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Introduction to Psychology > Stress, Lifestyle, Health > Flashcards

Stress, Lifestyle, Health Flashcards

1
Q

Stress

A

•A process whereby an individual perceives and responds to events that he appraises as overwhelming or threatening to his well-being

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2
Q

Primary Appraisal

A

•Involves judgement about the degree of potential harm or threat to well-being that a stressor might entail

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3
Q

Secondary Appraisal

A

•Judgement of the options available to cope with stressor, as well as perceptions of how effective such options will be

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4
Q

Benefits of Stress

A

•Motivate us to do things in our best interests and perform to the best of our ability at work

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5
Q

Eustress

A
  • Refers to a good kind of stress associated with positive feelings, optimal health, and performance
  • Moderate amount of stress can be beneficial in challenging situations
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6
Q

Distress

A
  • Refers to when stress exceeds the optimal level

* Individuals feel burned out; fatigued, exhausted, and their performance begins to decline

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7
Q

Health Psychology

A

•A subfield of psychology devoted to understanding the importance of psychological influences on health, illness, and how people respond when they become ill

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8
Q

Various Responses due to Stress

A
  • Physiological (e.g., accelerated heart rate, headaches, or gastrointestinal problems)
  • Cognitive (e.g., difficulty concentrating or making decisions)
  • Behavioral (e.g, drinking alcohol, smoking, or taking actions directed at eliminating the cause of the stress)
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9
Q

Cannon and the Fight-or-Flight Response

A
  • According to Cannon, this response is a built-in mechanism that assists in maintaining homeostasis
  • Occurs when a person experience a very strong emotions, especially those associated with a perceived threat
  • The body is rapidly aroused by activation of both sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system – prepares the person to either fight or flee from a perceived threat
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10
Q

Body Response of Fight-or-Flight

A
  • Pupils dilate
  • Heart rate increases
  • Muscles tense and may tremble
  • Respiration quickens; bronchial tubes dilate
  • Perspiration begins
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11
Q

Selye and the General Adaption Syndrome

A

•Selye engaged in research involving sex hormones in rats

•Although he was unable to find an answer for what he was initially
researching, he incidentally discovered that when exposed to prolonged negative stimulation (stressors) – the rats
showed signs of adrenal enlargement, thymus and lymph node shrinkage, and stomach ulceration

•General Adaption Syndrome – the body’s non-specific physiological response to stress

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12
Q

Three Stages of General Adaption Syndrome

A
  • Alarm Reaction – describes the body’s immediate reaction upon facing a threatening situation or emergency; body alarms you with a cascade of physiological reactions that provide you with the energy to manage the situation
  • Stage of Resistance – initial shock of alarm reaction has worn off and the body has adapted to the stressor; body remains on alert and is prepared to respond, but with less intensity
  • Stage of Exhaustion – no longer able to adapt to the stressor: body’s ability to resist becomes depleted as physical wear takes its toll on the body’s tissues and organs
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13
Q

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis

A

•Set of structures found in both the limbic system (hypothalamus) and the endocrine system (pituitary gland and adrenal glands) that regulate many of the
body’s physiological reactions to stress through the release of hormones

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14
Q

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (ACTH)

A
  • Regulate levels of the steroid hormone cortisol, which released from the adrenal gland
  • Produced in the anterior, or front, pituitary gland in the brain
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15
Q

Cortisol

A
  • Commonly known as stress hormone

* Helps provide a boost of energy when we first encounter a stressor, preparing us to run away or fight

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16
Q

What happens if Cortisol Levels remains High?

