Chapter 14: Stress Flashcards
What is stimulus based stress?
stress that is borne from demanding or threatening events/situations
* Stress is a stimulus that causes certain reactions
Stress is the stimulus versus stress is the response
What is response based stress?
emphasis on the physiological responses that occur when facing demanding or threatening situations (ex. increased arousal)
o Stress is a physiological response to environmental conditions
What are stressors?
Demanding or threatening events
What are primary and secondary appraisal?
Primary appraisal:
Involves judgement about the degree of potential harm or threat to well-being that a stressor might entail. Is it a challenge or a threat?
Secondary appraisal:
judgement of the options available to cope with a stressor, as well as perceptions of how effective such options will be
Primary ex.
* feeling a lump in your breast and being concerned about it
Secondary ex.
1. thinking you’re going to die from cancer from the lump in your breast
2. thinking you need to get your breast checked out but aren’t worried about the implications
What are eustress and distress?
Eustress
a good kind of stress associated with positive feelings, optimal health, and performance
* Comes from the Greek word “good”
Distress
when stress exceeds its optimal level, it becomes excessive and debilitating
* Comes from the Greek word “bad”
- When stress is at an optimal level, performance reaches its peak
- People in distress feel burned out, and their performance declines
What is health psychology?
a subfield of psychology devoted to understanding the importance of psychological influences on health, illness, and how people respond when they become ill
What is released during fight or flight?
Epinephrine and norepinephrine
Sympathetic nervous system and endocrine system
Fight or flight assists in homeostasis
What is Selye’s general adaptation syndrome?
the body’s nonspecific physiological response to stress
Test with rats–long exposure to stressors led to physical ailments
What are the three stages of general adaptaiton syndrome?
Stage 1: Alarm reaction
the body’s immediate reaction upon facing a threatening situation, an is analogous to fight or flight
Stage 2: stage of resistance
when an organism’s stressors are prolonged, the initial shock has worn off and the body has adapted to the stressor
Stage 3: stage of exhaustion
when an organism’s stressors are prolonged, they are no longer able to adapt to the stressor
* illness and permanent damage may occur
- Initial jolt
- Subsequent readjustment
- Later depletion of physical resources
Physical mechanisms of stress???
What is cortisol?
A stress hormone that helps provide the boost of energy when we first encounter a stresser
Sustained elevated levels of cortisol weaken the immune system
What is the social readjustment rating scale (SRRS)?
a scale that helped examine the link between life stressors and physical illness
* Higher score = higher risk for physical illness or injury
Top 5 stressors:
* death of a close family member
* personal injury or illness
* dismissal from work
* change in financial state
* change to different line of work
What are daily hassles and job strain?
Daily hassles
the minor irritations and annoyances that are part of our everyday lives
* frequency of daily hassles was found to be more strongly associated with physical health problems than life change events
Job strain
a work situation that combines excessive job demands and workloads with little discretion in decision making or job control
What is job burnout and its three dimensions?
Job burnout
a general sense of emotional exhaustion and cynicism in relation to one’s job
Three dimensions
* Exhaustion: a sense that one’s emotional resources are drained or that they are at the end of their rope
* Depersonalization: a sense of emotional detachment between the worker and the recipients of their services (ex. cynicism or indifferent attitudes)
* Diminished personal accomplishment: tendency to evaluate one’s work negatively by, for example, experiencing dissatisfaction with one’s job-related accomplishments
What are psychophysiological disorders?
physical disorders or disease whose symptoms are brought about or worsened by stress and emotional factors
* cardiovascular
* gastrointestinal
* respiratory
* muscoloskeletal
* skin
What is immunosuppression?
the decreased effectiveness of the immune system
What is Psychoneuroimmunology?
The study of how stress, etc. influences the immune system’s functioning
What are lymphocytes?
white blood cells that are important for the immune response
What is a cardiovascular disease, and what are the most common ones?
disorders that involve the cardiovascular system
* Heart disease: one condition that causes one in three death in the United States
* Hypertension: high blood pressure (the silent killer)
heart disease is the leading cause of death in the developed world
What are type A and type B?
(And negative affectivity)
Type A:
* driven workaholics who are preoccupied with deadliness and always seem to be in a rush
* Competitiveness, sense of urgency, impatience
Type B:
* more relaxed and laid back
Negative affectivity:
* a tendency to experience distressed emotional states involving anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness
Heart disease is over 7x more frequent among type A
What is the correlation between depression and heart disease?
- Patients with heart disease tend to have more depression than the general population
- People with depression are more likely to eventually develop heart disease
What is asthma?
a chronic and serious disease in which the airways of the respiratory system become obstructed, leading to difficulty expelling air from the lungs
What are the types of headaches?
Migraines:
type of headache thought to be caused by blood vessel swelling and increased blood flow
* Characterized by extreme pain on both sides of the head, an upset stomach, and disturbed vision
Tension headaches:
triggered by tightening/tensing of facial and neck muscles
Contributors to headaches:
Sleep deprivation, skipping meals, eye strain, overexertion, stress, etc.
What is problem-focused coping?
One attempts to manage or alter the problem that is causing one to experience stress
* Identifying the problem, considering possible solutions, weighing then costs and benefits of these solutions
* Trying to alleviate source of stress
More likely to occur when faced with stressers we perceive as controllable
