Test 3: Chapter 14 Flashcards
1
Q
stressors
A
- one-off events or chronic XP that place demands on us or threaten our well-being
- have both immediate and cumulative effects that can influence health
2
Q
stress
A
- the internal psychological and physical responses we have to stressors
3
Q
Sources of Stress
A
- Major one-off events
- chronic experiences
- lack of perceived control over stressors
4
Q
Major one-off events
A
- Ppl are more likely to get ill after losing loved one, experiencing major singular event of trauma
- Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale
- ~70 pts for divorce
- ~50 pts for marriage ha!
5
Q
chronic experiences/stressors
A
- Daily Hassles(difficult commute, bad home relationships(toddler w/ temper tantrums), not getting a promotion, discrimination)
- Don’t individually cause much stress, but the combo is killer
- environmental chronic stressors: city life, pollution
- brought about field of environmental psych
- social relationships: being popular, being excluded by members of the in-group, racial factors
- Study: daily hassles are more likely to impact mental and physical health than major one-off events
- WHY? When something awful happens, we use all our resources to cope, but with daily hassles they just tolerate and push through
6
Q
Lack of perceived control over stressors
A
- stressors challenge us to do something
- Patricia Frazier: What type of control?
- Past-control: I could’ve prevented this
- Present-control: My rxn is under my control
- Future-control: I can prevent recurrence
- Looked at ppl who experienced terrible stressors(spinal cord injury…)
- Present control is best predictor of successful coping
- Sometimes past control is unrelated, sometimes it leads to worse coping
- Glass and Singer: look at effects of loud noise on tasks
- noise hurts performance, but having access to a “panic button” which would supposedly stop the noise shielded them from effects of the noise
- stress of being crowded causes feelings you can’t control getting away, but stress dec when you realize you can leave
7
Q
What stress does in the body?
A
- Cannon: fight or flight response
- Elizabeth Blackburn: telomeres and aging
- Glucocorticoids hamper immunity
- Heart Disease
8
Q
Fight or Flight response
A
- Cannon: fight or flight response
- an emotional and physiological reaction to an emergency that increases readiness for action
- Gill’s cat scaled 2 story stone wall when dog barked
- an emotional and physiological reaction to an emergency that increases readiness for action
- 1) perception of threat –> brain activity
- 2) hypothalamus secretes releasing factor which travels to pituitary gland
- 3) Pituitary gland secretes ACTH(Adrenocortitropic hormone) through blood to stimulate adrenal glands
- HPA(hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical) axis response
- 4) adrenal glands release cortisol and catecholamines(epinephrine and norepinephrine)
- These hormones trigger strong increase of sympathetic nervous system activation
- Increase pulse, BP, respiration, blood glucose(controlled by cortisol~fuel)
- they also decrease parasympathetic activation
- This response can’t happen often b/c it is destructive to body
- These hormones trigger strong increase of sympathetic nervous system activation
9
Q
telomeres and aging
A
- Elizabeth Blackburn: telomeres and aging
- Telomere: cap on chromosomes that facilitates successful cell replication precisely and protects chromosomes from sticking together
- like tape at end of shoelaces
- with each division, they become smaller
- When cells start reproduce imperfectly, you age faster and develop diseases
- Telomerase: enzyme necessary to sustain telomeres by rebuilding at tips of chromosomes
- Telomere: cap on chromosomes that facilitates successful cell replication precisely and protects chromosomes from sticking together
Aging → shortened telomeres
- ALSO chronic stress → shortened telomeres
- Shortened telomeres = closer to death
- Cortisol: inhibits telomerase activity
- Linked to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression
- IMPORTANT: both meditation and exercise can break stress(short telomere link to stress)
10
Q
Glucocorticoids hamper immunity
A
- stressors can cause hormones called glucocorticosteroids to flood the brain which wears down immune system and makes it less able to fight invaders
- Study: ppl volunteer to have a cold virus placed in noses
- Enduring stressors in life=more illness b/c high cortisol levels hamper immune system
- some ppl didn’t even get cold after direct exposure bc they weren’t stressed
- wounds heal more slowly in college students during exams
- Enduring stressors in life=more illness b/c high cortisol levels hamper immune system
- this explains why social status is related to health
11
Q
Heart Disease
A
- (#1 killer in US)
- Stress increases rate, but not for everyone
- How it occurs:
- Atherosclerosis: narrowed arteries from plaque
- Body sends around lipid molecules where damage is, and sticks to damaged artery
- If body detects a lot of damage, it sends a lot of lipid molecs which can completely block artery(overcompensation
- If this happens to an artery that feeds the heart, the artery dies/or is damaged(major vs minor heart attack) and heart attack occurs
- Type A personalities are 2x as likely to have heart disease
- Type A=impatient, competitive, hostile/angry
- hostility/anger = most deadly trait
- Predicts HD better than smoking, overeating, and LDL cholesterol level
- Causal evidence: men who had heart attack are more likely to have a second one
- One group assigned to Type A intervention group
- Other group(control) just talked about how heart attack affected their lives
- Type A intervention group decreased heart attack risk by 50% bc it changed type A mindset
12
Q
health psychology
A
The subfield of psychology concerned with ways psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illness and the maintenance of health.
13
Q
general adaptation syndrome(GAS)
A
- 3 stage physiological stress response that appears regardless of stressor that is encountered(nonspecific)
- 1)alarm phase: body mobilizes resources to respond to threat, uses energy from stored fat/msucle
- equivalent to fight or flight response
- 2)resistance phase: body adapts to high state of arousal+tries to cope w/ stressor, shuts down unnecessary processes(digestion, growth, sex drive)
- 3)exhaustion phase(if GAS continues long enough): resistance collapses and creates gradual damage
- susceptibility to infection, tumor growth, aging, irreversible organ damage, death
- 1)alarm phase: body mobilizes resources to respond to threat, uses energy from stored fat/msucle
14
Q
immune system
A
- A complex response system that protects the body from bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances
- remarkably responsive to psychological influences
- psychoneuroimmunology: study of how immune system responds to psychological variables
15
Q
lymphocytes
A
White blood cells that produce antibodies that fight infection, including T cells and B cells