A
  • Weakens immune system
  • Contributes to the development of psychological disorders
  • Contributes to the development and progression of a variety of physical illnesses, and diseases
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17
Q

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A

•A chronic stress reaction characterized by experiences and behaviors that may include intrusive and painful memories of the stressor event, jumpiness, persistent negative emotional states, detachment from others, angry outbursts, and avoidance of reminders of the event

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18
Q

Social Re-adjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

A
  • Popular scale designed to measure stress
  • Consists of 43 potentially stressful events, each of which has a numerical value quantifying how much re-adjustment is associated with the event
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19
Q

Daily Hassles

A

•Refers to the minor irritations and annoyances that are part of our everyday lives – can build on one another and leave us just as stressed as life change events

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20
Q

Job Strain

A

•Refers to a work situation that combines excessive job demands and workload with little discretion in the decision making or job control (e.g., inability to decide when to take a break)

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21
Q

Job Burnout

A

•A general sense of emotional exhaustion and cynicism in relation to one’s job

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22
Q

Three Dimensions of Job Burnout

A

•Exhaustion – a sense that one’s emotional resources are drained or that one is at the end of her rope and has
nothing more to give at a psychological level

•Depersonalization – a sense of emotional detachment between the worker and the recipients of his services, often resulting
in callous, cynical, or indifferent attitudes toward these individuals

•Diminished personal accomplishment – tendency to evaluate one’s work negatively

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23
Q

Psychophysiological Disorders

A

•Refers to physical disorders or diseases whose symptoms are brought about or worsened by stress and emotional factors

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24
Q

Types of Psychophysiological Disorders

A
  • Cardiovascular – hypertension, coronary heart disease
  • Gastrointestinal – irritable bowel syndrome
  • Respiratory – asthma, allergy
  • Musculoskeletal – low back pain, tension headaches
  • Skin – acne, eczema, psoriasis
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25
Q

Immune System

A
  • Refers to the body’s surveillance system
  • Consists of a variety of structures, cells, and mechanisms that serve to protect the body from invading toxins and micro-organisms
26
Q

Immunosuppression

A
  • Refers to the decrease effectiveness of the immune system

* More susceptible to any number of infections, illness, and diseases

27
Q

Psychoneuroimmunology

A

•The field that studies how psychological factors such as stress influence the immune system and immune functioning

28
Q

Lymphocytes

A

•White blood cells that circulate in the body’s fluid – important to the immune response

29
Q

Cardiovascular Disorders

A

•Generally refers to conditions that involve narrowed or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain (angina) or stroke

30
Q

Hypertension

A
  • Major risk factor for heart disease

* Forces a person’s heart to pump harder, thus putting more physical strain on the heart

31
Q

What happens if Hypertension is left unchecked?

A

•Hypertension can lead to a heart attack, stroke, or heart failure; it can also lead to kidney failure and blindness

•Serious cardiovascular disorder, and it is sometimes called the silent killer
because it has no symptoms

32
Q

Risk Factors Contributing to Cardiovascular Disorders

A
  • Social determinants – aging, income, education, and employment status
  • Behavioral risk – unhealthy diet, tobacco use, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol consumption
33
Q

Type A

A
  • Individuals tend to be intensively driven workaholics who are preoccupied with deadlines and always seem to be in a rush
  • More prone to heart diseases
34
Q

Type B

A

•Individuals are more relaxed and laid-back

35
Q

Transactional Model of Hostility

A
  • Transactional cycle – reinforcement of hostile behavior
  • Hostile person’s thoughts and feelings – anger, mistrust, devalues others
  • Hostile person’s behavior – hostile, confrontational, defensive, and aggressive
  • Recipient’s response – surprise, avoidance, defensiveness
36
Q

Negative Affectivity

A

•Refers to a tendency to experience distress emotional states involving anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness

37
Q

Benjamin Malzberg

A

•Was the first to recognize the link between depression and heart disease – found that the death rate among institutionalized patients with melancholia was six times higher than that of the population

•In the early 1990s, evidence began to accumulate showing that depressed individuals who were followed for
long periods of time were at increased risk for heart disease and cardiac death

38
Q

Asthma

A
  • A chronic and serious disease in which the airways of the respiratory system become obstructed
  • Airway obstruction caused by inflammation of the airways, and a tightening of the muscles around them, resulting in the narrowing of the airways
  • Often triggered by environmental factors – air pollution, cigarette smoke, airway infections or cold air
39
Q

Psychological Factors in Asthma

A
  • Individuals display high level of negative emotions such as anxiety
  • High levels of emotional distress during both laboratory tasks and daily life have been found to negatively affect airway function and produce asthma-like functions
40
Q

