Chapter 11 Flashcards
Stress
The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging
General adaptation syndrome (GAS)
Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases-alarm, resistance, exhaustion
Tend and befriend
Under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend)
Health psychology
A subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine
Psychoneuroimmunology
The study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health
Coronary heart disease
The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries
Type A
Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people
Type B
Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people
Catharsis
In psychology, the idea that “releasing” aggressive energy (through action of fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
Coping
Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods
Problem-focused coping
Attempting to alleviate stress directly-by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor
Emotion-focused coping
Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one’s stress reaction
Learned helplesness
The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events
External locus of control
The perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate
Internal locus of control
The perception that you control your own fate
Self-control
The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards
Aerobic exercise
Sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety
Feel-good, do-good phenomenon
People’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood
Positive psychology
The scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to flourish
Subjective well-being
Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people’s quality of life
Adaptation-level phenonmenon
Our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience
Relative deprivation
The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself
Stress response system: When alerted to a negative, uncontrollable event, our _______ nervous system arouses us. Heart rate and respiration ________ . Blood is diverted from digestion to the skeletal _______. The body releases sugar and fat. All this prepares the body for the ______-______-______ response
Sympathetic; increase, muscles, fight-or-flight
________ _______ provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine. _______ focuses on mind-body interactions, including the effects of psychological, neural, and endocrine functioning
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