Abstract
The aim of this study is the investigation of the impact of stress of Portuguese subjects in situations of economic insufficiency and unemployment on executive function and quality of life and the coping strategies and resilience skills used. The sample consists of 41 participants. The psychometric instruments used are validated for Portuguese population, measure (perceived) stress, coping, material deprivation, resilience and quality of life, defined by World Health Organization. Executive function has been evaluated through performances at Stroop and Berg tasks. It has been concluded that, in this population, resilience skills and active coping strategies are positively correlated with quality of life. Quality of life is negatively correlated with material deprivation. Active coping strategies are supported by adequate executive function, which neurobiological substrate is dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex. Not active coping strategies correlate negatively with cognitive flexibility, suggesting the presence of a deficit at infero-lateral prefrontal cortex.
Highlights
Lazarus and Folkman (1984) [1] define the psychological stress as “a particular relation between the person and his/her involvement appraised by the person as taxing or excessive in relation to his/her resources, endangering his/her well-being.” On this evaluation, and according to these authors, “cognitive appraisal can be more understood as the process of categorizing the stress encounter, and its various facets, with respect to their importance to the well-being”
They emphasize three major potential outcomes of the primary appraisal, which provide an initial classification of the implications for the adaptation to person’s circumstances: they can be appraised as irrelevant to his/her well-being, if they not relate to the needs and objectives of the person; they can be appraised as benign and positive, if they are evaluated as reassuring or incrementing the person’s well-being; or they can be appraised as stressful if the needs and objectives of the person are implicated in the situation in a way that exceeds the personal resources, being these appraisals which result in a reaction to stress, that mobilize the person to respond to the situation, evoked by stress, through coping
This research focused on the impact of the economic insufficiency and unemployment in quality of life, as defined by World Health Organization
Summary
Lazarus and Folkman (1984) [1] define the psychological stress as “a particular relation between the person and his/her involvement appraised by the person as taxing or excessive in relation to his/her resources, endangering his/her well-being.” On this evaluation, and according to these authors, “cognitive appraisal can be more understood as the process of categorizing the stress encounter, and its various facets, with respect to their importance to the well-being”. Appraising coping resources as insufficient, one will realize his/her situation as stressful, and this stress evaluation results in negative emotional states When very intense, these same states can directly contribute to the triggering of affective psychiatric disorders, and trigger behavioral or physiological responses that put a person at risk for physical and/or psychiatric disease/s. The model provides for the possibility that environmental requirements may put the person at risk for disease, even when the evaluation does not result in stress perception nor negative emotional responses In this model, they are identified two feedback loops, regarding the possibility that an affective state, associated with negative emotions (e.g., depression),can vies stress measurements, as well as the possibility of attribution of physiological activation to a stressor agent, when this is determined by physical exercise or the action of toxic psychoactive substances. Existential aloneness and self-reliance refer to the awareness that each person’s life path is unique and faced in solitude, getting the person confident on his/her ability to depend essentially in him/herself
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