Stress Flashcards
What is stress?
a cognitive perception of uncontrollability and unpredictability
expressed in a physiological and behavioural response
What are 2 types of stressors?
- acute (ST)
- chronic (LT)
What are the 3 different categories of stress?
life events
daily hassles
catastrophes
What are life events measured with?
Holmes and Rahe
social readjustment rating scale
What are daily hassles measured with?
Hassles and Uplifts scale
What are physical responses to stress?
dizziness
breathing problems
What are emotional / cognitive responses to stress?
depression
low self esteem
What are behavioural responses to stress?
excessive smoking and drinking
over eating
What does homeostasis mean?
the body staying in balance
What type of system is fight or flight according to Walter Cannon?
a united mind-body system
What is the sympathetic branch of the PNS?
fight or flight
What is the parasympathetic branch?
the calming effect
Hans Selye - General Adaptation Syndrome
body reacts with fight or flight response
body resists and compensates by trying to return to normal state
resources become exhausted
What does the SAM pathway stand for?
sympathetic-adrenal-medullary pathway
What is the SAM pathway?
for acute stress, fight for flight
signals hypothalamus
Sympathetic branch of ANS activated
adrenal medulla releases adrenaline and noradrenaline
What is the effect of the SAM pathway?
heart beats faster
blood pumped to vital organs
release of glucose to muscles
What does the HPA pathway stand for?
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal pathway
What is the HPA pathway?
chronic stress
pituitary gland triggers release of ACTH
ACTH then activates adrenal cortex to release cortisol
body stays on high alert until threat passes
What type of hormone is cortisol?
a stress hormone
What system does the SAM pathway affect?
the cardiovascular system
What system does the HPA pathway affect?
the immune system
What is eustress?
positive stress
How is distress and eustress measured?
using the Di-Eu-stress state scale
What is the Yerkes Dodson law?
too high or too low levels of stress lead to weaker performance
What are some examples of psychosocial modifiers of stress?
gender, age , social class, personality
Why do people react differently to major life changes?
because of our appraisal
Lazarus and Folkman (1984) - transactional model of stress
primary appraisal
secondary apraisal
reappraisal
What factor impacts on cognitive appraisal?
internal and external locus of controls
What is problem focused coping methods?
directly confront demands
better when in control of situation e.g planning, changing goals
What is emotion focused coping methods?
behavioural and cognitive strategies for situations that we don’t have control over
e.g seeking social support, venting anger, drinking, re-appraisal
What are 5 outlets for frustration?
- distraction
- social support
- predictability (know something will happen so don’t need to feel stressed)
- control
- perception
What is resilience according to Conner & Davidson (2003)?
capacity to maintain wellbeing in response to adversity or stress
What are 2 core components to stress (Fletcher and Sarker, 2013)?
- adversity
- positive adaptation
How can you measure resilience?
using the Brief resilience Scale (BRS)
What is the stress-eating paradox?
Stress can increase eating in some cases but also decrease it in others
Moss et al - positive relationship with stress and eating findings
Uplifts were associated with a lower level of healthy snack intake
Stone and Brownell (1994) - negative relationship between stress and eating findings
more severe stress = more likely to report decreased eating
Women more likely than men to eat less under high stress
What did systematic reviews find the relationship between stress and food to be like?
small in magnitude
What did the theoretical model of reward-based stress eating find? (Adam & Epel, 2007)
that stress also activates rheumatoid arthritis HPA axis which increases cortisol levels
