ch16 stress

Question 1

Stress Definition

Answer 1

• pattern of physiological, behavioural, & cognitive responses to stimuli (real or imagined) that disturb equilibrium & tax or exceed our ability to cope
• physical and psychological responses to internal or external stressors

Question 2

Stress Definition - physiological, behavioural, cognitive responses?

Answer 2

• physiological = real event in body: lungs are working harder, adrenaline, immune system producing corticosteroids
• Behavioural: running, fighting, moving quicker
• Cognitive : attention focuses, narrows on what you have to deal with – can’t notice things outside of it

Question 3

Stressors

Answer 3

• specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten the person’s well-being
• aka what causes stress – can be an earthquake, a person, etc

Question 4

Health Psychology

Answer 4

how psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illness and maintenance of health

Question 5

Levels of Stress: hassles vs stress?

Answer 5

• Hassles: small stress like losing keys, social obligation you don’t want to go to, not sleeping well, environmental noise
• Duration is what differentiates it from stress: hassles have same effect as stress, but lasts shorter
• Stress: prolonged exposure to something taxing

Question 6

Chronic Stress

Answer 6

• stressful events that occur continuously or repeatedly – PTSD
• ex: Strained relationships, financial problems, etc
• Small stressors easy to ignore if they happen occasionally but accumulate to distress and illness
• More symptoms and greater and longer lasting impact than major life events
• Many are linked to particular environments – ex. city life

Question 7

Percieved control - study by who?

Answer 7

Glass & Singer (1972) did studies of perceived control: aftereffects of loud noise on people who could or couldn’t control it

Question 8

Fight or flight response

Answer 8

• autonomic NS - sympathetic
• emotional and physiological reaction to an emergency that increases readiness for action

Question 9

Nervous vs Endocrine System

Answer 9

• NS: rapid responses
• Endo: slower, more gradual and more sustained

Question 10

Endocrine System - purpose, what?

Answer 10

• Regulates mood, growth, metabolism, sexual and reproductive processes
• System of glands that secretes hormones that go directly to bloodstream

Question 11

Hormones

Answer 11

• like NT, but NT travel small distances
• hormones travel from one part of body to another

Question 12

Catecholamines

Answer 12

• type of hormone released by adrenal gland during stress
• biochemicals indicating activation of emotional systems
• Amphetamines inhibit breakdown of catecholamines

Question 13

Immune system - what and purpose?

Answer 13

• defense system
• fight invading bacteria/viruses
• Complex response system that protects the body from bacteria, viruses and other foreign substances

Question 14

Antigen vs Pathogen

Answer 14

• A: protein on surface of cell
• P: invading bacteria

Question 15

HPA axis

Answer 15

• threat activates hypothalamus
• hypothalamus secretes CRH which stimulates pit gland
• pit gland releases ACTH which stimulates adrenal gland
• adrenal gland secretes hormones

Question 16

HPA axis - adrenal gland secretes? (2)

Answer 16

• Cortisol, a major stress hormone - increases concentration of glucose in blood so muscles have fuel, also dampens immune system by muting white blood cells
• Catecholamines: epinephrine and norepinephrine - increase sympathetic NS (increase heart rate, blood pressure, respiration) so more oxygen is available to muscles for attack/escape

Question 17

Hans Selye

Answer 17

• studied physiological consequences of severe threats to well being
• GAS

Question 18

GAS - general adaptation syndrome

Answer 18

• description of the body’s short term and long-term reaction to stress
• three stage physiological stress response that appears regardless of the stressor that is encountered
• nonspecific so response doesn’t vary according to source of repeated stress

Question 19

Selye’s Three Phases of Stress Reponse?

Answer 19

1. Alarm reaction - mobilize resources
2. resistance - cope with stressor
3. exhaustion - reserves depleted

Question 20

GAS - phase 1

Answer 20

• Alarm Phase
• Body rapidly mobilizes resources to respond to threat – aka fight or flight  lasts only a few seconds
• muscles clench, heart rate and breathing increase, more blood sent throughout body

Question 21

GAS - phase 2

Answer 21

• Resistance Phase
• Body adapts to high state of arousal, tries to cope with stressor and maintain homeostasis
• continues to draw on resources of fat/muscle, release of hormones, blood sugar, blood pressure stays high
• stops unnecessary processes like digestion, growth, sex drive, menstruation, testosterone/sperm production

Question 22

GAS - phase 3

Answer 22

• Exhaustion Phase
• body depleted of resources, resistance collapses
• Resistance phase defenses created gradual damage = costs for body like susceptibility to infection, tumor growth, aging, organ damage, death
• Can still recover from this stage but will take longer than if stressor had ended at stage 2

Question 24

Is stress always bad?

Answer 24

• sometimes you need a quick burst of speed
• shot of adrenaline
• stress gives you energy, vigilance and attention

Question 25

Stress bad because?

Answer 25

• prolonged stress can lead to anxiety and poorer performance (while a little bit of stress helps performance)
• can lead to chronic heart disease, increased risk of heart attack, damage to heart tissue, stunted growth, infertility, supresses immune system

Question 26

Hans Selye – there are two kinds of stress?

Answer 26

• Eustress: positive stress like having a baby, getting married, graduating
• Distress: what we think of when we think of stress – negative stress

Question 27

Causes of Stress - what do they have in common?

Answer 27

• Majority of the things are psychological in nature = in our heads, not in the real world
• That means 5/7 major stressors are unique to us as a species

Question 28

Stress and Immune System: phagocytes? lymphocytes? glucocorticoids?

Answer 28

• Phagocytes: neutrophils that are first on the seen, attach to antigens and destroy them
• Lymphocytes: produce antibodies that fight infection (T cells – rupture cell and B cells)
• Glucocorticoids flood the brain – wears down immune system so less able to fight invaders

Question 29

Physical vs Psychological Stressors

Answer 29

• Physical stressors: colds, bacterium, viruses - make us more likely to get sick
• Psychological stressors: inside our head, can be a result of for example, taking care of someone with a chronic disease

Question 30

Baboons - major stressor? perfect model? our stress is different?

Answer 30

• Each other – other baboons
• perfect model for western stress-related disease because a lot of our stress is social in nature, not physical
• How is our stress different from the stress of other animals, like zebras?
  o They can turn it off after – we are constantly worrying
• Examples of studies
  o Medical volunteers received mouth wounds – healed slower during exams than summer
  o Researchers swabbed cold virus into volunteer’s nose – people got colds depending on stress levels  volunteers who had experience chronic stressors more likely to suffer colds
  o Social status and health: British civil servants with higher status had lower rates of death
  o People who perceive themselves in lower social status are more prone to suffer from respiratory infection

Question 31

Examples of studies - stress and mouth wounds? colds?

Answer 31

• Medical volunteers received mouth wounds – healed slower during exams than summer
• Researchers swabbed cold virus into volunteer’s nose – people got colds depending on stress levels