15: Stress, Coping, and Health - Stress and Health

Question 1

Stress and Health

Question 2

Stress and Psychological Well-Being

Including:

Rape Trauma Syndrome, and Neuroticism

Answer 2

• Studies of results of catastrophic events has found average increase of 17% in rates of psychological disorders
• Rape trauma syndrome – a pattern of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural responses that occurs in response to being raped
• Neuroticism – a personality trait that involves the tendency to experience high levels of negative affect and to behave in self-defeating ways
  
  • People high in neuroticism have heightened tendency to experience negative emotions and to involved in stressful situations through maladaptive behaviours

Question 3

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD)

Question 4

Stress and Illness

Answer 4

• Stress can combine with other physical and psychological factors to influence the entire spectrum of physical illness
• Stress can trigger illness by causing a breakdown in immune system functioning
• Stressors can release sufficient stress hormones to induce structural changes in the hippocampus that last for a month or longer