CHAP 4

Question 1

What is stress?

Answer 1

state of mental, emotional, and physiological tension, resulting from a stressor

Question 2

What is a stressor?

Answer 2

event that causes stress/perceived as a threat to our ability to cope

Question 3

What is an internal stressor?

2 points

example?

Answer 3

cause of stress that originates within an individual
can be bother psychological and biological/physiological

high expectations for urself

Question 4

What is an external stressor?

example?

Answer 4

cause of stress that originates outside an individual (event, environmental extreme)

extreme temperatures

Question 5

What is acute stress?

Answer 5

stress usually occurring because of sudden threat, only lasts for short time

Question 6

What is the fight-or-flight-or-freeze stress response?
(acute stress response)

3 symptoms of it?

Answer 6

automatic biological response to perceived stressor that increases our chances of survival in our environment

increased heart rate, sweaty palms, upset stomach

Question 7

What is the ‘flight’ response?

sympathetic or para NS dominant?

Answer 7

involves evading/escaping the stressor

Sympathetic NS is dominant

Question 8

What is the ‘fight’ response?

Sympathetic or para NS dominant?

Answer 8

involves dealing with stressor directly

sympathetic NS is dominant

Question 9

What is the ‘freeze’ response?

Sympathetic or para NS dominant?

Answer 9

involves immobilisation of the body, such as minimising movement/vocal sounds to avoid detection

parasympathetic NS is dominant

Question 10

What is chronic stress?

Answer 10

stress that lasts a long time

Question 11

What is cortisol?

Answer 11

hormone produced by adrenal glands that regulates wide range of bodily processes (metabolism), released in response to stress

Question 12

3 ways cortisol benefits body’s response to stress

Answer 12

1) heightens alertness
2) diverts energy from non-essential functions
3) increases energy

Question 13

What is the gut-brain-axis (GBA)?

Answer 13

connection between the CNS and enteric NS, enabling bidirectional communication between brain and gastrointestinal tract

Question 14

What is the enteric nervous system?

Answer 14

consists of nerve cells lining the gastrointestinal tract and controls digestive system

Question 15

What is the vagus nerve?

Answer 15

connects brain (CNS) to organs within autonomic NS, via nerve fibres that directly link organs (heart, lungs) and intestinal tract.

Question 16

What is gut microbiota?

What is their main function?

Answer 16

microbe population found in gut (digestive system)

digest components of our food + provide us with energy+nutrients

Question 17

How are gut microbiota linked to neurotransmitter levels in the brain?

What does this enable?

Answer 17

certain microbiota in gut involved in regulating production, storage, and release of neurotransmitters by neurons in the ENS.

enables fast signals to be transmitted to brain via vagus nerve

Question 18

3 ways stress influences gut microbiota and how this effects our psychological behaviour?

Answer 18

stress causes changes in gut microbiota+deficiencies in certain bacteria - linked to anxiety+depression

variety of microbe populations in our gut can shape stress responsiveness

treatment with healthy microbiota can reduce anxiety-like behaviour

Question 19

What is Selye’s general adaptation syndrome (GAS)?

Answer 19

biological model of stress that proposes we have a non-specific biological response to stress that occurs in 3 stages

Question 20

Stage 1: alarm reaction stage

What happens in it?

what 2 phases does it consist of?

Answer 20

we become aware of the stressor

shock - body’s ability to deal with stressor falls below normal

countershock - body’s ability to deal with stressor rises above normal

Question 21

Stage 2: resistance stage

What happens in it?

Answer 21

stressor persists, body’s resources are maximised to cope+adapt over time

Question 22

Stage 3: exhaustion stage

What happens in it?

Answer 22

continued depletion of energy stores+high levels of hormones (such as cortisol) decrease resistance to stressor and impair immune system

Question 23

One strength of GAS?

One limitation of GAS?

Answer 23

suggests predictable pattern of responses that can be easily tested in lab

does not acknowledge psychological/cognitive processing involved in human stress response, which affects how much individual experiences stress response

Question 24

What is Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional model of stress and coping?

Answer 24

suggests stress response is only elicited if an event it perceived to exceeds our ability to cope and is based on our appraisal of the situation

Question 25

What is primary appraisal?

Answer 25

when individual determines whether a situation/event is significant to them and stressful or not

Question 26

If event is deemed NOT stressful during primary appraisal, what 2 categories can it be placed in? (explain them)

Answer 26

irrelevant - has no implications for individuals wellbeing bc nothing will be gained/lost, or they are not invested in situation benign/positive - has positive outcome for individual. It either maintains (benign) or enhances (positive) their wellbeing

Question 27

If event is deemed STRESSFUL during primary appraisal, what 3 categories can it be placed in? (explain them)

Answer 27

threat - anticipated harm/loss in future bc of an event harm/loss - damage to individual that has already occurred as result of stressor challenge - perceived potential for personal gain or growth from event

Question 28

What is secondary appraisal?

Answer 28

individual considers available resources + their own coping strategies, to decide best way of dealing with stressor

Question 29

one strength of the transactional model? one limitation of the transactional model?

Answer 29

emphasises personal nature+individuality of stress response, accounting for why individual responses to event vary difficult to test through experimental research bc of subjective nature of individual responses to stress

Question 30

What is a coping strategy?

Answer 30

method used to manage/reduce stress produced by stressor

Question 31

What is coping flexibility?

Answer 31

ability to modify our coping strategies to adapt+meet demands of different stressful situations

Question 32

What is context-specific effectiveness?

Answer 32

when coping strategy matches/is appropriate to stressful situation

Question 33

What are approach strategies? strength? limitation?

Answer 33

effort to confront stressor+deal directly with it and its effects generally considered more adaptive+effective than avoidance strats may increase stress levels while individual is directly engaged with stressor+its causes

Question 34

What is an avoidance strategy? strength? limitation?

Answer 34

effort to avoid stressor+not deal directly with it and its effects allows u to conserve energy to focus on other stressors that can be changed excessive reliance on them increases vulnerability to mental health problems + stress-related physical problems (CVD)