Chapter 11: Stress, Health, and Human Flourishing

Question 1

Health Psychology

Answer 1

Uses behavioral principles to prevent illness and promote health

Question 2

Lifestyle Diseases

Answer 2

Diseases related to health-damaging personal habits

Question 3

Behavioral Risk Factors

Answer 3

Behaviors that increase the chances of disease, injury, or premature death

Question 4

Stress

Answer 4

any circumstance (real or perceived) that threatens a person’s well-being.

Question 5

Eustress

Answer 5

Good stress (e.g., travel, dating)

Question 6

Stress Reaction

Answer 6

Physical response to stress
– Autonomic Nervous
System is aroused

Question 7

Stressor

Answer 7

Condition or event that challenges or threatens the person

Question 8

Pressure

Answer 8

When a person must meet urgent external demands or expectations

Question 9

Catastrophic Events

Answer 9

Catastrophic events like earthquakes, combat stress, and floods lead individuals to become depressed, sleepless, and anxious.

Question 10

Personal stressors

Answer 10

major life events such as personal faliure

Question 11

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD

Answer 11

a person has experienced a significantly stressful event that has long-lasting effects that may include re-experiencing the event in vivid flashbacks or dreams

Question 12

Daily Hassles

Answer 12

Rush hour traffic, long lines, job stress, and becoming burnt-out are the most significant sources of stress and can damage health

Question 13

Burnout

Answer 13

Job-related condition of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.

Question 14

Three aspects of burnout

Answer 14

• Emotional Exhaustion: Feel “used up” and “empty”
• Cynicism or detachment from others
• Feeling of reduced personal accomplishment

Question 15

Emotional signs

Answer 15

anxiety, apathy, irritability, mental fatigue

Question 16

Behavioral signs

Answer 16

avoidance of responsibilities and relationships, extreme or self-destructive behavior, self-neglect, poor judgment

Question 17

Physical signs

Answer 17

frequent illness, exhaustion, overuse of medicines, physical ailments and complaints.

Question 18

General Adaptation Syndrome

GAS

Answer 18

Phases a stressed individual goes through:

Alarm Reaction, Stage of Resistance, and Stage of Exhaustion

Question 19

Alarm Reaction

Answer 19

Body resources are mobilized to cope with added stress

Question 20

Stage of Resistance

Answer 20

Body adjusts to stress but at a high physical cost; resistance to other stressors is lowered

Question 21

Stage of Exhaustion

Answer 21

Body’s resources are drained and stress hormones are depleted, possibly resulting in:
– Psychosomatic disease – Loss of health – Complete collapse

Question 22

Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

Answer 22

Rates the impact of various life events on the likelihood of contracting illness
• Not a foolproof method of rating stress

Question 23

Life Change Units (LCU’s)

Answer 23

Numerical values

assigned to each life event on the SRRS

Question 24

Hassles or microstressors

Answer 24

Distressing daily annoyances

Question 25

The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale

Answer 25

• Each event should be considered if it has taken place in the last 12 months. Add values to the right of each item to obtain the total score.
• Your susceptibility to illness and mental health problems:
– Low< 149 – Mild= 150-200 – Moderate= 200-299 – Major>300

Question 26

Psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 26

study of the links among behavior, stress, disease, and the immune system

Question 27

Immunity is also lowered

Answer 27

by divorce, bereavement, a troubled marriage, job loss, depression, and similar stresses.

Question 28

Strengthen immune system response

Answer 28

happiness, laughter, and deligh

Question 29

Two cardiologists, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman,

Answer 29

classified people as either Type A or Type B

Question 30

Type A

Answer 30

a term used for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.

Question 31

Type B

Answer 31

refers to easygoing, relaxed people

Question 32

more likely to develop coronary heart disease

Answer 32

Type A personalities

Question 33

Hardy Personality

Answer 33

Personality type associated with superior stress resistance
• Hold a world view that consists of three traits:
• Sense of personal commitment to self and family
• Feel they have control over their lives • See life as a series of challenges, not threats