Week 1 - What is Stress? Flashcards
What is the difference between distress and eustress?
Distress is negative stress where we see a stressful even as harmful, eustress is positive stress where we see a stressful even as a challenge.
What is the difference between stress and a stressor?
Stress is a non-specific response that the body makes to demands, while a stressor is the actual event that may cause adjustment to one’s living conditions. Stressor refers to the cause of the stress, whereas stress refers to the effect of the stressor.
Which type of stressor lasts months to years? Which type of stressor lasts minutes to hours?
Chronic; acute
Which type of stressor lasts days to a month?
Subchronic stressors
Name all three of the models that aim to define stress starting from the earliest to the most recent.
(1) Stimulus Model –> suggests stress is external to the individual and is in the environment, which makes a demand on the person
- holds that the stimulus itself is stress
(2) Response Model –> suggests stress is felt internally by the individual, and that stress is the behavioural, emotional, and physical symptoms resulting from demands from the environment
- suggests the stimulus is the stressor
(3) Transactional Model –> suggests stress is actually a transaction between a person and their environment. When a person experiences a stressor, what determines if they can cope or not is whether they have the ability to overcome that stress
- if the stress fits their abilities, eustress may occur
- if the stress does not fit their abilities, distress may occur
What are the two biological models for how we respond to stress? Which one is for minor stress and which one is for chronic stress?
(1) Walter Cannon - Fight/Flight response for minor stress
- body experiences physiological reaction that prepares us to either fight a stressor or flee from the stressor
- disrupts homeostasis in the body
(2) Hans Selye - General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
- made up of 3 stages
- 1. Alarm stage –> fight/flight response
- 2. Resistance stage –> depletion of body’s resources
- 3. Exhaustion stage –> person now becomes susceptible to illness
What is the term that describes the cost that the body pays when exposed to chronic (long term) stressors?
Allostatic Load
Describe the James Lange Theory of Emotion
suggests that we experience a physiological reaction to a stimulus first (ie. heart racing, blood pressure rising), then an emotional response (ie. fear). In other words, we feel emotions because of our physiological reactions.
Describe the Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion.
suggests that we experience emotions first (ie. fear), causing us to have a physiological response (basically the opposite of the James-Lange theory)
Describe the Cognitive Theory of Emotion by Schacter. What is the other name for this theory?
suggests that we first feel physiological reaction, then through cognitive appraisals (interpretation of the event), we will emotionally respond (ie. feel fear or not).
This theory is also known as the two factor theory of emotion.
What are the two limitations to Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) for chronic stress?
(1) does not take into account psychological processes, such as the impact that one’s cognitive appraisal has on their ability to cope
(2) suggests that all stressors result in the same effects (assumes common physiological response to all stressors)
Describe Lazarus & Folkman’s cognitive model of stress and coping.
suggests that there are various steps for someone to become stressed.
(1) Primary appraisal –> person initially perceives their situation to either be threatening or demanding (determining whether a problem exists or not)
(2) Secondary Appraisal –> one determines whether they have the resources to cope with the stress
(3) Reappraisal –> person may change the way they think about the event to reduce stress (reinterpret the situation)
