Territory as a coping mechanism

STRESSED? Tired? Having trouble focusing? Keep calm and use coping skills! Coping is a intervention that helps us deal with unwanted, difficult and attention sucking environments.

DID YOU KNOW? Territories are not only for wolves and lions. Human’s also have territories. Human territories are affected my both biological and social factors. These territories can be used positively to help you cope with mental stressors.

SIZE of territories vary! From country borders, to state lines, to city streets, to counties, to neighborhoods, to your home, to your room, to your favorite spot at the dinner table. 

A territory is anywhere, a physical place, that you feel comfortable in and aren’t worried about running into that guy who asked for your number after class last week. In your territory, there is decreased need to be constantly alert because you know what to expect and can easily make predictions. Being in your own territory allows your mind to relax more than it would with the same external stressors in an alternate environment.

My favorite example of territory is my own bedroom. When I’m in my room, it provides a place of refuge and retreat. I have almost* full control over the flow of information in and out of my room (*my 4 housemates sometimes think my room is their room). I can control whether my room is private with the door locked or semi-private with the door open for visitors. My bedroom is familiar and easy to understand. Everything makes sense because I put it there.

Besides going to your own personal territory, there are other ways to cope with daily stressors. Try walking in nature, finding a supportive group of friends of family, practicing yoga or meditation, or setting yourself up for success by actively seeking a quiet, distraction free environment to study or think!

Stress: The Life of a College Student

If you go to college, odds are you probably already know how stressful college can be. You have to make sure you don’t miss the deadline for that big essay due next week while also completing your daily Spanish homework, which we all know is never one small task.

And then there is finals week. The absolute worst week of the year. We spent our entire day in the library trying to prepare for our first exam and as soon as we get done taking it, we go home and start preparing for the next. It is a viscous cycle. So it really isn’t a surprise that college students are most at risk for getting sick during finals week. With stress comes affects to our physical and mental wellness. Both acute and chronic stress weaken the body’s immune system.

But wait…what is the difference between acute and chronic stress you ask? Acute stress is had in short periods of time and can often be a result of stressor sequences such as losing your job. As a student, I experience acute stress when I have an upcoming presentation to give in front of the class. I am not the best public speaker so I usually end up stuttering or forgetting what I am meaning to say. This is stress that will only last a short period of time and then go away once my presentation is done. Chronic stress on the other hand is had over a long period of time. A chronic stressor that affects me is the fear of not being able to pay off my student loans after college. This is something that I cannot solve right now and has been a stressor in my life for at least three years now. Eventually, once I do pay off all my loans (hopefully!) then the stressor will go away, but I will experience chronic stress until that happens. The symptoms of acute and chronic stress are also very different. Chronic stress produces symptoms that are unnoticeable such as raised fluid retention, fat storage, and blood lipids. Acute stress symptoms are much more noticeable raised heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension.

When talking about stress, it is also important to point out that this is not the same thing as attentional fatigue. Thinking that these two terms represent the same thing is an easy mistake to make. The truth is that they are actually very different although they both require coping and adaptation. Attentional fatigue is caused by overuse of directed attention where stress is caused by either external or internal stressors. External stressors are physical and social stressors and internal are perceived and cognitive stressors. College students experience attention fatigue when they try to multi task and do homework for a long period of time without taking breaks or task switching. Our stress is caused by stressors such as the need to have good grades and a good social life (which it is also very hard to have both).

So how can we relieve all this stress that we have? One way is to do something that you enjoy that will take your mind off what is stressing you out. You could go for a walk around campus or watch a show on Netflix (although try not to binge watch the entire show because that will only lead to more stress once you realize you spent your whole night watching Netflix when you could have been studying). There are also relaxation techniques that can be done such as taking deep breathes or closing your eyes and imagining you are in a preferred environment. These stress reduction methods take little time so they serve as great breaks from studying. Exercising is also a great way to relieve stress. Whether it is going for a run or taking a yoga class, the exercise will relieve tension in your muscles and keep your mind free of anxiety.

Stress can have a large negative effect on our bodies both physically and mentally. It is important that we do not let acute or chronic stress ruin our lives. We have to find the positives in every situation and remember that we are at this university for a reason, and everything will work itself out eventually.

References:

American Psychological Association. (2011). Stress in the workplace: Survey summary. Online publication. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/phwa-survey-summary.pdf.

Kaplan S., & Kaplan J. (1982). Stress and the failure of preference: Introduction. In S. Kaplan & J. Kaplan (Eds.), Humanscape: Environments For People (194-199). Michigan: Ulrich's Book

Just Breath… The fight against stress 

Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.  Face it, your life is crazy.  There is always something to be done or someone to see.  Sleep, downtime, relaxation is pushed aside for the “more important” things in life.  Time is your most important asset because you can never get it back.  With limited time comes an onslaught of stress.  Everyone has felt stress.  Sometimes it is easy to pinpoint the culprit while other times it seems impossible. 

