Unit 2 Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 3 S’s

A

Sleep, Stress, Self regulation

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2
Q

Why are the 3 S’s important?

A

Interconnected determinants of mental health, resilience and success at uni and other aspects of function

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3
Q

What do the 3 S’s influence?

A

Well-being, mental health and resilience

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4
Q

3 S’s relationship resilience?

A

Help in the development of ways to cope and adapt.
Protect emotional health

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5
Q

Define stress

A

State of emotional strain or unease. It is a normal response to demanding situations or pressured experiences in day-to-day life

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6
Q

What is a common response to stress?

A

Fight or flight response

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7
Q

Is stress adaptive?

A

In the short term yes, it helps keep you safe

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8
Q

What is good stress?

A

Small doses referred to as “eustress” are important for success in day-to-day life and building resilience to better cope with challenging situations

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9
Q

How might stress be beneficial? Give example

A
  • Exam stress: may motivate you to spend more time studying
  • Financial stress: may motivate you to avoid over-spending so that you have enough money to pay for important things
  • Social stress: May motivate you to meet new friends and make new associations
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10
Q

Adaptive vs problematic stress

A

Small amounts of stress can be adaptive. Too much stress can be harmful

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11
Q

Inverted U-Theory

A

Relation between pressure and performance. (shows when stress shifts from helpful to harmful)

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12
Q

Low pressure or stress affect on performance

A

Often results in boredom or weak performance

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13
Q

What happens when pressure starts to increase?

A

Increased attention and interest

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14
Q

What is optimal performance?

A

When more pressure or stress improves performance up to a certain point by prepping us to cope effectively with a challenge

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15
Q

High pressure and stress affect on performance

A

If stress is too high performance will decrease

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16
Q

What level of performance is associated with high anxiety?

A

Impaired performance or distress - can lead to meltdown if effective coping strategies aren’t in place

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17
Q

What factors can influence your response to stress?

A

Thinking (the way you think can influence stress)
Action (how you act can influence stress)

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18
Q

When does optimal performance typically occur?

A

Find spot between boredom and anxiety

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19
Q

What is a flow state?

A

Time when you were caught up in what you were doing - lost sense of self or lost track of time

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20
Q

Why are flow states important?

A

can increase happiness and wellbeing and strongly counteract stress

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21
Q

What are flow states?

A

Can be any activities that give you a chance to reach a flow state

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22
Q

When are flow states most likely?

A
  • Intensely focus on the task and the present moment
  • Only do one thing at a time - Remove distractions
  • Focus on the process rather than the outcome
  • Practise this activity or skill a lot so it becomes automatic
  • Try something that is not too easy, not too hard, but that challenges yourself a little
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23
Q

What happens when stress shifts from helpful to harmful?

A

It is maladaptive and can overwhelm your coping resources and result in significant stress

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24
Q

What feelings do people who experience chronic of overwhelming stress face?

A

Irritability
Fatigue
Difficulty concentrating
Disorganized thoughts
Trouble sleeping

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25
Q

Dost most situations have good and bad stress?

A

yes, the goal is to reach a level of stress where performance is optimal

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26
Q

What is sleep?

A

State of the mind and body characterized by altered or reduced consciousness

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27
Q

Why is good quality sleep important?

A

Essential to your survival and plays a crucial role in both physical and mental health, brain function (emotional regulation and thinking)

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28
Q

Close and bidirectional relationship between sleep and mental health

A

Poor sleep = decrease well being
Poor sleep = mental health = worry, difficulty coping with stress, low self - esteem = decreased well being

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29
Q

What is self-regulation?

A

Control over behaviour, thoughts, and emotion which can interact with each other

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30
Q

Levels of self-regulation

A

Behavioural
Cognitive
Emotional

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31
Q

Behavioural level of self-regulation

A

Involves setting a healthy rhythm to your day, keeping a balanced routine that involves self-care and good sleep hygiene

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32
Q

Why is a consistent rhythm and routine important?

