HW410 Chapter 1: “The Nature of Stress"

Question 1

What does the CDC estimate that one third of the US population, a country where the standard of living is the highest, is on?

Answer 1

Antidepressents. And 1 in 3 people also suffer from some chronic disease.

Question 2

Define Stress

Answer 2

The experience of a perceived threat (real or imagined) to one’s mental, physical, or spiritual well-being, resulting from a series of physiological responses and adaptations.

Question 3

What has become so fast and furious in today’s society that one cannot find an anchor and it underpins stress in society?

Answer 3

Change… This is a result of advancements in life whether it be information sharing, cellphones, and so on that keeps us in a sense of perpetual sense of uneasiness.

Question 4

What does AIS stand for?

Answer 4

American Institute of Stress

Question 5

According to the AIS, What % of adults suffer from adverse health effects due to stress and What % of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related complaints or disorders?

Answer 5

43; 80.

Question 6

What do some experts speculate is the amount of diseases and illnesses are stress-related?

Answer 6

70 to 85%

Question 7

What are diseases whose pathology develops over a period of several years, and perhaps even decades?

Answer 7

Lifestyle diseases.

Question 8

What type of disease does substantial research correlate stress to?

Answer 8

Autoimmune diseases.

Question 9

How often does CHD kill people according to the AHA?

Answer 9

1 person a minute.

Question 10

According to the ACS, cancer claims how many lives?

Answer 10

1 out of 4

Question 11

What physiologist is the “father of stress” and its implications on disease?

Answer 11

Hans Selye

Question 12

What has the average workweek expanded to?

Answer 12

60 hours/week

Question 13

In a survey done by Expedia, how many Americans don’t have time to use all of their vacation days?

Answer 13

1 out of 3

Question 14

What definition describes A healing approach that honors the integration, balance, and harmony of mind, body, spirit, and emotions to promote inner peace. Every technique used in stress management is considered to support the concept of —————.

Answer 14

Holistic Medicine

Question 15

What 1914 Harvard Physiologist coined the term, flight-or-fight response to describe the dynamics involved in the body’s physiological arousal to survive a threat?

Answer 15

Walter Cannon. Body’s reaction to acute stress is now commonly referred as the stress reaction.

Question 16

Define Stress reaction

Answer 16

The body’s initial (central nervous system) reaction to a perceived threat.

Question 17

Define Freeze Response

Answer 17

Part of the stress response wherein the individual neither fights nor flees but freezes like a deer caught in headlights, paralyzed as if the person has forgotten to run.

Question 18

Discuss the 4 stages of the fight or flight response.

Answer 18

Stage 1: Stimuli from one or more of the five senses are sent to the brain.

Stage 2: The brain deciphers the stimulus as either a threat or a nonthreat. If the stimulus is not regarded as a threat, this is the end of the response. If, however, the response is decoded as a real threat, the brain then activates the nervous and endocrine systems to quickly prepare for defense and/or escape.

Stage 3: The body stays activated, aroused, or “keyed-up” until the threat is over.

Stage 4: The body returns to homeostasis, a state of physiological calmness, once the threat is gone.

Question 19

Define Homeostasis

Answer 19

A physiological state of complete calmness or rest; markers include resting heart rate, blood pressure, and ventilation.

Question 20

What is tend and befriend?

Answer 20

Tend and befriend: A theory presented by Shelley Taylor that states that women who experience stress don’t necessarily run or fight, but rather turn to friends to cope with unpleasant events and circumstances.

Question 21

What is the biological basis of the tend and befriend response?

Answer 21

The hormon oxytocin. And it is regarded as the “trusting hormone” and the “social affiliation hormone”.

Question 22

Since oxytocin is found in women and, at a lesser degree, men why do women use it so much?

Answer 22

Estrogen is known to enhance the effects of oxytocin in the brain. It is believed this mix of these chemicals override stress hormones so pronounced in women’s male counterparts.

Question 23

What are the gender-specific behaviors men and women partake in?

Answer 23

Men tend to think of solutions to problems while women like to talk about problems.

Question 24

What are stress-based conversations called that when merely talking about stressors tend to perpetuate rather than solve one’s stressors?

Answer 24

Co-rumination (stress-based conversations between women as a means of coping by finding support among friends.)

Question 25

What is good stress; any stressor that motivates an individual toward an optimal level of performance or health.

Answer 25

Eustress

Question 26

What is any kind of information or sensory stimulus that is perceived as unimportant or inconsequential?

Answer 26

Neustress

Question 27

What is the unfavorable or negative interpretation of an event (real or imagined) to be threatening that promotes continued feelings of fear or anger; more commonly known simply as stress?

Answer 27

Distress

Question 28

What are two kinds of stress?

Answer 28

Acute and Chronic

Question 29

Define Acute Stress

Answer 29

Stress that is intense in nature but short in duration.

Question 30

Define Chronic Stress

Answer 30

Stress that is not as intense as acute stress but that lingers for a prolonged period of time (e.g., financial problems).

Question 31

What theory that some stress (eustress) is necessary for health and performance but that beyond an optimal amount both will deteriorate as stress increases.

