Stress-Related Disorders

Question 1

What are examples of stress-related disorders?

Answer 1

PTSD & Adjustment Disorder

Question 2

What systems does stress affect?

Answer 2

Endocrine & Autonomic Nervous Systems

Question 3

How does stress affect us?

Answer 3

When the endocrine (hormones) & autonomic nervous systems are aroused, our bodies wear down. This then can wear down our immune system.

Question 4

What is post-traumatic stress disorder? (PTSD)

Answer 4

A stress disorder stemming from a reaction to a traumatic event and constantly reliving the trauma.

Question 5

What are symptoms of PTSD?

Answer 5

Avoidance behavior, reexperiencing the initial trauma (by dreams or association), emotional distress, negative thoughts, impaired functioning, heightened arousal, and emotional distress.

Question 6

What types of drugs would best treat PTSD?

Answer 6

Antihypertensives are commonly used to treat PTSD. One particular drug, Prazosin, is used to treat nightmares that occur with PTSD and helps regulate blood pressure.

Question 7

What types of therapies are commonly used for clients with PTSD?

Answer 7

Exposure therapy and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing). It’s also not uncommon for loved ones of the client to be brought in, as PTSD can affect them secondarily, too.

Question 8

What is adjustment disorder?

Answer 8

A maladaptive reaction to a distressing life event or stressor that develops within 3 months of the onset of the stressor.

Question 9

What are common types of adjustment disorder?

Answer 9

With depressed mood, with anxiety, with mixed anxiety & depressed mood, with disturbance of conduct, with mixed disturbance of emotion & conduct, and unspecified.

Question 10

What is acute stress disorder?

Answer 10

A maladaptive pattern of behavior for a period of 3 days to 1 month following exposure to a traumatic event.

Question 11

What are symptoms of adjustment disorder?

Answer 11

Significant impairment in a social, occupational, or another important area of functioning (such as academic work), or by marked emotional distress exceeding what would normally be expected in coping with the stressor.

Question 12

What are symptoms of acute stress disorder?

Answer 12

Avoidance behavior, reexperiencing the trauma, emotional distress, negative thoughts, impaired functioning, heightened arousal, and emotional numbing.

Question 13

What are theories behind PTSD?

Answer 13

From a classical conditioning standpoint, traumatic experiences are unconditioned stimuli that become paired with neutral (conditioned) stimuli such as the sights, sounds, and even smells associated with the trauma. Ex: the battlefield, or the neighborhood in which someone has been raped or assaulted. Anxiety is the conditioned response elicited by exposure to trauma-related stimuli.

Question 14

What is General Adaptation Syndrome? (GAS)

Answer 14

GAS is a common biological pattern of response to prolonged or excessive stress.

Question 15

What are the 3 stages of GAS?

Answer 15

The alarm stage, the resistance stage, and the exhaustion stage.

Question 16

What is the alarm stage?

Answer 16

This stage mobilizes the body to prepare for challenge or stress. It activates the sympathetic nervous system, which increases bodily arousal, and triggers release of stress hormones.

Question 17

What is the resistance stage?

Answer 17

Also known as the “adaptation stage”, the body tries to renew spent energy and repair damage. Hormone release remains high, but not as high as during the alarm stage.

Question 18

What is the exhaustion stage?

Answer 18

This stage occurs when stressors continue or new ones appear, so the parasympathetic branch of the ANS takes over and our heart and respiration stage decelerate.

Question 19

What is the fight-or-flight response?

Answer 19

This reaction is related to the alarm stage of GAS and was thought to have helped our early ancestors. Once a threat was eliminated, they either fought off predators or fled quickly. The body then reinstated a lower level of arousal that didn’t last long.

Question 20

How do “life events” affect stress?

Answer 20

Recent research shows a stress-illness connection by quantifying life stress in terms of life changes/life events. These changes force us to adjust and adapt to both positive (ex: a wedding) and negative (ex: death of a loved one) events, and both can be stressful in different ways.

Question 21

What is acculturative stress?

Answer 21

Pressure that results from the demands placed on immigrant groups, indigenous peoples, and ethnic minorities to adjust to life in the “mainstream” culture.

Question 22

What is the melting pot theory?

Answer 22

A theory for the relationship between acculturation and psychological adjustment. This theory holds that acculturation helps people adjust to living in the host culture. An example of this would be Hispanic Americans might adjust better by replacing Spanish with English and adopting values and customs associated with mainstream American culture.

Question 23

What is the bicultural theory?

Answer 23

A theory for the relationship between acculturation and psychological adjustment. This theory holds that psychological adjustment is marked by identification with both traditional and host cultures; a person’s ability to adapt to the ways of the new society combined with a supportive cultural tradition and a sense of ethnic identity may predict good adjustment.

Question 24

What are the 2 styles of coping?

Answer 24

Emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping.

Question 25

What is emotion-focused coping?

Answer 25

People take measures that immediately reduce the impact of the stressor, such as denying its existence or withdrawing from the situation. This coping doesn’t eliminate the stressor or help an individual develop better ways of managing it.

Question 26

What is problem-focused coping?

Answer 26

People examine the stressors they face and do what they can to change them or modify their own reactions to render stressors less harmful.

Question 27

What forms can denial of illness take?

Answer 27

1: Failing to recognize the seriousness of the illness.
2: Minimizing the emotional distress the illness causes.
3: Misattributing symptoms to other causes.
4: Ignoring threatening information about the illness.

Question 28

What are self-efficacy expectancies?

Answer 28

Our believed capacity to execute behaviors necessary for producing specific performance results.

Question 29

What is psychological hardiness?

Answer 29

A cluster of traits that may help people manage stress.

Question 30

What are the 3 key traits to psychological hardiness?

Answer 30

Commitment, challenge, and control over their lives.

Question 31

Commitment:

Answer 31

Rather than feeling alienated from their tasks and situations, hardy executives involve themselves fully - that is, they believe in what they’re doing.

Question 32

Challenge:

Answer 32

Hardy executives believe change is the normal state of things, not sterile sameness or stability for the sake of stability.

Question 33

Control over their lives:

Answer 33

Hardy executives believe and act as though they are effectual rather than powerless in controlling the rewards and punishments of life; they have an internal locus of control.

Question 34

Optimism is…

Answer 34

External, unstable, and specific. Seeing the glass as half-full rather than half-empty is linked to better psychological health and emotional wellbeing.

Question 35

What is positive psychology?

Answer 35

A branch of psychology that focuses more of its efforts on the positive aspects of the human experience rather than just the deficit side of the human equation, like optimism, love, hope, and the ability to help others in need and to be helped by others in turn.

Question 36

Pessimism is…

Answer 36

Internal, stable, and global. It stems from a mindset of nothing getting better, no matter what we do, and that bad things happen that are inevitable and out of our control.

Question 37

The importance of optimism and pessimism:

Answer 37

It’s important to have a realistic outlook on both of these. The way we experience these things affects us both physically and emotionally. These factors help us cope with stress properly.