Stress Part 1 Flashcards
Stress
Negative emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological, cognitive and behavioral changes
Stressors
Events that cause stress
Identify which of the following is internal and which is external?
Stress
Stressors
Stress = internal
Stressors = external
Primary appraisal
Understanding what an event is and what it will mean
Events are appraised for their harm, threat, or challenge
Secondary appraisal
Assessing whether personal resources are sufficient to meet the demands of the environment
Fight-or-flight response
Definition ?
Which biological systems are activated ?
Body is energized and motivated via the sympathetic nervous system and endocrine system when a threat is perceived
Fight-or-flight response
Result?
Advantage?
Disadvantage?
Results in mobilizing an organism to attack the threat or to flee
Advantage : adaptive
Disadvantage: can be harmful in the long run
General adaptation syndrome (3 stages)
Alarm
Resistance
Exhaustion
Alarm
Person becomes mobilized to meet the threat
Resistance
Effort to cope with threat through confrontation
Exhaustion
Failure to overcome threat and depletes its physiological resources in the process of trying
Tend-and-befriend theory
People and animals respond to stress with:
- social affiliation
- nurturant behavior toward offspring
Which hormone is involved in tend-and-befriend responses?
Neuropeptide oxytocin (love hormone )
HPA Axis
Which hormones are involved ?
Which glands secrete them ?
Hormones:
- corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH)
- adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)
- glucocorticoids (cortisol)
Glands :
- pituitary
- adrenal
Hypercortisolism (Cushing’s Syndrome)
Stress causes the redistribution of fat from one part of the body to another
Cause by high cortisol
Hypocortisolism (Addison’s disease)
Due to low cortisol
Adrenal glands don’t produce enough hormones
Sympathetic nervous system
Activated during the fight-or-flight response
Stimulates the medulla of the adrenal glands
Sympathetic nervous system examples ?
Pupil dilation
Accelerated heart beat
Decreases salvation
Secretion by sweat glands
Four pathways through which stress is thought to cause illness?
Direct physiological effects
Health behavior changes
Psychosocial resources
Health care
Acute stress
Discrete event that is time-limited and has negative valence
Ex: exams, cold
Chronic stress
Ongoing stressful conditions , with no clear onset or offset
Typically long lasting
Ex: depression, cancer
Effects of chronic stress on the brain ?
Hippocampus - Learning, memory, stress control cortisol can make your brain shrink
Allostatic load
Definition ?
Physiological costs of chronic exposure to the physiological changes from repeated or chronic stress
What is also known as “wear-and-tear” on the body due to chronic stress ?
Allostatic load
Examples of measures of allostatic load ?
Elevated blood pressure
Elevated epinephrine levels
Lowered heart rate variability
Inability to shut off cortisol in response to stress
