Environmental - Stressors in the Environment Flashcards

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1
Q

Stress and Stressors (Background)

A
  • Stress - the response we get when the demands of our environment are greater than the capacity we have to deal with
  • Stressors - any stimulus that requires an adjustment or an adaptation in order to be able to deal with it
  • Internal stressors - worry or anxiety
  • External stressors - noise, overcrowding or temperature
  • The biological response to stress is sometimes described as the ‘fight or flight’ reflex
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2
Q

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) (Background)

A

Describes the process your body goes through when you are exposed to any stress
Stage 1: Alarm - a threat or stressor means that the body prepares itself for fight or light
Stage 2: Resistance - if the situation continues, the body tires to adapt to cope with the long term demands of the stressful situation
Stage 3: Exhaustion - ultimately the bodily resources will become depleted; this is where damage to the body starts to occur

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3
Q

Short term stress system; SAM (Background)

A
  • Sympathetic-Adrenal Medullary system
  • Faster system as it communicated with the brain through nerves
  • Higher brain centres → Hypothalamus → ANS → Adrenal Medulla → Release of adrenaline and noradrenaline
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4
Q

Long term/chronic stress system; HPA (Background)

A
  • Pituitary Adrenal System
  • Slower system as it communicates with the brain through the blood
  • Higher brain centres → hypothalamus → pituitary gland → adrenal cortex → release of corticosteroids
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5
Q

Noise as an environmental stressor (Background)

A
  • Noise - any unwanted sound, especially one that is loud, unpleasant or that causes disturbance
  • Intensity of noise is measured in decibels
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6
Q

Bronzaft - Noise and affect on education (Background)

A
  • Looked at the effect on reading ability in children who had their lessons in classrooms near train tracks and found they had a significantly lower reading ability than those children on the quieter side
  • After major noise reduction work had been carried out at the school, classroom location no longer had an effect on reading ability
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7
Q

Evans, Bullinger and Hygge - Noise and affect on health (Background)

A

Found that children attending a school near an airport had higher noradrenaline levels and higher BP than children in quieter areas

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8
Q

Noise at work (Background)

A
  • Tornei et al (2010) - people that work in very noisy environments suffer from high BP
  • Glass and Singer (1972) - when ps were exposed to loud noise they showed less ability to persist at a task when the noise was removed; cognitive overload
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