A

Important for a biological clock and rhythms

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33
Q

Cognitive level of self- regulation

A

Involves managing difficult, negative, or intrusive thoughts and worries, and using cognitive strategies to manage stress

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34
Q

What does cognitive self-regulation include?

A

Spotting the thoughts that impact your mood, checking to see if they are accurate and realistic, shifting from warry to problem-solving and planning, looking for positive interpretations, and mentally reframing

35
Q

What does the emotional level of self-regulation include?

A

Slowing yourself down, calming and relaxing yourself when stressed or tense, and pausing and thinking before acting, and acting in accordance with your values

36
Q

What helps with emotional regulation?

A

Sleep, exercise, working with your thoughts

37
Q

How are the 3 S’s interconnected?

A

They can significantly contribute to your ability to increase or decrease your resilience

38
Q

Why are the 3 S’s important?

A

Interconnected determinants of your mental health that can influence one another

39
Q

Underlying mechanisms of stress, sleep and self-regulation

A

Underlying biological, psychological, sociological and behavioural determinants that cause variations in stress, sleep and self-regulation

40
Q

Why are the underlying mechanisms of stress, sleep and self-regulation important

A

They can help you make healthy choices, developing resilience and improving well-being

41
Q

Brain regions/structures important for the initiation and termination of stress

A

Adrenal gland
Hypothalamus
Pituitary gland

42
Q

Hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal (HPA) Axis

A

important part of the biological stress response system

43
Q

Stress response system

A

Stress -> hypothalamus -> anterior pituitary - > adrenal gland

44
Q

What is your response to stress influenced by?

A

How thoughts, bodily sensations, feelings, and behaviours all interact together. This relationship is represented in the fatigue

45
Q

Unhelpful vs helpful response to stress?

A

Psychological factors that interact to produce a response to stress

46
Q

Social factors that influence stress?

A

Can increase or prolong stress. Early history of trauma or neglect, feeling excluded, poverty, limited social support

47
Q

What populations have increased stress or poor mental health?

A

BIPOC, LGBTQ2+, Disabilities, refugees, asylum seekers, lower socio-economic backgrounds

48
Q

Social factors that reduce stress?

A
  • Supportive social network
  • Strong social identity
  • Sense of agency
  • Sense of belonging
  • Heard and listened too
  • access to opprotunities
49
Q

Intra- and inter- individual differences

A

Genetic make-up and early life experiences, together with more recent social and psychological factors can impact how sensitive or reactive you are to stress

50
Q

Risk factors for increased stress?

A

Perfectionism and self-doubt

51
Q

What is perfectionism

A

Tendency to set unrealistically high expectations for yourself and/or others

52
Q

Why is perfectionism a risk factor for increased stress?

A

Increases vulnerability for anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, and looks to be increasing in young people

53
Q

What is imposter syndrome?

A

When you compare yourself to other people and think you aren’t good enough or don’t belong

54
Q

Ways to tackle perfectionism, self-criticism, and self-doubt

A
  • Focus on strengths
  • Avoid comparisons
  • Mindfulness and self-compassion
  • Good enough
  • Challenge your beliefs
  • Growth mindset
55
Q

What is allostatis (equilibrium)?

A

Process of responding to a challenge or stressor by triggering various biological and chemical processes to maintain balance

56
Q

Wear-and-Tear or allostatic load?

A

Results from chronic or overwhelming stress. (Ex. Includes chronic overactivity or sensitivity of the HPA axis – always firing and difficulty finding equilibrium)

57
Q

Signs and symptoms of chronic or overwhelming stress?

A
  • Cognitive changes (difficulty concentrating, attention, memory problems)
  • Emotional changes (moodiness, mood swings)
  • Physical changes (muscle tension, stomach issues)
  • Behavioural changes (sleep, eating, social withdrawal, substance use)
58
Q

What is sleep?

A

A state of the mind and body characterized by altered or reduced consciousness

59
Q

What triggers sleep?

