Stress and Health

Question 1

Hans Selye

injected rats with chemical that caused ulcers and disrupted the immune system

injected rats with saline and had the same problem

Answer 1

discovery of stress

Question 2

chronic stress negatively effects long-term health due to sustained production of _____

Answer 2

cortisol

Question 3

external demands placed on organism

organism’s internal biological and psychological responses to such demands

Answer 3

stress

Question 4

stress influences

Answer 4

endocrine system
immune system
brain structure and function
gene expression

Question 5

major contributing factors to illness

Answer 5

psychological and behavioral (hypertension, heart disease, cancer)

Question 6

two body systems that respond when stressor is perceived

Answer 6

sympathetic-adrenomedullary (SAM) system

hypothalamic-pituitary adrenocortical (HPA)

Question 7

hypothalamus -> CRH (through bloodstream) -> anterior pituitary -> ACTH (through bloodstream) -> adrenal cortex -> cortisol

Answer 7

HPA axis

Question 8

significant component of multiple DSM diagnostic categories

trauma- and stressor-related disorders

Answer 8

stress and DSM

Question 9

adjustment disorder is a group of symptoms, such as stress, feeling sad or hopeless, and physical symptoms that can occur after you go through a stressful life event

Answer 9

adjustment disorder

Question 10

characterized by the development of severe anxiety, dissociative, and other symptoms that occurs within one month after exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor

Answer 10

acute stress disorder

Question 11

exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violence in one or more of the following ways: direct experience, witnessing it in person, learning it occurred to a family member or friend, repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of event

Answer 11

post-traumatic stress disorder: criterion A event

Question 12

PTSD causing experiences

Answer 12

military combat, prisoner of war/concentration camp/torture experience, traumas caused by human intent, accidents or natural disasters

Question 13

spontaneous memories of the traumatic event, recurrent dreams related to it,
flashbacks or other intense or prolonged psychological distress

Answer 13

intrusion or re-experiencing

Question 14

distressing memories,

thoughts, feelings or external reminders of the event

Answer 14

avoidance

Question 15

represents myriad feelings, from a persistent and distorted sense of
blame of self or others, to estrangement from others or markedly diminished interest in activities, to an
inability to remember key aspects of the event

Answer 15

negative cognitions and mood

Question 16

marked by aggressive, reckless or self-destructive behavior, sleep disturbances, hypervigilance
or related problems

Answer 16

arousal and reactivity

Question 17

causal factors in posttraumatic stress disorder

Answer 17

nature of trauma

individual risk factors

sociocultural risk factors

Question 18

pharmacological treatment for ptsd

Answer 18

antidepressants (SSRIs)

Question 19

psychological treatments for ptsd

Answer 19

prolonged (imaginal) exposure (PE)

cognitive processing therapy (CPT)

Question 20

form of behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy designed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, characterized by re-experiencing the traumatic event through remembering it and engaging with, rather than avoiding, reminders of the trauma

breathing, talking, exposure, recall

Answer 20

prolonged (imaginal) exposure

Question 21

help the client understand and reconceptualize their traumatic event in a way that reduces its ongoing negative effects on their current life

dealing with “stuck points”

decreasing avoidance of the trauma is crucial to this

Answer 21

cognitive processing therapy

Question 22

key characteristics of stressors

Answer 22

severity, chronicity, timing, degree of impact, level of expectation, controllability

Question 23

motivated performance / social stress situation

task engagement

appraisals of coping resources vs. task demands

show psychological processes and how they direct physiological processes/responses systems

Answer 23

biospsychological situation model of challenge of threat

Question 24

resources > demand

Answer 24

challenge

Question 25

SAM activation

low peripheral resistance, high cardiac output

more blood getting to brain = more oxygen

catecholamine have short half-lives so you return to baseline quickly

Answer 25

challenge

Question 26

resources

Answer 26

threat

Question 27

HPA & SAM activation

high peripheral resistance, low cardiac output

less blood and less oxygen to brain

remains elevated for a long time after the event

Answer 27

threat