Answer 31

Yerkes-Dodson principle

Question 32

Define Stressor

Answer 32

Any real or imagined situation, circumstance, or stimulus that is perceived to be a threat.

Question 33

What are the three different categories of stressors?

Answer 33

bioecological, psychointrapersonal, and social

Question 34

What are three categories or biological rhymes in chronobiology? And what are their definitions?

Answer 34

Circadian rhythms: Biological rhythms that occur or cycle within a 24-hour period (e.g., body temperature) that create the body’s internal clock, also known as chronobiology. These can be affected by stress, causing a disruption that is even more stressful to the body. (body temperature)

Ultradian rhythms: Biological rhythms that occur many times in a 24-hour period (e.g., hunger pangs, stomach contractions, cell divisions). These can be affected by stress.

Infradian rhythms: Biological rhythms that occur in periods longer than 24 hours (e.g., women’s menstrual period). These can be affected by stress.

Question 35

What is the physiological response to lack of sunlight that results in feelings of depression otherwise known as artic winter madness?

Answer 35

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Question 36

What is the most prevalent stressor and are the perceptions of stimuli that we create in our own mental processes (perceptions and interpretations)?

Answer 36

Psychointrapersonal Influences

Question 37

What stressor includes the of stress include financial insecurity, the effects of relocation, cultural assimilation issues, some technological advances, violation of human rights, and low socioeconomic status, to name but a few.

Answer 37

Social

Question 38

What did the APA 2015 stress survey highlight as the account for significant levels of personal stress, all of which impact personal health?

Answer 38

Perception of discrimination

Question 39

Who is Richard Lazarus?

Answer 39

Renowned stress researcher credited with the concept of daily life hassles. He hypothesized in 1984 that the accumulation of acute stressors or daily life hassles, such as locking your keys in your car, playing phone tag, or driving to work every day in traffic, are just as likely to adversely affect one’s health as the death of a spouse.

Question 40

What are occasional hassles, like locking your keys in your car; when combined with many other annoyances in the course of a day, these create a critical mass of stress?

Answer 40

Daily Life Hassles

Question 41

What were the three stages in Hans Selye’s rat experiment where he studied the flight-or-fight response and the physiological effects of chronic stress? Selye noted that several physiological adaptations occurred as a result of repeated exposures to stress, adaptations that had pathological repercussions.

Answer 41

Stage one: Alarm reaction. The first stage of Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, in which a threat is perceived and the nervous system is triggered for survival.

Stage two: Stage of resistance. The second stage of Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, in which the body tries to recover.

Stage three: Stage of exhaustion. The third and final stage of Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, in which one or more target organs show signs of dysfunction.

Question 42

A term coined by Hans Selye; the three distinct physiological phases in reaction to chronic stress: the alarm phase, the resistance phase, and the exhaustion phase.

Answer 42

General adaptation syndrome or GAS. (a process in which the body tries to accommodate stress by adapting to it.) Many of these changes were very subtle and often went unnoticed until permanent damage had occurred.

Question 43

What has been quoted the “Black Death” plague of the 21st century?

Answer 43

Stress

Question 44

What is insomnia?

Answer 44

Poor-quality sleep, abnormal wakefulness, or the inability to sleep.

Question 45

What is the #2 symptom of stress in America behind muscle tension?

Answer 45

Insomnia

Question 46

How much less sleep do Americans get from their 19th century conterparts?

Answer 46

20%

Question 47

In a recent survey by the NSF, what percent of Americans suffer from poor sleep quality?

Answer 47

60%

Question 48

What are factors that affect one’s quality of sleep, from hormonal changes and shift work to excessive caffeine intake?

Answer 48

Sleep Hygiene

Question 49

What are the three categories of insomnia?

Answer 49

transient (short term with one or two weeks affected), intermittent (occurs on and off over a prolonged period), and chronic (the inability to achieve a restful night of sleep over many, many months).

Question 50

What is important to remember about sleep?

Answer 50

Its not a relaxation technique. Studies show that heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension can rise significantly during the dream state of sleep. Effective stress coping skills and relaxation techniques greatly enhance one’s quality of sleep.

Question 51

What are some ways you can improve your sleep quality?

Answer 51

Avoid drinking any beverages with caffeine after 6:00 p.m., as the effects of caffeine on the nervous system promote a stress response rather than a relaxation effect.
Daily physical exertion (cardiovascular exercise) is a great way to ensure a good night’s sleep.
Keep a regular sleep cycle. Make a habit of going to bed at the same time every night (within 15 minutes) and waking up about the same time each morning (even on weekends).
Enhance your sleep hygiene. Create a sleep-friendly environment where bright light and noise are minimized or completely eliminated and sheets, pillows, and comforters easily lull you to slumberland.
Avoid screentime right before you go to bed. Instead, try reading.
Honor a media curfew by not using your screen devices after 8:00 p.m. to allow your pineal gland to make the sleep hormone melatonin.
Make your bedroom a tech-free zone. Avoid using your smartphone and/or tablet in the bedroom, even as an alarm clock, and turn off your Wi-Fi router before you crawl under the covers.

