15: Stress, Coping, and Health - The Nature of Stress

Question 1

The Nature of Stress

Answer 1

Stress is viewed in three different ways (stimulus, response, and organism-environment interaction)

• Stimulus (stressors) – situations that place demands on organisms that tax or exceed their resources
• Stress (response) – a pattern of cognitive appraisals, physiological responses, and behavioural tendencies that occurs in response to a perceived imbalance between situational demands and the resources needed to cope with them
• organism environment interaction - combines the defenition of stimuli and stress in one

Question 2

Stressors

Answer 2

• Stressors range in severity/intensity
  
  • Microstressors – daily hassles and everyday annoyances we encounter
  • Catastrophic events – natural disasters, acts of war, etc.
  • Major negative events - being the victim of a major crime or sexual abuse ect.
• Other characteristics of Stressors include duration, predictability, controllability, and chronicity

Question 3

Stressors

Measuring Stressful Life Events

Answer 3

Life event scales:

questionnaires that measure the number of positive and negative life events that have occurred over a specific period of time

Question 4

The Stress Response

Answer 4

Four aspects of appraisal process are of particular significance:

1. Primary appraisal – appraisal of demands of situation
2. Secondary appraisal - appraisal of resources available to cope with it
3. Judgments of what consequences of situation could be
4. Appraisal of personal meaning (what the outcome might imply about us)

Question 5

Chronic Stress and the Gas

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Answer 5

A physiological response pattern to strong and prolonged stressors

• Consists of three phases: Alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion

Question 6

Chronic Stress and the Gas

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Alarm Reaction

Answer 6

A rapid increase in physiological arousal

• Occurs due to sudden activation of sympathetic nervous system and release of hormones
• Cortisol is the most important hormone - triggers an increase in blood sugars, in part by acting on the live.

Question 7

Chronic Stress and the Gas

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Resistance

Answer 7

Body’s resources continue to be mobilized so that the person can function despite the presence of a stressor

• Length of stage depends on severity of stress, individual’s health, available support, and other factors
• Adrenal glands release epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol to maintain arousal

Question 8

Chronic Stress and The Gas

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

Exhaustion

Answer 8

Body’s resources are dangerously depleted

• Occurs when stressor is intense and persists for too long