Chapter 3A Flashcards
stress
stressor
A stressor is any stimulus that can cause stress, they may be internal or external, these stressors cause a stress response
what is stress
Stress is a psychological and
physiological (biological) response to
a stimulus, referred to as a stressor
Stressors are stimuli that are
perceived to challenge our ability to
cope, prompting a stress response
Stressors can be internal or external
internal stressors
- originate within a person
can be:
Biological: nervous
system dysfunction,
pain, illness, sleep
deprivation, hunger
etc
Psychological:
emotions, mindset,
expectations, attitude,
rumination, self
esteem etc
external stressors
- originate outside a person
can be:
Sociocultural: daily
pressures, life events,
adjusting to new
cultures, loss of
relationships etc
Environmental: loud
noises, extreme
temperature, natural
disasters etc
eustress
Eustress is a positive psychological response to a stressor.
For example: motivation, enthusiasm, alertness, excitement
distress
Distress is a negative psychological response to a stressor.
For example: anger, anxiety, nervousness, tension
acute stress
Acute stress is a form of stress with intense psychological and
physiological symptoms that are brief/short-lived.
It is important for survival – an organism must quickly respond to
danger and activate physiological responses to survive in the face
of a stressor
chronic stress
chronic stress is stress that involved high levels of arousal and persists over a long period time
psychological stress response
a psychological stress response refers to changes to our affective, behavioural and cognitive functioning when we experience stress
affective component of psychological stress response
our affective reaction involves changes to our emotions, when experiencing a psychological stress response, we have have varies emotional changes or experince anxiety or depression
behavioural component of psychological stress response
our behavioural rection refers to our actions, for examples when stressed, we may exhibit reduced efficiency at work or in our studies or demonstrate impulsive behaviours
cognitive component of psychological stress response
our cognitive reaction refers to our thinking, this may involve difficulty concentrating, or an inability to engage with logical thinking
physiological stress response
a physiological (biological) stress response refers to changes within our body when we experience stress.
- when we experience a physiological stress response, our sympathetic nervous system is dominant therefore the changes we experience when the sympathetic nervous system is active, such as increased heart rate, increased breathing rate, dilation of pupils
response to acute stress: fight flight freeze response
our body responds to acute stress experiences as a result of immediate threat through the immediate activation of the figh-flight-freeze response. this is an involuntary response in readiness to
- flight: flee to escape the threat and run away to safety
- fight: confront and attack the threat or defend oneself
- freeze: keep still and silent to avoid being detected whilst being highly alert and tense
the role of cortisol and the HPA axis in dealing with chronic stress
when we experience chronic stress, where there are heightened levels of arousal for a prolonged period of time, the flight or fight or freeze response cannot sustain itself. so the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis is activated which is a slower longer lasting response to stress which induces the release of cortisol into the bloodstream
