Chapter 15 Flashcards
Components of stress response:
Primary appraisal: appraisal of demands of situation
Appraisal of resources available: secondary appraisal
Judgments of what consequences could be
Appraisal of personal meaning ( what it could say about us)
How is stress viewed?
A stimulus, a response, and organism-environment interaction
Response that has cognitive, physiological, and behavioural components
General adaptation syndrome (GAS)
Physiological response pattern to prolonged strong stressors, consists of three phases: alarm reaction ( sudden activation of sympathetic nervous system and release of stress hormones - fight or flight), resistance, exhaustion.
Stress and health:
PTSD: From exposure to traumatic life events
Stress can trigger illness by inhibiting immune system functioning
Stress hormone cortisol can have important effect on brain and cognitive function
Hippocampus - especially sensitive to cortisol, important for learning and memory
Vulnerability and protective factors:
Vulnerability: susceptibility, genetic predisposition
Protective: environmental or personal resources that can help you cope with stressful events: coping skills, self efficacy, social support, optimism, resilience
Best ways to cope with stress:
Problem focused coping: attempts to alter the situation causing stress
Emotion focused coping: attempts to control the emotion evoking stress
Problem focused is more affective in relieving stress
Health promotion and illness prevention:
- engaging in health-enhancing vs health-compromising behaviours
Transtheoretical model:
Attempts to change
Pre-contemplation: problem not yet recognized
Contemplation: problem recognizing
Preparation: coming up with plan to combat problem
Action: trying to alter behaviour
Maintenance: conscious effort to keep altered behaviour
Termination: change is permanent
Ways of combating substance abuse:
Prevention programs
Multimodal treatment: biological and psychological methods used together
Motivational interviewing: leads people to their own conclusions about behaviour
Relapse prevention: teach people lapse just means they were faced with a situation they don’t have coping skills for yet
Harm reduction: safe injection sites, provides judgment free resources
Positive psychology
Scientific study of positive experiences, positive individual traits and positive social institutions
Explores what makes people healthy instead of what makes people ill
Cortisol
Effects similar to epinephrine, converts protein to glucose, makes fats available for energy, increases blood flow
Personal constructs
How people construct reality and understand themselves and those around them - developed by George Kelly