Stress can be sorted in to two different categories. Acute stress is easy to identify and is noticeable right away.  It stems from short term events like a speech, exam, or interview.  Butterflies and jitters overtake your body because of the adrenaline coursing through your veins. Next, we have chronic stress.  Chronic stress is difficult to identify and stop.  It occurs over a long period of time and can be attributed to many different things. Uncertainty can be a key component in a prolonged stress.  Not only does chronic stress slow your brain down but it can physically harm your body.  Metabolism may change, immune system weakens, and cortisol is released.

There is a simple way that stress comes to fruition and how it impairs your performance. Below, you can see the course that leads to subpar functioning 

Task Demand > Decline in Directed Attention > Impaired Performance > Stress Response

Stressor > Stress Response > Decline in Directed Attention > Impaired Performance 

Although stress seems and feels bad.  It has been built over time as an adaptive improvement.  Acute stress brought on the idea of fight or flight.  This can be advantageous in that it forces us to act.  Chronic stress was originally developed as a function to deal with long term famine.  Our metabolism shift allows us to store more fat.

How do we counteract both long term and short term stress?

Breath.  It seems so simple because we are always doing it.  In order to truly breath, one must focus completely on breathing.  Find an adequate environment for you. It could be outdoors, in your car, or even on your couch.  Next comes the easy part, focusing on your breath.  Really focus on it.  Taking the time to take a few long breaths can drastically change your stress levels both physically and mentally.  Try it, next time you are feeling overwhelmed attempt to slow the situation down and breath.  Just breath. Inhale.  Exhale. 

Sixty Too Many

Imagine this – on top of the stress that college brings among balancing exams, friendships, partying and loneliness, you live in a house with sixty girls. Better yet, your sleeping quarters are a ten by fifteen-foot room consisted of two bunk beds, so close together that not only can you not walk shoulder width between them, but you can hold hands with the girl bunking next to you.

Some people might say, well isn’t that great? You never have to be alone! Sure, it’s a lot of fun. But exactly that, you never get to be alone. It is nice, I’ll admit, when you’re having a bad day and need a shoulder to lean on or just a distraction. But what happens during those times when you just feel like being by yourself?

Living in a sorority house requires endurance, it’s a long-term persistent stressor. The accumulation of many repetitive acute stressors creates a stressful, unpreferred environment to live in. You want to go out with your friends, but you have so much work. It’s always those nights that you have an exam tomorrow that your friends are doing something actually worthwhile and you can’t participate. It is literally FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) every single night.

While people know everyone has work to do, there’s a constant pressure to be fun and exciting. People like to be around someone who makes them laugh, someone who has a positive aura about them. But can I just tell you how difficult that is? To be faced with stress from classes and living arrangements, and on top of that to be happy so other people enjoy being around you? There are obviously behavioral and emotional outcomes to this physiological stress. In addition to that, your directed attention is fatigued because of these constant distractions, both real and perceived. With this increased need for directed attention, it is difficult to manage yourself and be yourself: you act less altruistically, less happy, less inviting.

And not only that, it’s so easy to not only feel excluded and isolated, but to exclude and isolate others. I mean think about it, how many people can you invite to go to the library with you? But with that said, it’s so hard for someone to not feel like she isn’t wanted there since you didn’t think to invite her.

On top of stressors in the mind, It’s overcrowded. Crowds are assessed usually by the number of people, the density or number of people per area, the gestalt principle in terms of groups, and time spent in this aforementioned crowd. The thing about this is all of these are at an all-time high. There’s 60 girls in the house, you share a four bathroom stalls and three showers with thirty of them, let alone a tiny bedroom with three others. And it doesn’t end. For a whole year.

It’s a general feeling of being overwhelmed, but at the same time it’s your home. While most people’s homes are a safe space that they can retreat to – a territory of refuge. There is no control of information, no privacy. Privacy constitutes the extreme restriction of information, where you can restrict the presence of others, prevents being overwhelmed with new information and a very low rate of change. This is virtually impossible in a sorority house, which results in a chronic stress that requires endurance.

However, I’ve learned to look at the positive sides. I’m lucky enough that I live in a sorority that houses girls who don’t judge what I wear, how I look when I wake up, or how many times a day I nap. They are all incredible girls who accept me for who I am. Not only does this reduce some stress to feel like you belong somewhere, but you always feel supported and a part of something. And I think that makes these (mildly abusive) living arrangements all worth the pressure and stress.

Choice Blindness & Preference

As we’ve been privileged to learn in lecture, preference is not just a matter of choice - it's a universal metric that isn’t necessarily tied to rationality. It is often fluid and depends on the environment in which options are presented. While we would like to think that our preferences are a unique manifestation of our personality and experience, it really is much less complicated than that. Our preferences are continuously being shaped and reshaped by the environment we are in currently. Nothing displays this better than the concept of choice blindness.

