Study unit 7.1 Stess and coping

Question 1

Stress

Answer 1

Any circumstances that threaten or are perceived to threaten one’s well being and tax one’s coping abilities.

Question 2

Appraisals

Answer 2

The experience of feeling stressed depends on what events one notices and how one appraises them. They are particularly crucial determinants of stress reactions. It is in the eye of the beholder and is thus highly subjective.

Question 3

Primary appraisal

Answer 3

An initial evaluation of whether an event is:

1) irrelevant to you
2) relevant but not threatening
3) stressful

Question 4

Secondary appraisal

Answer 4

An evaluation of one’s coping resources and options for dealing with the stress.

Question 5

Frustration

Answer 5

Whenever the pursuit of some goal is thwarted.

Question 6

Conflict

Answer 6

Two or more incompatible motivations or behavioral impulses compete for expression.

Question 7

Approach-approach conflict

Answer 7

A choice must be made between two attractive goals

Question 8

Avoidance-avoidance conflict

Answer 8

A choice must be made between two unattractive goals

Question 9

Approach-avoidance conflict

Answer 9

A choice must be made about whether to pursue a single goal that has both attractive and unattractive aspects.

Question 10

Life-changes

Answer 10

Any substantial alterations in one’s living circumstances that require readjustment.

Question 11

Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

Answer 11

The scale assigns numerical values to forty-three major life events. These values are supposed to reflect the magnitude of the readjustment required by each change.

Respondents are asked to indicate how often they experienced any of these events during a certain time period. The numbers associated with each checked event are then added. This total is an index of the amount of change-related stress the person has recently experienced.

Question 12

Pressure

Answer 12

Expectations or demands that one behave in a certain way.

Question 13

Emotional responses

Answer 13

There are some strong links between specific cognitive reactions to stress (appraisals) and specific emotions.

Common responses:

1) annoyance, anger and rage
2) apprehension, anxiety and fear
3) dejection, sadness and grief

Question 14

Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions

Answer 14

1) It alters people’s mindsets, broadening their scope of attention and increasing their creativity and flexibility in problem solving
2) Can undo the lingering effects of negaive emotions and thus short-circuit the potentially damaging physiological responses.
3) Promote rewarding social interactions that help to build valuable social support and enhanced coping strategies
4) Enhanced immune response

Question 15

Inverted-U hypothesis

Answer 15

Predicts that task performance should improve with increased emotional arousal - up to a point, after which further increase in arousal becomes disruptive and performance deteriorates.

If a task becomes more complex, the optimal level of arousal (for peak performance) tends to decrease.

Question 16

Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome

Answer 16

A model of the body’s stress response, consisting of three stages: alarm, resistance and exhaustion.

Question 17

Alarm reaction

Answer 17

When an organism first recognizes the existence of a threat. Physiological arousal occurs as the body musters its resources to combat the challenge. (Fight or flight)

Question 18

Resistance

Answer 18

Physiological changes stabilize as coping efforts get under way. The organsim becomes accustomed to the threat.

Question 19

Exhaustion

Answer 19

The body’s resources for fighting are limited. If stress can’t be overcome, the body’s resources may be depleted. Eventually, the organism will experience hormonal exhaustion, leading to diseases of adaptation.

Question 20

Brain-body pathways

Answer 20

There are two major pathways along which the brain sends signals to the endocrine system (glands located at various sites in the body that secretes hormones) The hypothalamus initiates action along these pathways.

Question 21

Autonomic nervous system (1st pathway routed through)

Answer 21

The hypothalamus activates the sympathetic division, involving stimulating the central part of the adrenal glands (adrenal medulla) to release large amounts of catecholamines into the bloodstream making the body mobilized for action.

Question 22

Direct communication between the brain and endocrine system (2nd pathway)

Answer 22

The hypothalamus sends signals to the pituatiry gland (master gland), secreting ACTH that stimulates the outer part od the adrenal glands (adrenal cortex) to release corticosteriods, stimulating the release of chemicals that help increase energy and inhabit tissue inflammation.

Question 23

Neurogenesis

Answer 23

Formation of new neurons

Question 24

Coping

Answer 24

Efforts to master, reduce or tolerate the demands created by stress

Question 25

Learned helplessness

Answer 25

Passive behavior produced by exposure to unavoidable aversive events. Believing that events are beyond control.

Question 26

Albert Ellis’s catastrophic thinking

Answer 26

Becoming highly self-critical in response to stress, which causes aggravates, and perpetuates emotional reactions to stress that are often problematic.

Question 27

Aggression

Answer 27

Any behavior that is intended to hurt someone, either physically or verbally

Question 28

Frustration-aggression hypothesis

Answer 28

Aggression is always caused by frustration

Question 29

Sigmund Frued’s catharis

Answer 29

Refers to the release of emotional tension. Behaving aggresively could get pent-up emotion out of one’s system and thus be adaptive.

Question 30

Kimberly Young’s internet addiction

Answer 30

Excessive gaming, preoccupation with sexual content and obsessive socializing

Exhibit:

1) Excessive time online
2) Anger and depression when thwarted
3) Escalating need for equipment and connections
4) Adverse consequences such as arguments and lying about Internet use, social isolation, and reductions in academic/work performance

Question 31

Defense mechanisms

Answer 31

Largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions.

Question 32

Self-deception

Answer 32

Distorting reality so it doesn’t appear so threatening

Question 33

Roy Baumeister’s optimal margin of illusion

Answer 33

Extreme distortions of reality are maladaptive, but small illusions can be beneficial.

Question 34

Constructive coping

Answer 34

Relatively healthy efforts that people make to deal with stressful events

1) Confronting problems directly
2) Reasonable realistic appraisals of stress and coping resources
3) Reappraising events in less stressful ways
4) Making efforts to ensure the body is not especially vulnerable to potential damaging effects of stress

Question 35

Coronary heart disease

Answer 35

Reduction in blood flow in the coronary arteries

Question 36

Meyer Friedman & Ray Rosenman

Answer 36

Discovered an apparent connection between coronary risk and the Type A personality syndrome, which involves self-imposed stress and intense reactions to stress.

Question 37

Type A personality

Answer 37

1) strong competitive orientation
2) impatience and time urgency
3) anger and hostility

Question 38

Type B personality

Answer 38

Relatively relaxed, patient, easygoing, amicable behavior

Question 39

Immune response

Answer 39

The body’s defensive reaction to invasion by bacteria, viral agents, or other foreign substances

Question 40

Biopsychosocial determinants of health

Answer 40

Stress, genetic endowment, exposure to infectious agents and environmental toxins, nutrition, exercise, alcohol and drug use, smoking, use of medical care, and cooperation with medical advice

Question 41

Crum, Salovey, and Achor

Answer 41

People’s stress mindset is likely to shape their psychological experience of stressful events and their behavioral reactions. A stress-is-enhancing mindset should be associated with intermediate arousal in response to stress and more effective coping strategies. Stress-is-debilitating vs stress-is-enhancing.

Question 42

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)

Answer 42

A disorder in which the immune system is gradually weakened and eventually disabled by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).