Stress

Question 1

How common is it for college students to be stressed?

Answer 1

90% of students say that at one point in the past year they have been stressed

In the past year 50.9% of students feel like they have unmanaged stress and 49.1% of students feel like they have managed stress (ongoing)

Question 2

How common is it for the general population to be stressed?

Answer 2

Adults are on average at a level 5 of stress (out of 10)
Adults part of gen z are at a 6.1 level of stress (out of 10)

Question 3

What are major sources of stress?

Answer 3

Catastrophic events (natural disasters)
Major life events (divorce)
Daily hassles (forgetting your phone, missing the bus etc)

Question 4

What is stress?

Answer 4

A physiological response to some type of environmental even that is subjectively appraised as being taxing or even exceeding one’s ability to adapt

Question 5

What is a Type A personality?

Answer 5

Competitive, time urgent, hostile and aggressive

Question 6

What is a Type B personality?

Answer 6

Relaxed, patient, easy going

Question 7

How does stress impact physical health?

Answer 7

Prolonged or chronic stress has been linked to every body system
Bone density, stomach cramps, immune system, nausea, increased blood pressure, mood issues etc.

Question 8

What is the General Adaptation Syndrome and what happens at each stage?

Answer 8

Stage 1/Alarm
Sympathetic nervous system is activated due to threat or danger
Heart speeds up, blood is diverted to your skeletal muscles

Stage 2/resistance
Body attempts to cope with stress while you remain on alert
Adrenal glands pump hormones in your bloodstream

Stage 3/Exhaustion
Body exhausts if the stressor remains intense and ongoing
Vulnerable to illness, collapse

Question 9

What is the relationship between stress/arousal and performance (Yerkes-Dodson Law)?

Answer 9

Stress can be helpful to performance
Having some stress if motivating
If arousal is too low, we are unlikely to do something about
Some tension/discomfort causes us to activate our energy

Question 10

What does stress predict as the optimal conditions for performance?

Answer 10

A moderate level of stress is optimal
It allows us to be alert without feeling disorganized
Easy tasks require more arousal because you want to be engaged
Difficult tasks you want less arousal because too much arousal will make you overwhelmed

Question 11

What are the three ways mindset can help manage stress?

Answer 11

Positive reappraisal = assessing the situation again in a positive lens

Present control = attempt to focus your attention on what you have current control over

Downward comparisons = compare yourself to someone that is worse off than you

Question 12

What are the 4 A’s in managing stress

Answer 12

Avoid, alter, accept, adapt

Question 13

Are traumatic events common

Answer 13

yes

Question 14

How is trauma different from stress?

Answer 14

Trauma = a type of stimulus or an event, deeply distressing or severe stressor

Stress = a response, tension discomfort and physical symptoms

Question 15

Is PTSD incurable

Answer 15

no, there are effective treatments for PTSD

Question 16

What types of treatment work?

Answer 16

Treatments that encourage you to face your stressor, (not avoidance)

Question 17

Do we report subjective gains from experiencing a traumatic event? Does our behavior tend to change after a traumatic event?

Answer 17

Two-thirds to three-quarters of people who’ve experience a highly stressful even report some degree of post-traumatic growth

However, many do not show changes in behavior

Question 18

What is a motive?

Answer 18

a reason for doing something, especially one that is hidden or not obvious

Question 19

What is an instinct?

Answer 19

an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli

Question 20

What is the drive-reduction amount of motivation?

Answer 20

all motivation comes from the result of biological needs

Question 21

What is the difference between doing things intrinsically vs. extrinsically?

Answer 21

Intrinsic motivation involves doing something because it’s personally rewarding to you. Extrinsic motivation involves doing something because you want to earn a reward or avoid punishment

Question 22

what is anorexia nervosa? How common is it?

Answer 22

characterized by an abnormally low body weight and an intense fear of gaining weight

1.2 percent of the population

Question 23

What is bulimia nervosa? How common is it?

Answer 23

an emotional disorder involving distortion of body image and an obsessive desire to lose weight, in which bouts of extreme overeating are followed by depression and self-induced vomiting, purging, or fasting

1.6 percent of the population

Question 24

What is the thrifty gene hypothesis?

Answer 24

humans have survival gene variants that provide protection against a “feast or famine” lifestyle

Question 25

What is a performance vs. mastery orientation

Answer 25

Mastery orientation is described as a focus on learning and improvement

Performance orientation refers to a focus on demonstrating competence relative to others

Question 26

What is a fixed vs. growth mindset

Answer 26

Someone with a growth mindset views intelligence, abilities, and talents as learnable and capable of improvement through effort

someone with a fixed mindset views those same traits as inherently stable and unchangeable over time

Question 27

What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

Answer 27

From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological (food and clothing)
safety (job security)
love and belonging needs (friendship)
esteem
and self-actualization

Question 28

What are common examples of self-control failures?

Answer 28

when people are in bad moods and overwhelmed which leads to immediate temptations or impulses

also alcohol consumption or drug consumption can impact self-control

Question 29

What are strategies people use to regulate emotions?

Answer 29

attentional control, (2) cognitive reappraisal, and (3) response modulation