A

Complex interactions between different hormones and biological cues

60
Q

What brain structures are involved in sleep?

A

Hypothalamus plays important role in arousal

61
Q

Two basic types of sleep?

A

Non rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (stages 1-3) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (stage 4)

62
Q

What is stage 1 (non-REM) sleep?

A

the change from being awake to being sleep. It is relatively brief, lasting for only several minutes, and is characterized by light sleep that may involve

63
Q

Characteristics of Stage 1 (non-REM) sleep?

A
  • Slowing heartbeat, breathing, and eye movements
  • Relaxation of muscles
  • Brainwaves begin to move slow
64
Q

What is stage 2 (non-REM) sleep?

A

Period of light sleep before you enter deeper sleep.

65
Q

Characteristics of Stage 2 (non-REM) sleep?

A
  • Further slowing down of heart beat and breathing
  • Eye movements stop
  • Deeper muscle relaxation
  • Body temp drops
  • Brainwaves slow even more but show brief bursts of activity
66
Q

What is Stage 3 of sleep?

A

Type of sleep you need to feel awake and refreshed the next day. It usually occurs in longer periods during the first half of the night

67
Q

Characteristics of Stage 3 sleep?

A
  • Further slowing of heart beat, and breathing. (Period when they’re the slowest!)
  • Deeper muscle relaxation
  • Brainwaves slow even more
  • It may be difficult to wake you up
68
Q

What is stage 4 of sleep?

A

The first stage involving REM. REM sleep first occurs after the three non-REM stages (often about 50 mins after you have fallen asleep)

69
Q

Characteristics of stage 4 sleep?

A
  • Rapid eye movements
  • Breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure increase to be close to waking levels
  • Brain waves have mixed frequency and start to resemble brain waves when you are awake
  • Most (but not all) dreaming occurs when in REM sleep
  • Your limbs become temporarily paralyzed so that you don’t act on your dreams
70
Q

Why is REM sleep important?

A

Resets mental state

71
Q

What happens to REM sleep over the course of the night?

A

REM episodes get longer in duration with most REM happening in the last third of the night

72
Q

Why are the stages of sleep different in older people?

A

Older people spend less time in stages 3 & 4, or deep sleep. They tend to wake up more which interrupts the sleep cycle

73
Q

What benefits does sleep have?

A
  • Cognitive
  • Emotional
  • Physical
  • Mental
  • Behavioural
74
Q

Important biological component of self-regulation?

A

involves staying in tune with our bodies naturally-occurring rhythms and cycles

75
Q

What are circadian rhythms?

A

Naturally occurring process, which forms your biological clock

76
Q

Why are circadian rhythms important?

A

Ensure that your body is optimized at the correct time of the day through biological processes such as regulation of the sleep-wake cycle, energy levels, brainwave activity, and others

77
Q

Importance of biological rhythms?

A

Disrupted circadian rhythms can result in a variety of serious cognitive, emotional, physical and behavioural changes

78
Q

Healthy Strategies for stress?

A
  • self care
  • talk to someone
  • take a break
  • self-compassion
  • practice mindfulness
  • self-compassion
79
Q

Healthy strategies for sleep?

A
  • Routine
  • Environment
  • Consumption
  • Exercise
  • Mindfulness (clear mind)
  • Support (non-medical and medical sleep aid)
  • reduce worry
80
Q

Healthy strategies for behavioural self-regulation?

A
  • daytime/bedtime routine
  • avoid shifted sleep schedule
  • avoid disruptions in sleep schedule
81
Q

Healthy strategies for emotional self-regulation

A
  • practice mindfulness
  • cognitive skills (reframing)
  • maintain a healthy lifestyle
82
Q

What triggers CRH release from the hypothalamus

A

the sudden onset of this stressor

83
Q

What is the role of CRH?

A

Stimulates the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) from the anterior pituitary

84
Q

Where is glucocorticoid secreted from?

A

adrenal gland as the end product of the axis