing with such issues from different individual perspectives.

With the case of Alison, my personal, and my future professional life as well, I have learnt that

the most basic step in dealing with stress is by labelling the different emotions that one is

personally feeling, and by doing that, one is in a better position to begin the problem-solving

process and ultimately change ones feelings towards any subject, such as a positive change in

recovering from a physical injury. Conclusively, the ability to handle ones emotions is crucial in

managing personal problems and stress levels, thereby giving one the chance to effect an

overhauling change in life by intricately adjusting ones daily choices.

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References

Arsenio, W. F., & Loria, S. (2014). Coping with negative emotions: Connections with

adolescents academic performance and stress. The Journal of genetic

psychology, 175(1), 76-90.

Beiter, R., Nash, R., McCrady, M., Rhoades, D., Linscomb, M., Clarahan, M., & Sammut, S.

(2015). The prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of

college students. Journal of affective disorders, 173, 90-96.

Kent, M., Davis, M. C., & Reich, J. W. (Eds.). (2013). The resilience handbook: Approaches to

stress and trauma. Routledge.

Suls, J. M., Davidson, K. W., & Kaplan, R. M. (2010). Handbook of health psychology and

behavioral medicine. New York: Guilford Press.

Waugh, C. E. (2013). The regulatory power of positive emotions in stress: A temporal functional

approach. The resilience handbook: Approaches to stress and trauma, 74-75.