Meeting Life Challenges class 12 questions and answers: Class 12 Psychology chapter 3 ncert solutions
| Textbook | NCERT |
| Class | Class 12 |
| Subject | Psychology |
| Chapter | Chapter 3 |
| Chapter Name | Meeting Life Challenges class 12 ncert solutions |
| Category | Ncert Solutions |
| Medium | English |
Are you looking for Psychology Class 12 Chapter 3 question answers Meeting Life Challenges? Now you can download Class 12 Psychology chapter 3 ncert solutions pdf from here.
Question 1: Explain the concept of stress. Give examples from daily life.
Answer 1: Concept of Stress: Stress is a psychological and physiological response to demands or pressures (stressors) that challenge an individual’s ability to cope. It arises when there is a perceived imbalance between the demands placed on a person and their ability to manage them. Stress can be positive (eustress) when it motivates and enhances performance, or negative (distress) when it overwhelms and causes physical or mental strain.
Examples of Stress in Daily Life
- Work-Related Stress:
- Meeting tight deadlines at work.
- Dealing with workplace conflicts or a heavy workload.
- Academic Stress:
- Preparing for exams or completing assignments.
- Balancing studies and extracurricular activities.
- Personal Life Stress:
- Financial difficulties, such as managing expenses.
- Relationship challenges, like arguments with friends or family.
- Environmental Stress:
- Being stuck in traffic while running late.
- Dealing with noise pollution or extreme weather conditions.
- Health-Related Stress:
- Managing a chronic illness.
- Experiencing sudden health emergencies.
Question 2: State the symptoms and sources of stress.
Answer 2: Stress manifests through both physical and psychological symptoms, which can vary in intensity depending on the individual and the situation. Physically, stress often causes symptoms such as headaches, muscle tension, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, digestive issues, and increased heart rate.
People may also experience sweating, dizziness, or chest pain. Psychologically, stress can lead to feelings of anxiety, irritability, depression, or a sense of being overwhelmed. Cognitive symptoms may include difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, and indecisiveness.
The sources of stress, or stressors, are diverse and can stem from various aspects of life. Work-related stress is a common source, including high job demands, tight deadlines, and workplace conflicts. Academic pressures, such as exams and assignments, also contribute significantly to stress, especially among students. Personal life challenges like financial struggles, relationship difficulties, or family responsibilities can further amplify stress.
Environmental stressors, such as noise, traffic, or extreme weather, may also lead to discomfort and anxiety. Additionally, health-related concerns, including chronic illness or a sudden medical issue, can be significant stressors. All these sources can combine in different ways to affect an individual’s mental and physical well-being.
Question 3: Describe the GAS model and illustrate the relevance of this model with the help of an example.
Answer 3: General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) Model: The GAS model, proposed by Hans Selye in 1936, explains how the body reacts to stress in three stages: Alarm, Resistance, and Exhaustion. It describes the body’s physiological response to stress and how prolonged stress can affect health.
Stages of GAS:
- Alarm Reaction Stage
- This is the body’s immediate reaction to a stressor, often referred to as the “fight-or-flight” response.
- The hypothalamus signals the adrenal glands to release adrenaline and other stress hormones.
- Symptoms: Increased heart rate, heightened alertness, energy surge, sweating, and rapid breathing.
- Example: You wake up in the morning, feeling anxious about an upcoming presentation. Your heart races, and your palms sweat—this is the body gearing up to deal with the stress.
- Resistance Stage
- If the stress continues, the body enters the resistance stage. During this phase, the body tries to adapt to the stressor.
- The body tries to restore balance and maintain functioning despite the stress. However, resources like energy and hormones remain elevated.
- Symptoms: Continued alertness, but the body starts to cope with the stressor.
- Example: In the following days, you focus on preparing for the presentation. You study, rehearse, and organize your materials, trying to manage the anxiety. Your body is still on alert, but you’re actively working to overcome the stress.
- Exhaustion Stage
- If the stressor persists for an extended period, the body’s resources become depleted, leading to the exhaustion stage.
- Prolonged stress overwhelms the body’s ability to maintain a high level of functioning, leading to burnout, fatigue, and potential health problems.
- Symptoms: Fatigue, anxiety, depression, lowered immunity, and susceptibility to illness.
- Example: If you don’t take breaks, get enough sleep, or find ways to manage your stress, you might reach a point of exhaustion, feeling mentally and physically drained before your presentation, which could lead to reduced performance.
