Pet Massage

Massaging your pets can provide stress relief for you and your pets

We have known for a long time that massage can be very beneficial. In particular, getting a massage can help people relieve their stress. What many people do not realize, however, is that massaging their pets can be stress relieving too, not only for them but also for their pets. Research has show that petting a dog reduces the heart rate of the person and the dog. Research also has shown that it prevents the elevation of blood cortisol levels in the pet, an indicator of stress.

According to Amy Marder, VMD, massages can be very calming and soothing for pets and their owners. Dr. Marder is a clinical assistant professor at the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and the vice president of Behavioral Medicine and Companion Animal Services at the ASPCA Headquarters in New York City. She urges that if you decide to try using massage on your pets, you should first have your pets examined by a veterinarian. A veterinarian would be able to help you find the right places to massage on your pets, so you do not hurt them and they do not bite or scratch you in return.

Several different kinds of massages can be used. Regardless of the type of massage, however, Dr. Marder emphasizes that you should always let yourself be guided by your pet's reactions, paying particular attention to the eyes. You should also never force massage on pets. When they are done, they are done.

If you are interested in learning how to massage your pets, one book that Dr. Marder recommends is The Healing Touch: The Proven Massage Program for Cats and Dogs by Michael W. Fox, DSc, PhD. (For you convenience, this book is available through Stress Less. Please click here for more information.)

Source: Marder, A. (1999). Healthy pet. Prevention, 51(8), 165-166, 168, 170-171.

Social Support and Stress in Women With Breast Cancer

As research typically shows, in a recent study by researchers from Stanford University and Yale University, increased social support predicted decreased psychological distress. Of particular interest, however, was the prediction of social support from psychological distress and the relations between these two variables over time.

Women with breast cancer and their partners completed questionnaires at the time of surgery and 3 and 13 months afterward. The participants indicated that both social support and psychological distress seemed to decrease over time, and the difference between the patients' and their partners' judgments of the amount of social support available increased over time. Furthermore, although increased social support predicted decreased psychological distress, the relation between these two variables was circular. Psychological distress also predicted social support. The more psychological distress patients experienced, the less social support they received from their partners.

The findings from this study suggest that, although social support may reduce psychological distress, psychological distress itself may inhibit the likelihood of even receiving it in the first place.

Source: Moyer, A., & Salovey, P. (1999). Predictors of social support and psychological distress in women with breast cancer. Journal of Health Psychology, 4, 177-191.

Cognitive Styles and Depression

Negative thinking patterns increase vulnerability to depression

According to a recent review of research by researchers from Temple University and the University of Wisconsin, purely biological explanations for depression are insufficient. The finding that negative cognitive styles, which are basically patterns of thought that are typically negative in nature (e.g., pessimism), increase the risk of becoming depressed is the first demonstration of a psychological vulnerability for depression.

Unlike biological explanations, cognitive explanations for depressions focus on individual differences in responses to stressful events. According to hopelessness theory, people who think of negative events as though they persist over time and relate to other aspects of themselves, blow the consequences of the events out of proportion, and see the events as evidence of personal flaws are more likely to become depressed. Similarly, according to Beck's theory of depression, people have a certain types of dysfunctional attitudes, such as believing that their self-worth depends on being perfect or on approval from others, are more likely to become depressed.

The studies that have been conducted to test the predictions made by these and other related theories have provided considerable support for these notions. More generally, the findings from these studies suggest that the way in which people think may influence their mental and physical health.

Source: Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., & Francis, E. L. (1999) Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 128-132.

Strategies for Improving Mental Control in Depression

Recent research has shown that trying to mentally "run away" from unwanted thoughts (i.e., thought suppression) can actually make them more of a problem. People who are depressed are bombarded with what is often an overwhelming slew of negative thoughts that they would like to get rid of. How can people who are depressed take care of such thoughts without ending up making them worse in the process?

In a recent review, researchers from the University of Miami and the University of Texas at San Antonio offer several strategies for improving mental control over such thoughts. They conclude that the most effective strategies involve preventing or changing the natural tendency for people who are depressed to seek out thoughts that signal mental control failure. 

One effective strategy is to change the goal of mental control from trying not to think about unwelcome thoughts (e.g., trying not to think about being sad) to trying to think about welcome thoughts (e.g. trying to think about being happy). 

