Stress

Question 1

Stress as a stimulus

Answer 1

• Focus on the environment
• Event or circumstance is the cause of stress
• Events or circumstances are known as ‘stressors’

Question 2

Stress as a response

Answer 2

• Focus on individual’s reaction to stressors
• Psychological response
• Physiological response
• Responses are known as ‘strain’

Question 3

Stress as a transaction

Answer 3

• Focus on stress as a process
• Relationship between the person and environment
• Continuous interactions and adjustments
– ‘transactions’

Question 4

Stress definition

Answer 4

• feeling of lack of control

- unpredictability

Question 5

Stress appraisal

Primary and Secondary

Answer 5

• Cognitive appraisal
 Primary appraisal (danger)
 Secondary appraisal (coping)

Question 6

Physiological models of stress

Answer 6

• Fight or flight response (Cannon 1932)
– acute/ short term
• General Adaptation Syndrome (Selye, 1956) – chronic/ long term

Question 7

Fight or flight response

Answer 7

• Homeostasis threatened, disrupted
• Response to acute, short lived stress
• External threats elicit fight or flight response
•  physiological arousal
• Enable fight or flight response and restore homeostasis
• BUT prolonged state of high arousal harmful to health

Question 8

General Adaptation Syndrome

Answer 8

stressor
alarm - mobilisation to fend off threat
resistance - continued fight against stressor
exhaustion - depletion of resources, ability to resist may collapse

Question 9

Sympathetic activation

Answer 9

– under stress: sympathetic nervous system stimulated

– catecholamines produced (adrenalin & noradrenalin) – quick response system (within seconds)

Question 10

• Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) activation

Answer 10

– ed levels of corticosteroids (glucocorticoids e.g. cortisol)
– raised levels of brain opioids beta endorphin & enkephalin
– slower response system (minutes to hours)

Question 11

Long- term stress response (cortex):

Answer 11

• retention of sodium & water by kidneys
•  blood vol, BP
• P, F converted to glucose/ broken down for energy
•  blood sugar
•  immune system

Question 12

Short- term stress response (medulla):

Answer 12

•  heart rate
•  BP
•  metabolic rate
• changes in blood flow
• dilation of bronchioles

Question 13

Typical signs of stress

Answer 13

• biochemical
• physiological
• behavioural
• cognitive
• emotional

Question 14

Stress and Myocardial Infarction

Answer 14

• Evidence for association between psychosocial stress
and
 risk of acute MI
• Effect of stress is:
– independent of SES, smoking
– consistent across geographic regions, in different age groups, and in men and women
• Approaches needed to modify stress factors

Question 15

Physiological response to stress

Answer 15

–  catecholamine & corticosteroid release
–  immune cell activity (T and B cells) against antigens
– linked to development of infectious disease, cancer