Relevance of GAS with an Example: This model is useful for understanding how stress impacts both our body and mind over time.
Example: Imagine you’re preparing for an important work presentation:
- Alarm Stage: The night before, you feel anxious, heart racing, and palms sweaty as you anticipate speaking in front of your colleagues.
- Resistance Stage: You push through by practicing for hours, but you stay on edge as you try to prepare thoroughly and manage your anxiety.
- Exhaustion Stage: After several days of high stress and lack of rest, you feel mentally exhausted and physically drained. Your performance might suffer because of burnout and fatigue.
Question 4: Enumerate the different ways of coping with stress.
Answer 4: To manage stress we often need to reassess the way we think and learn coping strategies.
Different ways of coping with stress are :-
1. Task-oriented Strategy :- This involves obtaining information about the stressful situation and about alternative courses of action and their probable outcome. It also involves deciding priorities and acting so as to deal directly with the stressful situation. For example, schedule my time better, or think about how I have solved similar problems.
2. Emotion-oriented Strategy :- This can involve efforts to maintain hope and to control one’s emotions. It can also involve venting feelings of anger and frustration, or deciding that nothing can be done to change things. For example, tell myself that it is not really happening to me, or worry about what I am going to do.
3. Avoidance-oriented Strategy :- This involves denying or minimising the seriousness of the situation. It also involves conscious suppression of stressful thoughts and their replacement by self-protective thoughts. Examples of this are watching TV, phone up a friend, or try to be with other people.
Question 5: Explain the effect of stress on psychological functioning.
Answer 5: Stress and Psychological Functioning: Stress has a profound effect on psychological functioning, influencing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of an individual.
1. Cognitive Effects: High levels of stress can impair cognitive processes, including:
- Mental Overload: When stress is high, the brain is overwhelmed, leading to difficulty processing information.
- Decision-making Impairment: Stress can affect the ability to think clearly and make rational decisions.
- Concentration Problems: Individuals under stress often experience difficulty focusing on tasks or maintaining attention.
- Memory Deficits: Stress can reduce the effectiveness of short-term memory and lead to forgetfulness.
2. Emotional Effects: Stress can have a significant emotional impact, leading to:
- Mood Swings: Stress can cause fluctuations in mood, including irritability or sudden sadness.
- Increased Anxiety and Depression: Prolonged stress is strongly associated with feelings of anxiety and depression.
- Emotional Instability: Individuals may feel overwhelmed by their emotions, leading to heightened tension and irritability.
- Feelings of Frustration or Hopelessness: Persistent stress can result in a negative emotional state, impacting self-esteem and well-being.
3. Behavioral Effects: Stress often manifests through changes in behavior, such as:
- Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms: People under stress may resort to overeating, smoking, or drinking alcohol as a way to cope.
- Reduced Sleep Quality: Stress can cause difficulties falling asleep, leading to fatigue and further emotional distress.
- Decreased Work Performance: Stress may reduce an individual’s ability to focus and perform effectively at work or in daily activities.
- Social Withdrawal: Stress can lead to isolation, as individuals may become less inclined to engage with family, friends, or coworkers.
4. Physiological Effects (Briefly Mentioned): Although your focus is psychological, it’s important to briefly mention that stress also affects the body physically. Stress can lead to increased production of hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which in turn can:
- Elevate heart rate and blood pressure.
- Affect the digestive system, leading to slower digestion.
- Cause muscle tension and headaches.
Question 6: Describe how life skills can help meet life’s challenges.
Answer 6: Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Our ability to cope depends on how well we are prepared to deal with and counterbalance everyday demands, and keep equilibrium in our lives.
These life skills can be learned and even improved upon. Assertiveness, time management, rational thinking, improving relationships, self-care, and overcoming unhelpful habits such as perfectionism, procrastination, etc. are some life skills that will help to meet the challenges of life.
Question 7: Discuss the factors that lead to positive health and well-being.
Answer 7: Various factors have been identified which facilitate the development of positive health. Health is a state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Positive health comprises the following constructs: “a healthy body, high quality of personal relationships, a sense of purpose in life self-regard, mastery of life’s tasks and resilience to stress, trauma, and change”. Specifically, factors that act as stress buffers and facilitate positive health are diet, exercise, positive attitude, positive thinking, and social support.