A second effective strategy is to challenge unwanted thoughts using techniques that can be learned through cognitive therapy. 

A third effective strategy is to use acceptance-based methods, which essentially involve allowing oneself to experience both positive and negative aspects of concepts in the absence of any attempts to modify them, evaluate them, or get red of them.

Source: Beevers, C. G., Wenzlaff, R. M., Hayes, A. M., & Scott, W. D. (1999). Depression and the ironic effects of thought suppression: Therapeutic strategies for improving mental control. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 6, 133-148.

Stress and Happiness

Tension and coping ability are among the personality traits most highly associated with happiness

What makes people happy? Psychologist seriously began trying to answer this question in the 1970s by focusing on the role of demographic factors, such as variables like age and socioeconomic status. More recently, they have shifted most of their attention to the role of personality traits like extra-version (i.e., positive emotionality) and neuroticism (i.e., negative emotionality) as the primary determinant of happiness.

Kristina DeNeve, PhD, from the University of Utah recently reviewed the research findings on the relation between happiness and 137 personality traits. Two personality traits highly relevant to stress, tension and coping ability, were among the eight personality traits that were identified as those most highly associated with happiness. Tension refers to the tendency to experience negative emotions, for example, in response to a stressor. Coping ability, referred to specifically as hardiness in this review, refers to the tendency to cope positively with stressors. The other six personality traits of the eight were repressive-defensiveness (the tendency to avoid threatening information), trust, emotional stability, desire for control, extraversion, and locus of control-chance (the tendency to think that events occur by chance alone). Of all the personality traits examined, repressive-defensiveness was most highly associated with happiness.

Thus, regarding the relevance of stress for happiness, more happiness is related to having a personality characterized by coping positively with stressors and lacking feelings of tension in response to them

Source: DeNeve, K. M. (1999). Happy as an extraverted clam? The role of personality for subjective well-being. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 141-144.

Stress and the Familiarity of Support Providers

Social support is only helpful from people you know

Researchers at Bowling Green State University recently published a pair of studies that clarify one of the circumstances in which social support is helpful for people in stressful situations. Their studies emphasize the importance of the people providing social support. The people providing social support in their studies were not people who knew the participants. They were complete strangers. 

Unlike other research, in which social support was provided by people who the participants knew or had a reasonable opportunity to get acquainted with, the presence of the other person either did not provide any stress relief.

Participants in the studies were asked to prepare and deliver a speech that they were told would be videotaped and evaluated by experts. Depending on the condition, another person was also in the room with the participants to evaluate. In some conditions, the other person also provided social support. Across all the conditions in both studies, the presence of the other person did not change the participants' bodily stress reactions (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate) or self-reported level of stress.

Evidently, for social support to be a source of stress relief, the people providing the support need to be people who are familiar to the person experiencing stress. In these studies, if the support from the other person actually did provide any benefit, it was probably covered up by the additional stress prompted by the other person's role as an evaluator.

Source: Anthony, J. L., & O'Brien, W. H. (1999). An evaluation of the impact of social support manipulations on cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory stressors. Behavioral Medicine, 25, 78-87.

Racism

Stressful psychological, social, and physiological consequences for African Americans

A team of researchers from Wayne State University, the National Institutes of Health, Morehouse College, and the University of Michigan recently developed a model of how perceived racism, the subjective experience of prejudice or discrimination, leads to various psychological, social, and physiological stress responses among African Americans. Although the model is unique in that it deals specifically with perceived racism of African Americans, it is based on a well-known model of stress and coping proposed by Lazarus and Folkman in 1984.

According to the model, actions by others can be perceived as racist, which can lead to psychological and physiological stress responses, and over time, to physical and mental health problems if attempts at coping are unsuccessful. Additionally, the model shows that a variety of factors can influence the extent to which actions by others are perceived as racist, such as skin tone, socioeconomic status (e.g., education, income), self-esteem, sense of control, and expression or suppression of anger.

The researches comment that the model could probably be expanded to represent other ethnic groups.

Source: Clark, R., Anderson, N. B., Clark, V. R., Williams, D R. (1999). Racism as a stressor for African Americans: A biopsychosocial model. American Psychologist, 54, 805-816.