Stress Flashcards
How common is it for college students to be stressed?
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)
How common is it for the general population to be stressed?
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)
What are major sources of stress?
Catastrophic events (natural disasters)
Major life events (divorce)
Daily hassles (forgetting your phone, missing the bus etc)
What is stress?
A physiological response to some type of environmental even that is subjectively appraised as being taxing or even exceeding one’s ability to adapt
What is a Type A personality?
Competitive, time urgent, hostile and aggressive
What is a Type B personality?
Relaxed, patient, easy going
How does stress impact physical health?
Prolonged or chronic stress has been linked to every body system
Bone density, stomach cramps, immune system, nausea, increased blood pressure, mood issues etc.
What is the General Adaptation Syndrome and what happens at each stage?
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
What is the relationship between stress/arousal and performance (Yerkes-Dodson Law)?
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
What does stress predict as the optimal conditions for performance?
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
What are the three ways mindset can help manage stress?
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
What are the 4 A’s in managing stress
Avoid, alter, accept, adapt
Are traumatic events common
yes
How is trauma different from stress?
Trauma = a type of stimulus or an event, deeply distressing or severe stressor
Stress = a response, tension discomfort and physical symptoms
Is PTSD incurable
no, there are effective treatments for PTSD
What types of treatment work?
Treatments that encourage you to face your stressor, (not avoidance)
Do we report subjective gains from experiencing a traumatic event? Does our behavior tend to change after a traumatic event?
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
What is a motive?
a reason for doing something, especially one that is hidden or not obvious
What is an instinct?
an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli
What is the drive-reduction amount of motivation?
all motivation comes from the result of biological needs
What is the difference between doing things intrinsically vs. extrinsically?
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
what is anorexia nervosa? How common is it?
characterized by an abnormally low body weight and an intense fear of gaining weight
1.2 percent of the population
What is bulimia nervosa? How common is it?
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
What is the thrifty gene hypothesis?
humans have survival gene variants that provide protection against a “feast or famine” lifestyle
What is a performance vs. mastery orientation
Mastery orientation is described as a focus on learning and improvement
Performance orientation refers to a focus on demonstrating competence relative to others
What is a fixed vs. growth mindset
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
What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
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
What are common examples of self-control failures?
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
What are strategies people use to regulate emotions?
attentional control, (2) cognitive reappraisal, and (3) response modulation
