Module 5.1: What is stress?

Question 1

Behavioral Medicine

Answer 1

a field concerned with psychological factors that may predispose an individual to medical problems (e.g. the effects of stress on the body, including the immune, endocrine, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular systems)

Question 2

Health Psychology

Answer 2

a subspecialty of behavioral medicine concerned with the effects of stress and other psychological factors in the development and maintenance of physical problems

Question 3

Stress

Answer 3

effects stressors create within the organism; an interactive and dynamic construct as it reflects the interaction between the organism and the environment over time (people experience or perceive challenges to our physical or emotional well-being that exceed our coping resources and abilities)

Question 4

What kind of situations can be considered stressful?

Answer 4

All situations that require adjustment are potentially stressful

Question 5

Stressors

Answer 5

external demands

Question 6

Coping Strategies

Answer 6

efforts to deal with stress

Question 7

Hans Selye

Answer 7

Canadian physician and endocrinologist who coined the term stress and the two kinds of stress

Question 8

Eustress

Answer 8

good stress

Question 9

Distress

Answer 9

bad stress

Question 10

What is more taxing between the two kinds of stress: eustress or distress?

Answer 10

Although both eustress and distress can damage a person, distress has the potential to do more damage

Question 11

Trauma- and Stressor Related Disorders

Answer 11

a new diagnostic category under the DSM-5 which explicitly lists down exposure to a traumatic or stressful event as a diagnostic criterion

Question 12

What are the disorders under the trauma- and stressor-related disorders?

Answer 12

1. Reactive attachment disorder
2. Disinhibited social engagement disorder
3. Postttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
4. Acute Stress Disorder
5. Adjustment Disorders
6. Prolonged Grief Disorder

Question 13

What kind of symptoms can people exposed to a traumatic or stressful event can exhibit?

Answer 13

People who are exposed to a traumatic or stressful event can exhibit symptoms such as: (1) anhedonic and dysphoric symptoms, (2) externalizing angry and aggressive symptoms, (3) dissociative symptoms

Question 14

Why was a new category made for stressor-related disorders in the DSM5-?

Answer 14

Although, disorders under this category have symptoms that can be understood in the anxiety- or fear-based context, there are symptoms that cannot be explained in such context which is why stressor related disorders are now a separate category in the DSM

Question 15

Social Neglect

Answer 15

the absence of adequate caregiving during childhood which is a diagnostic requirement of both reactive attachment disorder and disinhibited social engagement disorder