14. Stress Flashcards
Refers to a challenge to a person’s capacity to adapt to inner and outer demands.
Stress
Stressful experiences typically produce physiological and emotional ____ and elicit cognitive and behavioural efforts to ____ with the stress.
arousal, cope
Stress is a ____ ____, with both physiological and psychological components and consequences.
Stress a psychobiological process
A bodily response to a wide range of stressful events. Consisting of three stages: alarm, resistance and exhaustion.
General adaptation syndrome
Involves the release of adrenaline and other hormones such as cortisol as well as the activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
Alarm
The parasympathetic nervous system returns respiration and heart rate to normal. However, blood glucose levels remain high and some stress-related hormones continue to circulate at elevated levels.
Resistance
Physiological defences breakdown, resulting in greatly increased vulnerability to serious or even life threatening disease. Organs such as the heart that are vulnerable genetically or environmentally are the first to go during this stage.
Exhaustion
According to this view, stress is typically a transaction between the individual and the environment, rather than a property of either the person or the environment alone. Lazarus ,1981.
The model identifies two stages in the process of stress and coping.
Transactional model of stress
The person decides whether the situation is benign, stressful or irrelevant.
Primary appraisal
The person evaluates the options and decides how to respond.
Secondary appraisal
Both stages involve ‘____ ____’, predicting what feelings the situation will produce (primary appraisal) and predicting the likely emotional impact of each potential response (secondary appraisal).
emotional forecasting
Sources of stress
(1) – one of the most significant sources of stress is change. Virtually any event that requires someone to make a readjustment can be a stressor.
Life events
– One of the most stressful events any individual can experience is the death of a spouse or child – a stress that can take its toll for many years afterwards. Another major stress is unemployment.
Major stressors
– Refers to the stress people experience in trying to adapt to a new culture.
Acculturative stress
(2) – stressors of massive proportions. ____ maybe caused by nature or by humans.
Catastrophes
(3) – are the irritating, frustrating, distressing demands that to some degree characterise everyday transactions with the environment. Daily hassles range from interpersonal conflicts to commuting during rush hour.
Daily hassles
The ____ ____ daily hassles include concerns about weight, ill health of a family member, rising prices of common goods, home maintenance, too many things to do, and misplacing or losing things.
most common
Stress and health
Stressful events obviously can have a substantial impact on ____ well-being. Stress can also have a substantial effect on ____ ____ and ____.
psychological, physical health and mortality
People ____ ____ often suffer from headaches, depression and other health problems such as influenza, sore throat and backache.
under stress
Stress can have a direct effect by decreasing the body’s capacity to fight ____. It can also affect health indirectly by instigating behaviours that weaken the body’s defences or lead exposure to pathogens and toxic agents that can produce physical illness.
illness
People under stress ____ __ drink more alcohol, smoke more, sleep less and exercise less than their peers.
tend to
Stress and the immune system
____ examines the influence of psychosocial factors on the functioning of the immune system.
Psychoneuroimmunology
The bodies surveillance and security system, which detects and eliminates disease-causing agents in the body such as bacteria and viruses.
The immune system
Three important types of ____ in the immune system are B cells, T cells and natural killer cells.
cells
(1) __ cells produce antibodies, protein molecules that attach themselves to foreign invaders and mark them for destruction.
B
(2) __ cells search out and directly destroy invaders, while others stimulate immune functioning.
T
(3) ____ ____ cells fight viruses and tumours.
Natural killer
Stress and health-seeking behaviour.
Stress can ____ ____ in a more subtle way by influencing the way the person interprets body symptoms.
influence health
When symptoms are unambiguous and ominous, such severe stomach pain, people tend to seek help ____.
immediately
Many symptoms, however, are ambiguous, and this ambiguity can lead to several ____ ____.
(1) wait and see attitude – this strategy may represent an effort to cope with the emotion felt if the symptom was taken seriously.
(2) it’s probably nothing
(3) it’s just stress
alternative responses
For others stress can have precisely the opposite effect, leading them to seek medical care for one ____ ____ after another.
minor complaint
Stress, health and personality.
Whether a person under stress remains healthy or becomes ill also depends on the persons enduring ____ ____.
personality traits
____ can influence stress and health through the motives people pursue, the way they tend to appraise circumstances, and way they tend to cope with stress.
Personality
– a personality style categorised by impatience, ambition, competitiveness, hostility and a hard-driving approach to life.
Type A behaviour pattern
– more relaxed, easy-going and less easily angered.
Type B behaviour pattern
– another personality dimension related to immune functioning and health is optimism/pessimism.
Optimism/pessimism
