Ch 07 - Stress, Coping & Health

Question 1

This results when one has inadequate resources to achieve positive events and avoid negative events – the person can’t meet the demands placed on them.

Answer 1

Strain

Question 2

This term describes behavior that is motivated to meet life’s demands (__) and deal with the consequences (__).

Answer 2

Coping;

strain; stress

Question 3

__ is the reaction to strain. It occurs when life’s demands strain __ abilities / resources. It can lead to many things including excessive __ arousal, illness, and __ disorders.

Answer 3

Stress

coping

physiological; psychophysiological (psychosomatic)

Question 4

Stressor stimuli usually include what two things?

Answer 4

Negative life events or illness.

Question 5

This term describes physiological arousal at the optimal level; can be produced by positive events.

Answer 5

Eustress

Question 6

This term describes physiological arousal that is too high or too low (and is the general term for stress).

Answer 6

Distress

Question 7

What is the same domain effect?

Answer 7

The valence of event and reaction to it are of the same dimension – negative events produce distress and positive events produce eustress.

Question 8

Environmental stressors of extreme magnitude, such as hurricanes, pandemics, and mass shootings, are called what?

Answer 8

cataclysmic phenomena

Question 9

Daily __ are annoying / irritating day-to-day events. They are offset by daily __ which bring joy, relief, and amusement.

Answer 9

hassles

uplifts

Question 10

This hypothesis states that less stress is produced when one has advance notice that an aversive event is coming.

The ability to __ for the event lessens the amount of stress.

Answer 10

The Preparatory Response Hypothesis.

prepare / plan

Question 11

If a professor announces a pop quiz, and states that the quiz will be worth as much as an exam, this will cause excessive stress.

Why, and what hypothesis explains this phenomenon?

Answer 11

Because there was no notice / it was unplanned.

The preparatory response hypothesis.

Question 12

This hypothesis states that signals predict the nonoccurrence of an aversive event (safe interval - you can relax), or predict danger (unsafe interval - causes stress / anxiety).

An example using this class is the feeling of relaxation during non-exam intervals and anxiety the day before an exam.

Answer 12

safety hypothesis

Question 13

Two types of research that study stressors are __ research (subjects are asked to recall past events of a stressful nature) and __ research (measures wellbeing before AND after stressor).

What is the ‘flaw’ in the first type of research?

Answer 13

retrospective; prospective.

It depends on memory (which is volatile) and on the participants’ truthfulness.

Question 14

The blood pressure of children was measured before an after an airport was built near their home. What type of research is this?

Answer 14

prospective research

Question 15

Holmes and Rahe developed this scale to measure the amount of adjustment required to cope with a life change.

Changes are measured in __-__ Units, and their effect is __ – the larger the amount of life changes was positively correlated with illness.

Answer 15

Social Readjustment Scale

life-change; cumulative

Question 16

What would be the finding of a student’s GPA who experienced many life changing events, according to the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment scale?

Answer 16

Their GPA would be lower the more life changing events they experienced.

Question 17

This disorder is characterized by dreams, flashbacks and physiological distress.

What causes these physiological changes?

Answer 17

PTSD

Trigger events.

Question 18

This category of racism finds that White crime is romanticized while minority crime is demonized.

An example was the Katrina survivors (one was surviving, the other was looting).

Answer 18

Cultural Racism

Question 19

This category of racism includes a White person being paid more for the same job as a minority with equal experience / performance.

Answer 19

Institutional

Question 20

For this category of racism, a person is ignored (assume you don’t have money) or viewed with suspicion (assume you’re going to steal) when shopping.

Answer 20

Individual

Question 21

For this category of racism, people assume that if you’re the victim of a crime, the reason must be due to your race (they’re not surprised you were victimized).

Answer 21

Collective

Question 22

Describe the 3 phases in Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome.

Answer 22

1. Alarm reaction - ANS is activated by stress.
2. Resistance - the organism adapts or is damaged by the stress (sink or swim).
3. Exhaustion - energy used in phase 2 is exhausted; organism dies or suffers irreversible damage.

Question 23

The study of stress on the immune system (and subsequent disease) is called __.

Answer 23

psychoneuroimmunology

Question 24

This hypothesis states that extreme exercise or psychological stress can weaken the immune system and increase the likelihood of becoming ill (similar to the __ __ syndrome).

Answer 24

open window.

General Adaptation

Question 25

There are two coping styles:

1. __ focused: identify the stressor and consider potential solutions.
2. __ focused: manage sensations to dysphoric stimuli.

Answer 25

Problem

Emotion

Question 26

Emotion-focused coping styles includes 4 categories. List and describe each.

Answer 26

(1) wishful thinking - hoping the problem goes away;
(2) distancing one’s self from the problem / biding time;
(3) self-blame - realizing/owning responsibility; and
(4) self-isolation - avoiding people or not telling anyone.

Question 27

This stress moderator includes social support to reduce stress (family can ease stress of work or vice versa).

Answer 27

buffering

Question 28

This stress moderator increases stress.

Answer 28

Procrastination.

Question 29

This stress moderator reduces stress by seeing the positive side of things; it attracts more individuals to them.

Answer 29

sense of humor

Question 30

This stress moderator includes 3 C’s. Name the modulator, and list and describe each ‘C’.

Answer 30

Hardiness

1. control - hard work makes a difference (you can work hard to get an A / “I’m in control of my grade”).
2. commitment - the person is enthusiastic about achieving a goal / seeing it through.
3. challenge - the person does not avoid anxiety or escape from the problem; they face the problem head on.