stress and health (chapter 11) Flashcards
● Know how psychologists define stress and how stress is different from a stressor.
Stress is an unpleasant reaction to challenging circumstances. Stressors are the circumstances that cause the stress
● Be able to describe how appraisal is involved in stress, including the difference between primary and secondary appraisal, the stress appraisal process, the order in which it occurs
Appraisal is how you evaluate the things that happen to you. Primary determines how stressful it is, Secondary evaluates if you are capable of handling the situation.
● Know how everyday hassles cause significant stress when they accumulate, and how they compare to life events (the amount of change, as discussed in class).
Hassles are minor inconveniences that can add up to cause significant stress
● Know what the general adaptation syndrome is, including what happens at each stage, and what types of stress are related to an increase in physical illnesses.
The way bodies respond to ongoing stress consists of alarm reaction, resistance(blood pressure, temperature),exhaustion (in some cases death)
● Know how stress affects the immune system and contributes to illness (both directly and indirectly, including what hormones and how the immune system is impacted), what psychophysiological disorders are, and what Psychoneuroimmunology is
Stress wears down the immune system. Psychophysiological illnesses are any illness that stress can cause such as heart disease, common cold, and even cancer. Psychoneuroimmunology relationship between psychological factors and immune system
Understand the Yerkes-Dodson relationship between arousal and performance, and how this relationship differs across task complexity
Difficult tasks are performed better under low levels of stress. Easy task are performed better at high levels of stress
● Know how certain personality traits correlate with high or low stress levels.
There are 4 types of personalities:
Type A: highly competitive(high stress)
Type B: easy going(low stress)
Type c: low emotion (low stress)
Type :lots of negative emotions (high stress)
● Know how stress contributes to different psychological disorders.
Can contribute to almost any psychological disorder such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, schizophrenia
● Know how psychologists define coping
coping : strategies that make stressful situations less stressful
● What is the difference between problem-focused coping and emotion-focused, and what are examples of these types of coping mechanisms?
Problem focused changes the problem, emotion focused decreases the emotional distress. For example problem focused would be scheduling your assignments to not miss one while emotion focused is to buy yourself a coffee for being brave.
● Know about the importance of social support to emotional and physical health, including the different types of social support discussed in class and the text.
Different types of social support is:
Emotional: validation
Appraisal: evaluate seriousness
Information: advice
Instrumental: material
● Know how to decrease stress with exercise
Doing aerobic exercises reduces stress and health risks