Tension Headaches

A

•Triggered by tightening or tensing of facial and neck muscles

41
Q

Factors contributing to Tension Headaches

A
  • Sleep deprivation
  • Skipping meals
  • Eye strain
  • Overexertion
  • Muscular tension caused by poor posture
  • Stress
42
Q

Problem-focused Coping

A
  • One attempts to manage or alter the problem that is causing one to experience stress
  • Typically involve identifying the problem, considering possible solutions, weighing the costs and benefits of these solutions, and then selecting an alternative
43
Q

Emotion-focused Coping

A
  • Consists of efforts to change or reduce the negative emotions associated with stress
  • Efforts may include avoiding, minimizing, or distancing oneself from the problem, or positive comparison with others (“I’m not as bad as she is”), or seeking something positive in a negative event (“Now that I’ve been fired, I can sleep in for a few days”)
  • Involve reappraisal, whereby stressor is construed differently without changing its objective level of threat
44
Q

Perceived Control

A

•Refers to our beliefs about our personal capacity to exert influence over the shape outcomes, and it has major implications for our health and happiness

45
Q

Favorable Outcomes of having Greater Personal Control

A
  • Better physical and mental health
  • Greater psychological well-being
  • Lower reactivity to stressors
46
Q

Social Support

A

•The soothing impact of friends, family, and acquaintances

47
Q

Different forms of Social Support

A
  • Advice
  • Guidance
  • Encouragement
  • Acceptance
  • Emotional Comfort
  • Tangible assistance (e.g., financial help)
48
Q

Favorable Outcomes of having Social Support

A
  • Lower risk of mortality
  • Research shows that increased sociability was linearly associated with a decreased probability of developing cold
  • Less distress
  • Boosts immune system, especially among people who are experiencing stress
  • Shown to reduce blood pressure for people performing stressful tasks
49
Q

Benefits of Exercising

A
  • Beneficial for both physical and mental health – considerable evidence that physically fit individuals are more resistant to the adverse effects of stress and recover more quickly from stress than less physically fit individuals
  • Prevent telomere shortening
50
Q

Relaxation Response Technique

A
  • Developed by Herbert Benson, a cardiologist

* Combines relaxation with transcendental meditation

51
Q

Four Components of Relaxation Response Technique

A
  1. Sitting upright on a comfortable chair with feet on the ground and body in a relaxed position
  2. A quiet environment with eyes closed
  3. Repeating a word or a phrase – a mantra
  4. Passively allowing the mind to focus on pleasant thoughts
52
Q

Biofeedback

A

•A technique that uses electronic equipment to accurately measure a person’s neuromuscular and automatic activity – feedback is provided in the form of visual or auditory signals

53
Q

Three Elements of Happiness

A
  • The pleasant life –realized through the attainment of day-to-day pleasures that add fun, joy, and excitement to our lives
  • The good life – achieved through identifying our unique skills and abilities and engaging these talents to enrich our lives
  • The meaningful life – involves in a deep sense of fulfillment that comes from using our talents in the service of the greater good
54
Q

Definition of Happiness

A

•An enduring state of mind consisting of joy, contentment, and other positive emotions, plus the sense that one’s life has meaning and value

55
Q

Factors connected to Happiness

A
  • Family and other social relationships

* Increased purchasing power

56
Q

Emotional New Normal

A

•The emotional impact of the event that happened previously tends to erode, and we eventually revert to our original baseline happiness levels

57
Q

Positive Psychology

A
  • Refers to an area of studies that seeks to identify and promote those qualities that lead to greater fulfillment in our lives
  • Looks at people’s strengths and what helps individuals to lead happy, contented lives, and it moves away from focusing on people’s pathology, faults, and problems
58
Q

Positive Affect

A

•Refers to pleasurable engagement with the environment, such as happiness, enthusiasm, alertness, and excitement

59
Q

Optimism

A

•Refers to the general tendency to look on the bright side of things – a significant predictor of positive health outcomes

60
Q

Flow

A

•Described as a particular experience that is so engaging and engrossing that it becomes worth doing for its own sake

61
Q

What happens when people experience Flow?

A

•Individuals become involved in an activity to the point where they feel that they are losing themselves in the activity

Introduction to Psychology (16 decks)

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