Unit 3 AOS 1 (B): Stress

Question 1

What is Eustress?

Answer 1

Referred to as positive stress

Question 2

What is Distress?

Answer 2

Referred to as negative stress

Question 3

What is chronic stress?

Answer 3

Refers to long term stress

Question 4

What is acute stress?

Answer 4

Refers to intense stress

Question 5

What is a stressor?

Answer 5

Event/something that causes the stress

Question 6

What is stress?

Answer 6

State of physiological or psychological tension

Question 7

What is a stress reaction?

Answer 7

The physiological and psychological impact of stress

Question 8

What are daily pressures?

Answer 8

• Type of acute stress

e. g. Homework, chores, moving house

Question 9

What are life events?

Answer 9

• Significant positive or negative changes

e. g. Death, pregnancy, divorce

Question 10

What is acculturative stress?

Answer 10

• Psychological impact of adapting to a new culture

e. g. Language barriers, racism, separation from past country lifestyle, unemployment

Question 11

What is major stress/catastrophes

Answer 11

• Refers to things that affect whole communities
• Can become chronic or acute stress
  e. g. natural disasters, war, political uprising

Question 12

What are physiological reactions to stress?

Answer 12

• Skin rashes
• Headaches
• Cold/flu

Question 13

What are psychological reactions to stress?

Answer 13

• Changes to sleeping pattern
• Aggression
• Decreased concentration

Question 14

What is the relationship between stress and illness?

Answer 14

• People who are stressed are more susceptible to illness

- Does not cause illness but leads to it becoming more likely

Question 15

Role of the fight-flight-freeze response

Answer 15

• Initial reaction to stressor
• Occurs due to arousal of Sympathetic NS
• An adaptive response
• Gives the body the resources to maximise survival

Question 16

What is the role of Cortisol?

Answer 16

• Important for maintaining the health and well-being of the body when under stress
• If it is activated for a long period of time it depletes

Question 17

Hans Seyle

Answer 17

• Exposed rats to large amounts of stress researched the biological factors relating to stress

Question 18

Stages of GAS

Answer 18

• Alarm reaction
• Stage of resistance
• Stage of exhaustion

Question 19

What is the shock stage of an alarm reaction?

Answer 19

• Body acts as though it is injured

- Blood pressure and body temperature drop

Question 20

What is the stage of resistance?

Answer 20

• Cortisol is released
• Unnecessary functions are shut down
• Individual appears normal

Question 21

What is the stage of exhaustion?

Answer 21

• Below our normal ability to deal with anything
• Resources are depleted
• Immune system is weakened
• More susceptible to illness

Question 22

What is the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)?

Answer 22

• Explains the experience of stress from a physiological perspective
• Seyle believed when an individual is threatened they move through three bodily stages
• Was first made to describe stress from a biological perspective

Question 23

What is the counter-shock stage of alarm reaction?

Answer 23

• Sympathetic NS is activated
• FFF response activated
• Adrenalin released

Question 24

Strengths and limitations of GAS

Answer 24

• Measures a predictable pattern that can be measured in individuals
• Research was not conducted on humans

Question 25

Lazarus and Folkman’s Transactional Model of Stress and Coping

Answer 25

• Stress involves an encounter between a person and their external environment
• Stress response depends upon the individuals interpretation of the stressor and their ability to cope with it

Question 26

What is primary appraisal?

Answer 26

• Evaluating whether the situation is stressful or not and what kind of stress it is
  Challenge = eustress
  Harm/loss = distress
  Threat = distress

Question 27

What is secondary appraisal?

Answer 27

• What resources are there to cope with the stress?

e. g. personality, support networks, money

Question 28

What is problem-focused coping?

Answer 28

What can we actually do to avoid the stress?

Question 29

What is emotional based coping?

Answer 29

Can I change my mindset?

Question 30

What is reappraisal?

Answer 30

Reevaluates primary appraisal

Question 31

Strengths and limitations of Lazarus and Folkman?

Answer 31

• Accounts for individual response

- Lack of empirical evidence (how do I measure stress level?)

Question 32

What is coping flexibility?

Answer 32

• Individual replacing an ineffective coping strategy with another
• Positive outcomes for people with high coping flexibility
• Lower levels of mental illness for people with high coping flexibility

Question 33

What is context-specific effectiveness?

Answer 33

• If there is a good match between coping strategies and stressor

Question 34

What is an approach strategy?

Answer 34

• Behaviours that aim to decrease the stress

Question 35

What is an avoidance strategy?

Answer 35

• Avoiding dealing with the stress to protect yourself from distress
• Maladaptive, unhealthy for individual and unhelpful for relieving stress

Question 36

What are examples of coping strategies?

Answer 36

• Exercise: helps get rid of adrenaline built up from stress
• Social support: other people and networks who may have been in the same position
• Alcohol/drugs: an escape and avoidance strategy