“Careers in Environmental Psychology” by Conaway

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Practical stress reduction
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

Environmental psychology refers to the study that deals with the relationship existing between the behavior of human beings and the environments in which they operate and how the human behaviors and the environments affect each other. It seeks to find the answers to such questions as to why some spaces are comfortable while others are uncomfortable to operate in. The study also seeks to find the solution about the way the environment is supposed to be improved to bring about stress reduction in order to realize higher efficiency and bring down the level of accidents (Conaway, 2000). This article is going to look at what stress is, what causes it, and how one can try to minimize or avoid this stress. The influence of stress in the field of environmental psychology will also be considered.

Practical stress reduction

Stress can be defined as a state that is unpleasant, which is aroused by emotions and physiological activities that people go through in circumstances they perceive as a threat to their comfort. Stress stems from the peoples’ perception of circumstances or situations and this is the reason as to why people see things or situations differently. Peoples’ system of beliefs, their background, and personalities vary from one person to the other implying that their reactions and the way they perceive things is as well different. However, something that is common among all the people is that excessive stress affects their health. If this stress is not controlled in an appropriate manner it can result into big problems. By one getting exposed to chronic stress, this can lead to physical illness as well as mental illness (Woolrich, 2004).

Stress tends to have two effects on the human body. The first effect is that people who go through stress may respond to this by undertaking activities that are destructive to their health such as drug abuse and alcohol taking, poor eating habits among other behaviors. The next effect is that stress may bring about changes in the immune system in a direct manner through changes in hormones. When there is perception by a person of a situation as being stressful, his or her body goes through several adjustments that bring up the arousal of emotions and physiological activities. This in turn brings about the production of the adrenaline and norepinephrine hormones. In response to this, the rate of the heart beat goes up, the tension in muscles goes up, likewise the blood pressure goes up, and eventually there is the diversion of the flow of blood from the skin together with the internal organs to the brain as well as to the muscles. This series of reactions lead to the energizing of the body to either face the threat or to run away from the threat.

According to Woolrich (2004), there is a three-stage model of stress response proposed by Selye and the three stages include alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. The alarm stage refers to the general condition in which there is emotional and physiological arousal in the course of the first reaction of the body to the stressor. The resistant stage refers to the stage in which the body gets accustomed to the stressor and goes on to resist this stressor with a rising degree of arousal (physiological). If the case remains persistent for a lengthy period and there is overreaction by the body in a chronic way, resistance does not succeed and there is moving of the body to the next stage, which is the exhaustion stage. This is the stage in which the body becomes prone to diseases. Such diseases may include cancer, hypertension, chronic pain complications, and coronary heart disease among other diseases and complications.

There are several ways in which the above conditions can be avoided. One of them is eliminating the consumption of caffeine. Another way is taking nutritional supplements which include mineral salts and vitamins. More so, the affected person is supposed to carry out physical activities and this proves to be among the best ways of stress management. Such activities include cardiovascular exercise coupled with other exercises such as taking a walk on various occasions within a week. More so, there can be carrying out of the bodywork such as massage that plays a vital role in relaxing the muscles and bringing down stress.

Conclusion

Human beings respond both in a conscious and unconscious manner to the environment in which they operate. The environment, be it a manmade environment or a natural one, has an intense consequence on productivity, feelings, behaviors, and on health issues in general. The main objective of the environmental psychology is to come up with solutions to the problems concerning the interaction between human beings and the environment and also to come up with, manage, offer protection, and carry out the restoration of those environments which support appropriate behavior. Understanding the ways of stress reduction, as looked at in this article, helps in realizing this objective. Stress is acquired by human beings from the environment in which they operate and having the knowledge of environmental psychology plays a pivotal role in dealing with this issue.

Reference

Conaway, A. (2000). Careers in environmental psychology. Web.

Woolrich, T. (2004). Practical stress reduction. New Times Naturally!

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“Careers in Environmental Psychology” by Conaway

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