Chapter 16 Stress and Health

Question 1

Stressors

Answer 1

Specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten the person’s well being.

Question 2

Stress

Answer 2

The physical and psychological response to internal or external stressors.

Question 3

Health Psychology

Answer 3

The subfield of psychology concerned with ways psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illnesses and the maintenance of health.

Question 4

Chronic Stressors

Answer 4

Sources of stress that occur continuously or repeatedly.

Question 5

Environmental Psychology

Answer 5

The scientific study of environmental effects on behaviour and health.

Question 6

Fight-or-Flight Response

Answer 6

An emotional and physiological reaction to an emergency that increases readiness for action.

Question 7

General Adaptation Syndrome

Answer 7

A three-stage physiological response that appears regardless of the stressor that is encountered.

Question 8

Catecholamines

Answer 8

Biochemicals indicating the activation of emotional systems.

Question 9

Three Stages to GAS:

Answer 9

Alarm phase, resistance phase, exhaustion phase.

Question 10

Alarm Phase

Answer 10

Body rapidly mobilizes resources to respond to the threat.

Question 11

Resistance Phase

Answer 11

Body adapts to its state of high arousal as it tries to cope with the stressor.

Question 12

Exhaustion Phase

Answer 12

The body’s resistance collapses, and results in damage.

Question 13

Immune System

Answer 13

A complex response system that protects the body from bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances.

Question 14

Lymphocytes

Answer 14

Cells that produce antibodies that fight infection.

Question 15

Psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 15

The study of how the immune system responds to psychological variables.

Question 16

Who came up with the Type A and Type B behaviour patterns?

Answer 16

Friedman and Rosenman.

Question 17

Type A Behaviour Pattern

Answer 17

Tendency toward easily aroused hostility, impatience, a sense of time urgency, and competitive achievement strivings.

Question 18

Primary Appraisal

Answer 18

The interpretation of a stimulus as stressful or not.

Question 19

Secondary Appraisal

Answer 19

Determining whether the stressor is something you can handle or not.

Question 20

Difference between threat and challenge.

Answer 20

A threat is something you may not be able to control.

Question 21

PTSD

Answer 21

Chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and avoidance of things that call the traumatic events to mind.

Question 22

Burnout

Answer 22

A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion created by long-term involvement in an emotionally demanding situation and accompanied by lowered performance and motivation.

Question 23

Repressive Coping

Answer 23

Avoiding situations or thoughts that are reminders of a stressor and maintaining an artificially positive viewpoint.

Question 24

Rational Coping

Answer 24

Facing the stressor and working to overcome it.

Question 25

Three Steps in Rational Coping:

Answer 25

Acceptance, exposure, and understanding.

Question 26

Reframing

Answer 26

Finding a new or creative way to think about a stressor that reduces its threat.

Question 27

Stress Inoculation Training

Answer 27

A reframing technique that helps people to cope with stressful situations by developing positive ways to think about the situation.

Question 28

Relaxation Therapy

Answer 28

A technique for reducing tension by consciously relaxing muscles of the body.

Question 29

Relaxation Response

Answer 29

A condition of reduced muscle tension, cortical activity, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure.

Question 30

Biofeedback

Answer 30

The use of an external monitoring device to obtain information about a bodily function and possibly gain control over that function.

Question 31

Social Support

Answer 31

The aid gained through interacting with others.

Question 32

Psychosomatic Illness

Answer 32

An interaction between mind and body that can produce illness.

Question 33

Somatoform Disorders

Answer 33

The set of psychological disorders in which the person displays physical symptoms not fully explained by a general medical condition.

Question 34

Hypochondriasis

Answer 34

A psychological disorder in which a person is preoccupied with minor symptoms and develops an exaggerated belief that the symptoms signify a life-threatening illness.

Question 35

Somatization Disorder

Answer 35

A psychological disorder involving combinations of multiple physical complaints with no medical explanation.

Question 36

Conversion Disorder

Answer 36

A disorder characterized by apparently debilitating physical symptoms that appear to be voluntary, but that the person experiences as involuntary.

Question 37

Sick Role

Answer 37

A socially recognized set of rights and obligations linked with illness.

Question 38

Malingering

Answer 38

Feigning medical or psychological symptoms to get what they want.

Question 39

In Kobasa's experiment, hardy individuals exhibited ___ and ___.

Answer 39

Committment and Control.

Question 40

Self-Regulation

Answer 40

The exercise of voluntary control over the self to bring the self into line with preferred standards.