Question 8: How does stress affect the immune system?
Answer 8: Stress can cause illness by impairing the workings of the immune system. The immune system guards the body against attackers, both from within and outside. The white blood cells (leucocytes) within the immune system identify and destroy foreign bodies (antigens) such as viruses.
It also leads to the production of antibodies. There are several kinds of white blood cells or leucocytes within the immune system, including T cells, B cells and natural killer cells. T cells destroy invaders, and T-helper cells increase immunological activity.
It is these T-helper cells that are attacked by the Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV), the virus causing Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). B cells produce antibodies. Natural killer cells are involved in the fight against both viruses and tumours.
Question 9: Give an example of a life event which is likely to be stressful. Suggest reasons why it is likely to cause different degrees of stress to the person experiencing it.
Answer 9: Changes, both big and small, sudden and gradual affect our life from the moment we are born. We learn to cope with small, everyday changes but major life events can be stressful, because they disturb our routine and cause upheaval.
If several of these life events that are planned (e.g. moving into a new house) or unpredicted (e.g. break-up of a long-term relationship) occur within a short period of time, we find it difficult to cope with them and will be more prone to the symptoms of stress. Unexpected accident or trauma or death of a close family member are examples of life events which are very stressful for the members, relatives of the family and friends.
The impact of most life events varies from person to person. Factors such as age at which the event was first experienced, frequency of occurrence, duration of the stressful event and social support are the reasons which is likely to cause different degrees of stress to the person experiencing it.
Question 10: Given what you know about coping strategies, what suggestions would you give to your friends to avoid stress in their everyday lives.
Answer 10: Coping is a dynamic situation-specific reaction to stress. It is a set of concrete responses to stressful situations or events that are intended to resolve the problem and reduce stress.
I would suggest my friends to adopt problem-focused strategies and emotion focused strategies. Both are coping strategies which can be used to handle stressful situations.
Problem-focused strategies attack the problem itself, with behaviours designed to gain information, to alter the event, and to alter belief and commitments. They increase the person’s awareness, level of knowledge, and range of behavioural and cognitive coping options. They can act to reduce the threat value of the event.
For example “I made a plan of action and followed it”. Emotion-focused strategies call for psychological changes designed primarily to limit the degree of emotional disruption caused by an event, with minimal effort to alter the event itself. For example “I did some things to let it out of my system”. While both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping are necessary when facing stressful situations, research suggests that people generally tend to use the former more often than the latter.
Question 11: Reflect on the environmental factors that have (a) a positive impact on the being, and (b) a negative effect
Answer 11: (a) A positive impact on the being.
Ans: Health is a state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Positive health comprises the following constructs: “a healthy body; high quality of personal relationships; a sense of purpose in life; self-regard, mastery of life’s tasks; and resilience to stress, trauma, and change”.Specifically, factors that act as stress buffers and facilitate positive health are diet, exercise, positive attitude, positive thinking, and social support.
(b) A negative effect.
Ans: Negative events are appraised for their possible harm, threat or challenge. Harm is the assessment of the damage that has already been done by an event. Threat is the assessment of possible future damage that may be brought about by the event. Challenge appraisals are associated with more confident expectations of the ability to cope with the stressful event, the potential to overcome and even profit from the event. When we perceive an event as stressful.
Question 12: We know that certain lifestyle factors can cause stress and may lead to diseases like cancer and coronary heart disease, yet we are unable to change our behaviour. Explain why?
Answer 12: Stress can lead to unhealthy lifestyle or health damaging behaviour. Lifestyle is the overall pattern of decisions and behaviours that determine a person’s health and quality of life. Stressed individuals may be more likely to expose themselves to pathogens which are agents causing physical illness.
People who are stressed have poor nutritional habits, sleep less and are likely to engage in other health risking behaviours like smoking and alcohol abuse. Such health impairing behaviours develop gradually and are accompanied by pleasant experiences temporarily. However, we tend to ignore their long-term damaging effects and underestimate the risk they pose to our lives.
Studies have revealed that health promoting behaviour like balanced diet, regular exercise, family support, etc. play an important role in good health. Adhering to a lifestyle that includes balanced low fat diet, regular exercise and continued activity along with positive thinking enhances health and longevity. The modern lifestyle of excesses in eating, drinking and the so called fast-paced good life has led to violation of basic principles of health in some of us, as to what we eat think or do with our lives.