Stress as an example of a psychobiological process Flashcards
Stressor
Stimulus that prompts the stress response
Stress
A psychological and physiological experience that occurs when an individual encounters something of significance that demands their attention and efforts to cope
External stressors
Environmental stressors that originate from outside of the individual such as exams
Internal stressors
Stressors that orginate from within the individual such as rumination
What is the relationship between internal and external stressors?
Both can contribute together to somebody experiencing a stress repsonse
Psychological stress response
How we think or feel about a stressor that differs between different people
Eustress
A positive psychological stress response that involves emotions such as being excited and occurs when the stressor provides a positive opportunity
Distress
A negative psychological stress response that involves emotions such as being upset and occurs when the stressor is a negative circumstance
Physiological stress response
How the body reacts to a stressor that is experienced in similar ways between different people
What is the acute stress response?
flight or fight or freeze
flight response
an organism flees from the stressor
fight reponse
an organism confronts the stressor
freeze response
the body’s immobility and shock in a response to a stressor
Cortisol
a hormone that is released in times of stress to aid the body in initiating and maintaining heightened arousal
How is cortisol released?
Cortisol is released through the adrenal glands
What are two psychological stress responses?
Eustress and distress
What are two physiological stress responses?
Flight, fight or freeze response in acute stress and cortisol release in chronic stress
The gut
The long flexible tube from mouth to anus that is the passageway involved in digestion
What helps maintain gut health?
Many living microorganisms
What is the gut responsible for?
Processing food, absorbing nutrients and seperating waste
Microbiota
All of the microorganisms that live in the gut
Microbiome
All of the genes of microorganisms that live in the gut
microbiota dysbiosis
The gut microbiota is imbalanced, with not enough good bacteria and too much bad bacteria
microbiota symbiosis
The gut microbiota is balanced
What is needed for good gut health?
Diverse nutrients that maintain diverse gut microbiota
The gut-brain axis
New and emerging area of research that involves looking at the connection between the gut and the brain, and how they may interact and influence eachother
enetric nervous system
A subdivison of the automatic nervous system that involves the network of nerves in the gut
The vagus nerve
The longest cranial nerve that connects the gut and the brain, enabling them to communicate
What is the vagus nerve responsible for?
Bidirectionally conveying information between the gut and brain
General Adaption Syndrome
A biological model of stress that explains the various physiological reactions that occur in the presence of stressors
When does a person go through the stages of General Adaption Syndrome?
When confronted with a stressor
What are the three main stages of General Adaption Syndrome in order
Alarm reaction (shock and counter shock) , resistance and exhaustion
Alarm reaction stage
Stage of GAS that occurs when an individual first encounters and becomes aware of a stressor. This is divided into two substages: shock and counter shock
What are the physiological reactions during the shock substage
Momentary decrease in body arousal similar to the freeze response involving Decrease in heart rate and decrease in blood pressure
What are the physiological reactions during the counter shock substage
Increase in body arousal involving increased heart rate and increased blood pressure
Resistance stage
Stage of GAS where levels of bodily arousal remain above normal and heightened with increased cortisol levels
Exhaustion stage
Stage of GAS that involves the depletion of energy levels and bodily resources, resulting in an inability to cope with the stressor
What are strengths and limitations of General Adaption Syndrome?
Strengths- recognises a predictable pattern of physiological responses and provides objective, empirical information
Weaknesses- Based on research conducted on rats, reducing generalisabilty of the model to human population and it only focuses on the biological aspects of stress
Transactional Model of Stress and Coping
Model that proposes that stress is a subjective transaction between an incoming stressor and the personal and environmental factors specific to an individual
Primary appraisal
The initial process of evaluating an incoming stressor that involves a person deciding whether or not a stimulus will cause them to experience stress
What are the three initial ways an incoming stressor can be appraised?
Benign postive (neutral or good), irrelevant and stressful
Apprasial
An act of assessing stress
Benign -positive
An initial apprasial of a stimulus as neutral or good that does not cause stress for an individual
what are three forms of ‘stressful’ appraisal
Harm/loss, threat and challenge
Challenge
A further apprasial of a stressor as potentially providing a positive opportunity
Threat
A further appraisal of a stressor as potentially causing damage in the future
Harm/loss
A further appraisal of a stressor as having caused some damage to the individual
Secondary appraisal
When the individual evaluates whether or not coping resources are available to them
Strengths and limitations of the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping
Strengths - allows one to track the subjective stress response of an individual and human subjects were used as source of data
Limitations-chronological order or appraisal may not be accurate and individuals are not neccessarily aware of why they feel stress
Coping
The process of dealing with stress
Approach strategies
Coping strategies that directly confront the source of the stress and thus reduce or eliminate it eg. making a plan and doing it
Avoidance strategies
Coping strategies that involve distancing oneself from the source of stress eg. distraction
Context- specific effectiveness
Refers to when the coping strategy used is appropriate for the unique demands of the stressor
Coping flexibility
Refers to the ability to adjust or change one’s coping strategies depending on the unique and changing demands of the stressor
