Stress Flashcards
What is stress?
A state of physiological and psychological arousal produced by stressors perceived as a challenge or something that exceeds our ability to cope
What is a stressor?
a stimulus that causes or produces stress and challenges our ability to cope
What is eustress?
a positive psychological response to a stressor
When is eustress experienced?
When stress is beneficial and desireable and not harmful to the body
What is distress?
A negative psychological response to a stressor
When is distress experienced?
When stress is objectionable or undeseriable and can have serious consequences for health
What is the difference in the body’s reaction to eustress and distress?
- the body cannot differentiate
- the sympathetic nervous system is activated in both reacitons (FFF)
What are daily pressures?
- little problems of everyday living that annoy or bother us
- are not necessarily significant in themselves, but when piled ontop of one another can become a major source of stress
What are life events?
- changes that force us to adapt to new circumstances
- have immediate consequences and require longer adjustments
What is acculturative stress?
- the experiene of people trying to adapt to a new culture
- the adopting of values, customs and languages
What are major stressors?
- events that are extremely stressful for almost anyone who experiences them
- often described as psychologically traumatising events and typically involve life-threatening experiences
What are catastrophes?
- sudden, unpredictable, uncontrollable events that cause widespread damage or suffering
- usually affect many people simaultaneously
What do the models of FFF and GAS describe?
patterns of involuntary biological processes that occur in response to a stressor
What is the specific process of FFF?
- exposure to a stressor
- threat is percieved by the amygdala
- message is sent to the hypothalamus
- the sympathetic nervous system is activated
- adrenal glands secrete adrenaline
- hypothalamus activates the HPA axis which releases cortisol
What is the HPA axis?
the interaction of the hypothalamus and pituitary and adrenal glands in response to a stressor
What is the purpose of cortisol?
energises the body by releasing glucose into the body, enhances metabolism and acts as an anti-inflammatory
What happens if the stressor is long-term?
The HPA axis continues to release cortisol which impairs immune system functioning
What are some of the physical problems associated with a prolonged release of cortisol?
colds, flus, hypertension, blood-sugar imbalance, hardening of the arteries
What is the process of GAS?
a three stage physiological response that occurs regardless of the stressor
What is the first stage of GAS?
Alarm reaction
-immediate response
What is the shock stage?
- occurs when the person first becomes aware of the stressor
- body acts as if it is injured and goes into a temporary state of shock
What is the counter-shock stage?
- quick rebound
- sympathetic nervous system is activated (FFF)
- body becomes ready to deal with the stressor
What is the second stage of GAS?
Resistance
- maximises resources to cope and adapt
- all unecessary processes shut down
- cortisol is released into the bloodstream
What is the final stage of GAS?
Exhaustion
- occurs when the stressor is unable to be dealt with
- resources for coping are very weak/nonexistant
- increased vulnerability to physical and mental disorders
What are some of the strengths of the GAS model?
- further understanding of the links between stress and disease
- identifies biological processes associated with stress
- explains potentially detrimental effects of the adaptation process
What are some of the weaknesses of the GAS model?
- ‘one size fits all model’ that assumes each person’s response is the same
- does not take cognitive aspects of stress into account
- results were primarily based on animals
What is the Lazarus and Folkman model?
The main model for explaining stress as a psychological process
What is transactional stress and coping?
an encounter between an individual and their internal environment
What is the primary appraisal?
the assesment of the relevance of a stressor to a particular person
What are the possible outcomes of a primary appraisal?
Benign-positive, Irrelevant and stressful
What are the possible outcomes of a stressful event?
Harm/loss, threat, challenge
What is harm/loss?
an assesment of damage that has already occured
What is a threat?
assesment of damage that could occur in the future
What is a challenge?
an assement of potential for growth or gain
What is a secondary appraisal?
the evaluation of our coping strengths and resources
What are examples of internal resources?
strength and determination
What are examples of external resources?
money, time or support
When is stress felt after the secondary appraisal?
If coping resources are not adequete
What are the strengths of the Lazarus and Folkman model?
- focus on psychological influences
- emphasises individuality of human responses
- model was developed in reference to the human exprience
- individual has an active role
What are the weaknesses of the Lazarus and Folkman model?
- difficult to test through experimental research
- appraisals often happen simaultaneously
- overlooks physiological responses to stress
What are coping strategies?
cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage stressors
What are approach strategies?
- a direct attempt to focus on a stressor
- more adaptive and effective
What are avoidant strategies?
- an inderect attempt to deal with a stressor
- not always maladaptive, only short term
What is context specific effectiveness?
when there is a good match between the coping strategy used and the stressful situation
What is high coping flexibility?
a ready adjustment of coping strategies when found ineffective
What is low coping flexibility?
consistently using the same strategies across situations even if they prove to be ineffective
What are some of the benefits of exercise?
- uses up stress hormones
- releases endorphins
- provides an opportunity for distraction
