Social Psychology in the

Current World:
Dealing with adversity and
achieving a happy life
Wu Shin Ling, PhD
 Lecture Overview
Well-being
Health
Stress and coping
Happiness
Health and Well-being
 Health Psychology
The application of psychology to the promotion of physical health
and the prevention and treatment of illness.
But isn’t physical illness a purely biological event?
Health is a joint product of biological, psychological, and social
factors.
 Obesity
Why there are so much obese people?
Social conditions contributed to obesity:
◦ people walk less
◦ do not eat sit-down family meals as often as in the past
◦ Unhealthy diet: Eat higher-calorie meals
Can internet sites help people lose weight?
Cited from NST, 13 March 2018
List of banned food that
cannot be sold in
Malaysia government
school canteens.
Stress and Health
 Stress
An unpleasant state of arousal that arises when we perceive that the
demands of an event threaten our ability to cope effectively.
Subjective appraisal of the situation determines:
◦ How we will experience the stress
◦ What coping strategies we will use
Appraisal is the process by which people make judgments about the
demands of potentially stressful events and their ability to meet those
demands.
Coping is an effort to reduce stress.
The Stress and Coping Process
 Discussion
What causes stress?
What make you feel stressful?

catastrophes, major life events, and daily hassles

What Causes Stress?
 Crises and Catastrophes
Stressors: Anything that causes stress.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A person experiences
enduring physical and psychological symptoms after an extremely
stressful event.

Source: http://www.stopfryingyourbrain.com/ptsd-help/
 Major Life Events
Change itself may cause stress by forcing us to adapt to new
circumstances.
Is change, positive or negative, necessarily harmful?
◦ No support that positive “stressors” are as harmful as negative
stressors.
◦ Impact of change depends on person and how change is
interpreted.
 Microstressors:
The Hassles of Everyday Life
Most common source of stress arises from the daily hassles that
irritate us.
◦ e.g., environmental factors
“Microstressors” place a constant strain on us.
◦ The accumulation of daily hassles contributes more to illness than
do major life events
◦ Interpersonal conflicts are the most upsetting of our daily
stressors.
How Does Stress Affect
the Body?
 The General Adaptation Syndrome
Three-stage bodily response to stress
◦ Alarm
◦ Resistance
◦ Exhaustion
Stress may be a short-term reaction to a threat, but over time it
compromises health and well-being.
◦ Typically, immune system will fail after prolonged stress
The General Adaptation Syndrome
Pathways From Stress to Illness
 Discussion
How do you cope with stress?
Discuss in group, what are the ways to cope with stress effectively?
Ways of Coping with
Stress
Ways of Coping with Stress
 Coping Strategies
Problem-focused coping
Emotion-focused coping
Proactive coping
 Problem-Focused Coping
In dealing with essential tasks, it is better to confront and control
than to avoid.
Why is it not always a beneficial approach?
◦ Can be physiologically burdensome
◦ Can lead to development of an over-controlling, stress-inducing
behavior
◦ Problem-focused coping can sometimes redirect attention to
physical and cognitive efforts instead of allowing individuals to
access deep emotions
 Emotion-Focused Coping
Positive Emotions
◦ Broaden the outlook
◦ Build personal resources (e.g., how to stay calm, focused)
Shutting down and trying to deny or suppress the unpleasant
thoughts and feelings. Is this effective?
◦ Distraction can be an adaptive form of avoidance coping.
◦ Concealing one’s innermost thoughts and feelings can be
physiologically taxing.
 Emotion-Focused Coping:
Opening Up
Two aspects to opening up as an emotional means for coping with
stress:
◦ One must acknowledge and understand one’s emotional reactions
to important events.
◦ One must express those inner feelings to themselves and others.
 Proactive Coping: Social Support
Do close family ties, lovers, buddies, online support groups, and
relationships at work/school serve as a buffer against stress?
• Social support has therapeutic effects on our well-being  lowers
blood pressure, lessens the secretion of stress hormones, and
strengthens immune responses.
Quality of a person’s relationships
Perceived availability
• Those who believe that ample support is available when needed
cope more effectively.
Proactive Coping: The Religious Connection
Religion provides an important source of social and emotional
support for many.
◦ Only 15-20% of the world’s population have no religious affiliation.
Is there a link between religiosity and health?
◦ Research is suggestive that there is, but not yet conclusive
◦ A religious way of life is associated with physiological benefits,
health, and longevity, but the correlations and causal is yet to be
determined.
The Pursuit of
Happiness
 Subjective Well-Being
What, exactly, is happiness?
In general, people who are happy also have cheerful moods, high
self-esteem, a sense of personal control, more memories of positive
as opposed to negative events, and optimism about the future
What predicts happiness?
◦ Social relationships
◦ Employment status
◦ Physical health
 Materialism and Wealth
Are people happier with espresso coffee, iphone, sportcar?
◦ American: twice as rich but not happy (divorce rate & teen suicide
rate has doubled)
Are rich people happier?
◦ Some correlation between national wealth & well-being has been
found
◦ Low income countries – basic needs in threatening state
 Can Money Buy Happiness?
Perceptions of wealth are not absolute but relative to certain
standards  other people and our own past
Social comparison theory
• Compare themselves to others and feel contented or deprived
depending on how they fare in this comparison
Adaptation-level theory
• People use their own recent past as a basis of comparison  our
satisfaction with the present depends on the level of success to
which we had achieved
 Emerging Science on How to Increase
Happiness
The pursuit of happiness is a powerful human motive that is still
not fully understood  trying to figure out how people can produce
sustainable increases in subjective well-being
If you had money to spend, would you rather use it to purchase an
experience (tickets to a concert, theater, travel, dinner, or spa) or a
material object (clothing, jewelry, a computer, or electronic
equipment)?
Other ways to boost happiness levels: write gratitude letters, savor
a happy memory, engage in acts of kindness
 What Yields More Happiness:
Experiences or Material Objects?
 People in
general said
that the
experiences
they purchased
made them
happier than
the material
objects
 Summary
 Well-being
• Obesity
• Stress
• Causes of stress
• Ways of coping with stress
• Coping strategies: Problem-focused coping; Emotion-focused
coping; Proactive coping
• Happiness