Stress Flashcards
Define stress
Anything which throws the body out of homeostatic balance (Saplosky, 1994).
What are the two types of stress?
Acute Stress and Chronic Stress
Name 3 sources of stress
Environmental, psychological, physiological
True or False
Stress is up to individual interpretation
True
What is considered stressful, may not be considered stressful to someone else.
How do hormones regulate stress?
Bring our bodies back to homeostasis.
What is Norpinephrine also known as?
Noreadrenaline
What is epinephrine also known as?
Adrenaline
Which hormone, epinephrine or norepinephrine, is continulously in the body?
Norepinephrine
What is the function of Norepinephrine?
Continuously in the bloodstream, narrowing blood vessels to increase blood pressure.
What is the function of Epinephrine?
- Released when acutely stressed
- Increases heart rate, blood pressure, blood flow to brain and muscles.
What systems do Epinephrine and Norepinephrine stimulate?
Respiratory and Cardiovascular system
Describe the Stress Response System using the HPA axis.
- Something stressful happens.
- Hypothalamus sends a neuronal signal to activate the adrenal medullae.
- This secretes epinephrine and norepinephrine.
- Hormonally, the hypothalamus then releases CRH, which stimulates ACTHrelease from the pituitarygland.
- ACTH stimulates cortisolsecretion from the adrenalglands
How does the hormonal response to stress stimulate our fight or flight response?
- Uses energy to confront the stress, or run away from it.
When is CRH and ACTH released in the body?
After the release of epinephrine from the adrenal gland.
Where does ACTH come from?
The pituitary gland
Where does CRH come from?
The Hypothalamus.
True or False.
The hypothalamus sends a hormonal signal to the adrenal gland to stimulate secretion of norepinephrine and epinephrine.
False.
This is a neuronal signal.
What is glucocorticoids also known as?
Cortisol
What is the primary function of cortisol?
A steriod hormone that shuts down any function which may get in the way of a fight or flight response.
Describe the negative feedback in the HPA axis.
- Cortisol regulates the production of CRH (from the hypothalamus) and ACTH (from the pituitary gland).
- This ensures no overproduction.
Describe the three stages of general adaptational effects of stress.
1) Alarm
2) Resistance
3) Exhaustion
Name the study which studies General Adaptational Effects of Stress?
Seyle et al. (1950)
List 1 problem which arises from Seyle et al’s (1950) study.
- A threshold is not determined between each phase.
- Makes it difficult to help individuals, as there is no awareness to the duration/ time stamp of each phase.
List 5 acute response adaptations of the body from stress.
- Energy storage to energy use.
- Inhibitted digestion and growth.
- Enhanced cognition.
- Decreased pain perception
- Increased cardiovascular tone.
List 5 chronic response adaptions of the body from stress.
- Fatigue.
- Peptic ulcers from inhibited digestion
- Psychsocial dwarfism
- Inhibited repair and growth of the body (Glaser et al., 1995)
- Accelarted neuronal degeneration (Gould et al., 1990)
Name the study which describes norepinephrine and epinephrine levels.
Benschop et al. (1998)
Describe the findings from Benschop et al (1996) study.
- Studied parachute jumper’s norepinephrine and epinephrine levels before and after jumping.
- Shows that stress responses are adaptive.
- The body can learn that a stressor is not part of a survival situation.
List two studies which describe prenatal stress in humans.
- Van Os and Selten (1998)
- Weinstock (1997)
Describe the findings from Van Os and Selten (1998) study.
- Found pregnant, stressed mothers to give birth to Schizophrenic children.
- Provides evidence for activational/ organisational effects of cortisol.
Describe the findings from Weinstock’s (1997) study.
- Mothers with high cortisol gave birth to children who were smaller.
- Cortisol effected the growth hormones of the foetus.
What effects can cortisol have on prenatal rats.
- Perminently changes the rats HPA axis.
- Blunts cortisol concentrations in the body.
- Limitting effects on evolutionary survival benefits.
What are immunization effects?
Where the body is “immune” to a concept or substance.
Which study researched immunization effects in rats?
Lui et al (1997)
Describe Lui et al’s (1997) study.
- Presented rats with a stressful stimulus at birth.
- Rats in later life were more resistant to stressful stimulus.
- Displayed immunization effects.
What is one disadvantage of Lui et al’s (1997) study?
- The effect is unknown in humans.
- We do not know the threshold between mild and harsh.
List the study which explains neonatal stress in humans.
Gunnar et al. (2001)
Describe the study by Gunnar et al. (2001)
- Studied romanian orphan children 6-12 years after being adopted out of the orphanage.
- Compared to Canadian control children.
- Children adopted out before 8 months old displayed the same cortisol levels as Canadian born children.
- Children adopted out after 8 months of age displayed higher cortisol levels.
What are the 4 ways to cope with stress?
1) Control
2) Predictability
3) Habitution
4) Outlet for frustration
Who researched control mechanisms of Stress?
Weiss (1998)
Describe Saplosky et al. (1992) study to predict stressors.
- Put two rats in a box.
- Rat with a light signal to a indicate an incoming stressor showed lower levels in stress.
Describe Saplosky et al’s (1992) study who studied outlets of frustration to stress.
Giving a block of wood for rats to chew showed reduced levels in stress.
List two pieces of research who studied outlets of frustration to stress.
Saplosky et al. (1992)
Soussignan and Koch (1985)
Describe Soussignan and Koch’s (1985) study
Found leg swinging in children as an outlet to stress.
What does habituation mean?
Getting used to a stressor.
