fight or flight response

Question 1

how does the body enter flight or fight stage

Answer 1

1. amygdala and hypothalamus in the brain detects an acute stress situation
2. activates sympathetic branch of the nervous sytem
3. message sent to adrenal medula to release hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline

Question 2

what are the main effects of fight or flight response

Answer 2

• blood is diverted away from the skin and to the vital organs increasing heart rate and blood pressure
• rapid respiration occurs to boost the supply of oxygen to the brain

Question 3

what is the purpose of the bodys psychiological changes

Answer 3

• to help humans surive a dangerous situation: either ti run away or defend yourself
• shuts down all non essential systems to preserve energy

Question 4

how does the body return to it’s normal resting state

Answer 4

• parasympathetic branch of ANS reverse the effects and brings body to a state of rest and digest

Question 5

weakness: limited

Answer 5

I: human behaviour is not limited to just just two responses
E: gray - suggests first response to danger is to avoid confrontation altoghether, which is demonstated by the freeze response. during response humans are hyper vigalant while they deicde their best course of action
C: suggests fight or flight explanation is limited as it doesn’t fully explain the complex cognitive and biological factors that underpin human response to stress/danger

Question 6

weakness: females

Answer 6

I: doesnt explain the response fully - specifically in females
E: Taylor et al suggests that female adopt a tend and befriend response in stressful/dangerous situations. women are more likely to protect their offspring (tend) and form alliances with other women (befriend), rather than fight or flee
highlights the issue with bete bias within this area of psychology as psychologists just assumed that females resond in the same way until taylor et al
C: while origional explanation may have been limited in its application to females, it has promted more recent research providing alternate explanations

Question 7

weakness: health

Answer 7

I: one weakness is that it can have a negative effect on helath in modern day life
E: while the response may have been useful for our ancestors who faced genuinley life threating situations, modern life raley requires such intese biological reactions