Chapter 16: Stress and Health Flashcards
Stessors
Specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten the person’s well-being
- crazy drivers, hectic deadlines, fires, the weather
- Have both immediate and cumulative effects that can influence health
Stress
the phsycial and psychological response to internal or external stressors
Health Psychology
the sub-field of psychology concerned with ways psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illness and the maintenance of health
Chronic Stressors
sources of stress that occur continuously or repeatedly
Fight-or-Flight Response
an emotional and physiological reaction to an emergency that increases readiness for action
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
a three-stage physiological stress response that appears regardless of the stressor that is encountered
- the response doesn’t vary, no matter what hte source of the repated stress

Immune System
a complex response system that protects the body from bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances
Lymphocytes
cells that produce antibodies that fight infection
Type A Behavior Pattern
a tendency toward easily aroused hostility, impatience, a sense of time urgency, and competitive achievement strivings
Post-Traumatic Stess Disorder
(PTSD)
chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and avoidance of things that call the traumatic event to mind
Burnout
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
Repressive Coping
characterized by avoiding situations or thoughts that are reminders of a stressor and maintaining an artifically positive viewpoint
- example: when repressors suffer a heart attack, they are less likely than other people to report intrusive thoughts of their heart problems in the days and weeks that follow
Rational Coping
facing the stressor and working to overcome it
- Three-Step process
- acceptance, coming to realize that the stressor exists and cannot be wished away;
- exposure, attending to the stressor, thinking about it, and even seeking it out
- understanding, working to find the meaning of the stressor in your life
Reframing
finding a new or creative way to think about a stressor that reduces its threat
- example: you might reframe by shifting from thinking of and audience as evaluating you to thinking of yourself as evaluating them, and this might make speech-giving easier
Stress Inoculation Training (SIT)
a reframing technique that helps people to cope with stressful situations by developing positive ways to think about the situation
- example: in one study, people who had difficulty controlling their anger were trained to rehearse thoughts such as “Just roll with the punches; don’t get bent out of shape”, “you don’t need to prove yourself’ etc
Relaxation Therapy
a technique for reducing tension by consciously relaxing muscles of the body
- a person in relaxation therapy may be asked to relax specific muscle groups one at a time or to imagine warmth flowing through the body or to think about a relaxing situation
Relaxation Response
a condition of reduced muscle tension, cortical activity, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure
Biofeedback
the use of external monitoring device to obtain information about a bodily function and possibly gain control over that function
Social Support
aid gained through interacting with others
Psychosomatic Illness
an interaction between mind and body that can produce illness
Somatoform Disorders
the patient displays physical symptoms not fully explained by a general medical condition
Hypochondriasis
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
Somatization Disorder
combinations of multiple physical compaints that have no medical explanation
Conversion Disorder
a disorder characterized by apparently debilitating physical symptoms that appear to be voluntary - but that the person experiences as involuntary
- example: a patient lying in bed with a “paralysis” of the leg might inadvertenly move it to retain balance when the other leg is lifted by the physician