Stress

Question 1

What is stress?

Answer 1

Stress is a negative emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological, cognitive, and behavioral changes that are directed toward altering the stressful event or accommodating to its effects.

Question 2

What is a stressor?

Answer 2

stressful events

Question 3

Describe the relationship between stress and a persons appraisal processes…

Answer 3

Stress is a consequence of two types of appraisal processes: primary and secondary.

Question 4

Primary Appraisal

Answer 4

Is about understanding the nature of the event and what it will mean. Events can fall into three categories: harm, threat or challenge.

Question 5

What is ‘harm’ in terms of primary appraisal?

Answer 5

Harm is the assessment of damage already done.

Question 6

What is ‘threat’ in terms of primary appraisal?

Answer 6

Threat is the assessment of possible future damage.

Question 7

What is ‘challenge’ in terms of primary appraisal?

Answer 7

Challenge is the assessment of potential for overcoming or profiting from a stressor.

Question 8

Secondary Appraisal hint COR theory

Answer 8

Secondary appraisals asses whether personal resources are sufficient to meet the demands imposed by the stressful environment

Question 9

According to ‘person-environment fit’ stress is determined by…

Answer 9

the process of appraising events (harmful, threatening, or challenging), resources, and responses.

Question 10

Walter Cannons historical contribution to stress research was his (1932) description of …

Answer 10

The fight or flight model

Question 11

Hans Selye’s (1956, 1976) early contribution to stress was his work on…

Answer 11

General Adaption Syndrome

Question 12

What are the three phases of Selye’s General Adaption Syndrome?

Answer 12

Alarm (mobilize physiological resources),

Resistance (expend them to cope),

Exhaustion (if depletion of physiological resources are accompanied by failure, exhaustion results.)

Question 13

Four criticisms of Selye’s model:

Answer 13

1. Limited role for psychological factors 2. Not all stressors produce the same physiological response 3. Exhaustion fails to account for chronic stress 4. Fails to account for stress that continues after the stressful event is over

Question 14

Taylor and colleagues (2000) theory of responses to stress…

Answer 14

Tend and Befriend

Question 15

Tend and Befriend supplements Fight or Flight by accounting for the fact that people and animals respond to stress with…

Answer 15

social affiliation and nurturing behavior toward offspring. esp women role of oxytocin (affiliation, calming, social and nurturing).

Question 16

Four routes of stress on adverse health outcomes:

Answer 16

• Physiology (HPA, +BP, -Immune Sys)
• Health Behaviors (smoke, drink, -sleep, -exercise, -nutrition)
• Psychosocial Resources (isolation from social support, -behaviors repel social support eg a-hole baboons)
• Health Care (- likely to seek help or follow thru on regimen)

Question 17

A Model of Stress as it relates to Mental and Physical Health Disorders

Answer 17

Question 18

Two physiological systems related to psychological stress:

Answer 18

1. SAM (sympathetic-adrenomedullary) 2. HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical)

Question 19

Sympathetic-adrenomedullary (SAM) system activation….

Answer 19

•Begins in the Cerebral Cortex (appraisal mediating chain reactions) •Information transmitted to Hypothalamus (sympathetic nervous system arousal) which in turn stimulates… •The Medulla of the Adrenal Glands which in turn stimulate the secretion of… •Catecholamines: Epinephrine and Norepinephrine Which are responsible for… • +BP, +HR, +sweating, constriction of blood vessels

Question 20

Parasympathetic nervous system functioning (responsible for restoration after sympathetic nervous system arousal) can also become disregulated in response to stress, resulting in heart rate variability creating a pathway for…. (Hint three negative effects)

Answer 20

+sleep disruption + illness +mortality

Question 21

HPA AXIS

Answer 21

Question 22

Repeated activation of the HPA axis via chronic or recurring stress can alter… and compromise…

Answer 22

alter daily cortisol rythms

alter responses to stressors (over, under or none)

compromise ability to respond and recover from stress

Question 23

Normal daily Cortisol rythms…

Answer 23

Begin with High Cortisol in the Morning

Decrease throughout the day

Peak after lunch

Flatten out at low levels in the afternoon

Question 24

Altered Cortisol leves as a result of chronic stress can show several deviant patterns including…

Answer 24

• Elevated C levels into the afternoon and evening
• Flattening of the diurnal rythm (cortisol/circadian)
• Exaggerated cortisol response to a stressor
• Extended cortisol response after a stressor
• No cortisol response to a stressor

Question 25

Excessive discharge of catecholamines epinephrine and norepinephrine can lead to...

Answer 25

* suppression of cellular immune function * produce hemodynamic changes: +BP and +HR * provoke varations in normal heart rythms: ie ventricular arrhythmias (precursor to sudden death!) * produce neurochemical imbalances (that may contribute to the development of psychiatric disorders. * effect lipid levels, free fatty acids and contribute to the development of atherosclerosis

Question 26

Prolonged cortisol secretion...

Answer 26

1. Compromised immune system functioning 2. Destruction of neurons in the hippocampus leading to problems with: * Verbal functioning * Memory * Concentration 3. +Depression 4. +Belly Fat

Question 27

Which phisiological stress system response may have more significant implications for disease: Sympathetic Adrenal-Medullary SAM (catecholamine: epinephrine and norepinephrine) or HPA (Cortisol)?

Answer 27

HPA This may explain why exercise which produces sympathetic arousal SAM but not HPA activation is health protecting rather than health compromising.

Question 28

T/F people vary in the degree to which they phisiologically react to stress

Answer 28

True

Question 29

Reactivity

Answer 29

is the degree of change that occurs in autonomic, neuroendocrine, and/or immune responses as a result of stress.

Question 30

Variation in individual differences in reactivity between individuals can stem from...

Answer 30

* genetic makeup * prenatal experiences (dutch famine) * early life experiences (touch in babies) * amount of negative life events

Question 31

Allostatic Load

Answer 31

the physiological costs of repeated or chronic stress. (may be thought of as accelerated aging in response to stress) over time can lead to illness and death made worse with poor coping

Question 32

Characteristics of stressful events:

Answer 32

* Negative events are more stressful than positive ones * Uncontrollable, Unpredictable, Unexpected * Ambiguous (resources are drained in an effort to understand the stressor) * Overload (insufficient resources available to meet demands)

Question 33

In which domains are people more vulnerable to stress: central or peripheral?

Answer 33

Central Because importrant aspects of the self are more heavily invested in central life domains i.e. family over work

Question 34

Under which circumstances are people able to adapt and habituate to permenant or chronic stressors?

Answer 34

* Moderate or Predictable Stressors (ie. evironmental noise or crowding) * Exceptions include vunerable populations (ie. children, elderly, and the poor). due to little control and pre-existing levels of high stress.

Question 35

T/F Must one be subjected to a stressor to experience stress?

Answer 35

False Our ability to abstract, worry, and anticipate can induce the stress experience

Question 36

T/F The aftereffects of stress can persist long after the stressful event is no longer present

Answer 36

True

Question 37

List four examples of afteraffects that persist after a stressful event is no longer present:

Answer 37

* Shortened attention span * Poor performance on intellectual tasks * Ongoing physchological distress * Physiological arousal * Social effects include decreased willingness to help others * Worry and Rumination = sustained high levels of BP and HR