Question 52

What is a paradigm shift?

Answer 52

Moving from one perspective of reality to another.

Question 53

What is a mechanistic model?

Answer 53

A health model based on the concept that the body is a machine with parts that can be repaired or replaced.

Question 54

Who was Rene Descartes?

Answer 54

A seventeenth-century scientist and philosopher credited with the reductionistic method of Western science (also known as the Cartesian principle). He is equally renowned for his influential philosophy of the separation of mind and body as well as the statement, “I think, therefore I am.”

Question 55

Who is Isaac Newton?

Answer 55

An eighteenth-century physicist whoadvocated the mechanistic paradigm of the universe, which was then adapted to the human body.

Question 56

With those previous 4 terms,

what substantial change has happened after 375 years or so of thought about the mind and the body?

Answer 56

For the past 375 years or so, Western culture has adopted a mechanistic model of reality, influenced in large part by the philosophy of René Descartes that the mind and body are separate, and by the laws of physics created by Isaac Newton, some of which are believed to have been inspired by Descartes. The mechanistic paradigm compares the universe and all its components to a large mechanical clock, where everything operates in a sequential and predictable form. When it was first developed, the mechanistic model, also called the reductionist model, seemed to logically explain nearly every phenomenon.

Question 57

Who issues the statement saying, “The existing definition of health should include the spiritual aspect, and that health care should be in the hands of those who are fully aware of and sympathetic to the spiritual dimension.”

Answer 57

The World Health Organization.

Question 58

Who changed how the Newtonian paradigm was viewed when it was seen as the ultimate truth in the 20th Century?

Answer 58

Albert Einstein - A world-renowned theoretical physicist who revolutionized perceptions of reality with the equation E = mc2, suggesting that everything is energy. His later years focused on a spiritual philosophy including pacifism.

Question 59

What did Einstein stay that is supports the mind-body relationship?

Answer 59

all matter is energy, and furthermore, all matter is connected at the subatomic level. No single entity can be affected without all connecting parts similarly being affected.

Question 60

What is the integration, balance, and harmony of mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being through taking responsibility for one’s own health; posits that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts?

Answer 60

Wellness paradigm

Question 61

How many Americans in a 1993 study sought healing in integrative modalities?

Answer 61

One third and they were mostly paying out of pocket!

Question 62

A 2008 study done by the NCCIH indicated how many Americans (adults and children) were using forms of integrative medicine?

Answer 62

50%

Question 63

What are the 4 well-beings and how are they described?

Answer 63

Mental well-being: The ability to gather, process, recall, and communicate information.

Physical well-being: The optimal functioning of the body’s eight physiological systems (e.g., respiratory, skeletal).

Emotional well-being: The ability to feel and express the full range of human emotions and to control these feelings, not be controlled by them.

Spiritual well-being: The state of mature higher consciousness deriving from insightful relationships with oneself and others, a strong value system, and a meaningful purpose in life.

Question 64

Summary Chapter 1

Answer 64

The advancement of technology, which promised more leisure time, has actually increased the pace of life so that many people feel stressed to keep up with this pace.
Lifestyles based on new technological conveniences are now thought to be associated with several diseases, including coronary heart disease and cancer.
Stress is a term from the field of physics, meaning physical force or tension placed on an object. It was adopted after World War II to signify psychological tension.
There are many definitions of stress from both Eastern and Western philosophies as well as several academic disciplines, including psychology and physiology. The mind-body separation is now giving way to a holistic philosophy involving the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual components of well-being.
Cannon coined the term fight-or-flight response to describe the immediate effects of physical stress. This response is now considered by many to be inappropriate for nonphysical stressors.
There are three types of stress: eustress (good), neustress (neutral), and distress (bad). There are two types of distress: acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term), the latter of which is thought to be the more detrimental because the body does not return to a state of complete homeostasis.
Stressors have been categorized into three groups: (1) bioecological influences, (2) psychointrapersonal influences, and (3) social influences.
Holmes and Rahe created the Social Readjustment Rating Scale to identify major life stressors. They found that the incidence of stressors correlated with health status.
Selye coined the term general adaptation syndrome to explain the body’s ability to adapt negatively to chronic stress.
Females are not only wired for fight-or-flight, but also have a survival dynamic called “tend and befriend,” a specific nurturing aspect that promotes social support in stressful times.
Stress can appear at any time in our lives, but the college years offer their own types of stressors because it is at this time that one assumes more (if not complete) responsibility for one’s lifestyle behaviors.
The association between stress and insomnia is undeniable. The United States is said to be a sleep-deprived society, but techniques for stress management are proven effective to help promote a good night’s sleep, including physical exercise, biofeedback, yoga, and diaphragmatic breathing.
Previous approaches to stress management have been based on the mechanistic model, which divided the mind and body into two separate entities. The paradigm on which this model was based is now shifting toward a holistic paradigm, in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and the whole person must be treated by working on the causes as well as the symptoms of stress.
Effective stress-management programming must address issues related to mental (intellectual), physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.