Chapters 11-12 Discovering Psychology Vocabulary Flashcards
A negative emotional state occurring in response to events that are perceived as taxing or exceeding a person’s resources or ability to cope.
Stress
Developed by Richard Lazarus, a model of stress that emphasizes the role of an individual’s evaluation (appraisal) of events and situations and of the resources that h or she has available to deal with the event or situation.
Cognitive appraisal model of stress
If we perceive our resources as adequate to deal with a situation, we will experience:
little or no stress
If we perceive our resources as being inadequate to deal with a situation we see as threatening, challenging, or even harmful, we will experience:
The effects of stress
Whether we experience stress depends largely on: (2)
- Cognitive appraisal (evaluation) of an event2. The resources we have to deal with the event.
Many people begin to experience feelings or relaxation and calmness when they focus their attention on the things in their life for which they are thankful.- Make a list of of people, circumstances, or items for which you are thankful
Gratitude list
Actively expressing this is linked to better physical health, better relationships, and lower levels of stress and depression.
Gratitude
The branch of psychology that studies how biological, behavioral, and social factors influence health, illness, medical treatment, and health-related behaviors.
Health psychology
The belief that physical health and illness are determined by the complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors.
Biophychosocial model
Events or situations that are perceived as harmful, threatening, or challenging.
Stressors
Everyday minor events that annoy and upset people.
Daily hassles
An unhealthy condition caused by chronic, prolonged work stress that is characterized by exhaustion, cynicism, ad a sense of failure or inadequacy.
Burnout
The stress that results from the pressure of adapting to a new culture.
Acculturative stress
A rapidly occurring chain of internal physical reactions that prepare people to either fight or take flight from an immediate threat.
Fight-or-flight response
Hormones secreted by the adrenal medulla that cause rapid physiological arousal, including adrenaline and noradrenaline.
Catecholamines
Hormones released by the adrenal cortex that play a key role in the body’s response to long-term stressors.
Corticosteroids
Hans Selye’s term for the three-stage progression of physical changes that occur when an organism is exposed to intense and prolonged stress. The three stages are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
General adaptation syndrome
Repeated, duplicate DNA sequences that are found at the very tips of chromosomes’ genetic data during cell division.
Telomeres
Body system that produces specialized white blood cells that protect the body from viruses, bacteria and tumor cells.
Immune system
Specialized white blood cells that are responsible for immune defenses.
Lymphocytes
An interdisciplinary field that studies the interconnections among psychological processes, nervous and endocrine system functions, and the immune system.
Psychoneuroimmunology
Accounting for negative events or situations with external, unstable, and specific explanations.
Optimistic explanatory style
Accounting for negative events or situations with internal, stable, and global explanations.
Pessimistic explanatory style
A behavioral and emotional style characterized by a sense of time urgency, hostility, and competitiveness.
Type A behavior pattern
The resources provided by other people in times of need.
Social support
Behavioral and cognitive responses used to deal with stressors, involves our efforts to change circumstances, or our interpretation of circumstances, to make them more favorable and less threatening.
Coping
Coping efforts primarily aimed at directly changing or managing a threatening or harmful stressor.
Problem-focused coping
Coping efforts primarily aimed at relieving or regulating the emotional impact of a stressful situation.
Emotion-focused coping
A technique in which practitioners focus awareness on present experience with acceptance.
Mindfulness meditation
Branch of psychology that studies how a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior are influenced by the presence of other people and by the social and physical environment.
Social psychology
An individual’s unique sense of identity that has been influenced by social, cultural, and psychological experiences; your sense of who you are in relation to other people.
Sense of Self
The mental process people use to make sense of their social environments.
Social cognition