At this point in the election cycle, it would seem foolish to think that a voter is going to change their mind before heading to the ballot (or at the ballot for that matter) if they’ve already made up their mind. However, research from the Choice Blindness lab at Lund University has shown that seemingly concrete parts of our mental map such as moral code and political ideology are actually extremely flexible. Choice Blindness itself refers to the fact that we have a tendency to have trouble understanding discrepancies between choices and outcomes and that we are prepared to offer novel explanations for choices we did not make even though we were told we did.

In one study, participants filled out a survey on moral code. Through a “magic trick”, the experimenters administering the survey switched the the participants answers to show a different set of responses than what they had indicated. The results showed that the majority of people did not even notice the switched answers, with some participants giving “coherent and unequivocal arguments supporting the opposite of their original position.”

In another study at the same lab, participants in a grocery store were asked to choose which of two jams they liked the most. After selecting their preferred jam, the experimenters then gave them another taste of their selected jam and asked them to explain why they liked it. However, the jam flavor was switched to the one they had actually not preferred. The researchers observed a similar effect, with people justifying their decision based on the taste, even though they received the wrong jam.

The takeaway from this is not just that all jams are delicious or that all political opinions are worthless. It is more so that we must consider the importance of the environment in which options are presented. On their own, jam flavor and politics are inherently complicated subjects which we could have separate, much longer discussions about. These topics are then made even more complex because of the fact that we also have to consider the way the environment is also affecting that choice.

                                                  

Let’s bring this Party to the Kitchen: A Preferred Environment

Let’s bring this Party to the Kitchen: A Preferred Environment

Have you ever noticed that every time someone hosts a party, whether it be with friends or with family, the chattering mass of people always seems to find their way into the kitchen? Placed at the heart of your home, the kitchen is a hub of activity.   All kitchen consists of the same basic elements; counters, a sink, a fridge, an oven, a stove, storage, utensils, and most importantly, food.  To many it would seem odd that we are drawn away from a space specifically designed for socializing to a space designed for cooking but it is no coincidence, it is preference. We are not drawn to the kitchen solely on the fact that it’s a space many of us find familiar, it’s a result of distinct features and designs that makes it so attractive. 

Preference is different than you preferring something.  Preference in the context of this class is immediate, innate and universal, it is evolutionary not developed overtime.  It is dependent on both high exploration and high understanding.  For something to be a preferred environment it must satisfy present and future understanding and exploration.  This is made possible when an environment is equally high in coherence, legibility, mystery and complexity. 

Coherence takes in to consideration your present understanding of the space while legibility takes into effect one’s ability to navigate a space without getting lost. Because kitchens are a space designated for cooking and preparing food, the materials found within the space will all hang together and make sense next to each other.  You will find the basic necessity to prepare a meal; cook books, utensils, ovens, stoves, fridges, food, ect.. Since kitchens are not vast spaces, you will not physically get lost within it.  Additionally, as a result of our well developed mental models of kitchens, our familiarity will provide us with the basic understanding of the layout. Landmarks such as a stove or a fridge or a garbage can will allow us to have a simplified outline of the space before even exploring.  We will have a basic idea of where silverware is stored, where to find the garbage can, where to find other staple objects based off the ones visible to us.  Be aware that this familiarity only enhances your ability to navigate an already easily understood place.  This is a good example of how preferred environments can have some overlap with familiar environments and provided us with a sense of comfort that encourages us to expand our mental models without being on edge, or uncomfortable.

An example of how various kitchens have different layouts but still foster similar navigational patterns. 

Another aspect that is important to a spaces preferability is its complexity and mystery; whether there is enough elements and diversity to make the space worth exploring as well as the promise of more information in the future.  The purpose of a preferred environment is to be the most effective place to learn and expand your mental models.  This is where the kitchen thrives.  All of your appliances and endless drawers and containers provide a great promise of information for you to explore and discover.  Every time you open a cabinet, an abundance of new knowledge is revealed, every time you turn a page in a cookbook, the possibility to learn a new baking technique or a new recipe arises.  The amount of information in a kitchen that you can explore and build models of is huge, yet it is not overwhelming because it is so well organized. You can open cabinet by cabinet, ensuring you will not overwhelm yourself.

            In class we discussed that if two places with equal complexity are presented to an individual they will innately prefer the more natural one over the more man made one.  The typical design of kitchen draws on this observation by placing a window directly in front of the sink.  This integrates natural objects such as trees and lighting into the kitchen, making you feel more in touch with the outdoors while also appealing to the prospect refugee theory.  The theory states that one of preferences is a place where we can see without being seen, and a window is a perfect way to do that.  You can watch and learn without placing yourself in danger and/or in an unfamiliar environment.

            So the next time you plan for a party, don’t even bother attempting to corral everyone into your living room because inevitably they will find their way back to your kitchen.  Not as a result of your “amazing” cooking but because we are simply programed to.