Chapter Six: Stress Flashcards
Def: stress
negative emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological, cognitive, and behavioral changes.
Usually aims at altering a stressful event or changing to adapt to it.
Def: Stressors
stressful events themselves, or something that causes one to be stressed.
Def: primal appraisal
attempting to understand what an event is and what it will mean.
Def: a threat
is an assessment of any possible future damage(s).
Events are appraised for their _________, threat, or challenge.
harm
Def: secondary appraisal
assessing whether personal resources are sufficient to meet the demands of our environment.
When one’s resources are more than needed with a hard situation, they don’t feel that stressed and perceive the situation as a challenge.
Def: person-environment fit
results from the process of appraising events, assessing potential resources, and responding to the events.
Def: fight-or-flight response
when your body is aroused & motivated via the SPNS and the endocrine system when a threat is perceived. Usually results in your involuntary ability to be mobilized in order to either attack the threat or run from it.
Pros & Cons to the fight-or-flight response:
Pros: very adaptive
Cons: stress can disrupt one’s emotional & physiological functioning. Causes one to freeze in place due to the high amounts of cortisol.
Def: General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
a description of the process of how your body can respond to stress. Has 3 stages.
Leads to enlarged adrenal cortex, shrinking of the thymus & lymph glands, & ulceration of the stomach & duodenum (digests the food in the stomach).
3 Stages of GAS:
Alarm Reaction Stage
Resistance Stage
Exhaustion Stage
Def: Alarm Reaction Stage
1st stage of the general adaptation syndrome. This is when your body first sends out a stress signal to your brain which will release adrenaline. You will experience high blood pressure and high heart rate levels
Def: Resistance Stage
2nd stage of GAS. One’s body will employ the Parasympathetic nervous system. Which will happen after your stress has subsided. However, your body will stay in alert which will go back to the reaction state if the stressor continues.
Recovering from the stress.
Def: Exhaustion Stage
This is the 3rd stage of GAS. This usually happens due to prolonged stress. Your body has gone thru an extended period of stress which will eventually cause your body to feel unequipped to ward off stress. Which will have you prone to developing mattress related conditions.
What happens if the stressor doesn’t subside during the Resistance stage of GAS?
If you are still stressed, the reaction stage will continue. Afterwards, the resistance stage will reoccur resulting in lowering blood pressure along with heart rate and adrenaline.
Why was the General Adaptation Syndrome criticized?
Has a limited role in psychological factors.
Not all stressors can have the same biological responses.
Ppl’s reactions to stress are always different per person due to personality, past experiences, etc.
Continued activation accumulates the most damage to one’s psychological systems.
Fails to address the debilitating effects of stress.
_________ is released during stressful events bc it acts momentum for affiliation
Oxytocin
Def: tend-and-befriend
a theory that states that people & animals respond to stress with social affiliation & nurturant behavior towards their offspring.
It has an underlying biological mechanism, oxytocin.
Def: oxytocin
a stress hormone, rapidly released in response to some stressful events, & its effects are especially influenced by estrogen, suggesting a particularly important role in responses to women to stress. Acts as the momentum for affiliation in both animals & ppl, increases affiliative behaviors of all kinds, especially for mothers.
How does stress contribute to illness?
Stress leads to poor health
Physiological effects: high blood pressure, decreased ability of the immune system to fight off infection, changes in lipid levels & cholesterol.
Engage in poor health habits (smoking, poor nutrition, less sleep, little exercise, & use of illegal substances.
Stress causes one to not seek treatment
Chronic inflammation, even at a lower level, can cause many diseases including coronary artery disease.
Health behavior changes due to stress includes:
Increased smoking and/or alcohol use
Decreased nutrition
Decreased sleep
Increased drug use
Poor diet
Little to no exercise.
Def: reactivity
degree of change that happens in autonomic, neuroendocrine, & slash or immune responses as a result of high cortisol.
Studies suggest that ___________ reactivity to stress is an important factor that influences the stress-illness relationship.
psychobiological
Dimensions of stressful events:
Negative events
Uncontrollable events
Ambiguous events
Overload
Central life domains
