Psych Ch. 14: Stress, Health, & Coping

What are daily hassles?

Daily hassles are regularly occurring experiences that threaten or harm our well-being. There are several kinds of hassles, including household, health, time-pressure, inner concern, environmental, financial responsibility, work, and security hassles.

Fight-or-flight

Cannon dubbed the alarm reaction the ________ reaction.

Hassles

Daily _______ are regularly occurring conditions and experiences that threaten or harm our well-being.

Serum cholesterol

Cholesterol in the blood.

What are the major risk factors for cancer?

The major risk factors for cancer include family history, smoking, drinking alcohol, eating animal fats, sunbathing, and stress.

Psychological hardiness

A cluster of traits that buffer stress and are characterized by commitment, challenge, and control.

fight-or-flight reaction

A possibly innate adaptive response to the perception of danger.

Antigen

A substance that stimulates the body to mount an immune system response to it. (The contraction for antibody generator.)

Multiple approach-avoidance conflict

A type of conflict in which each of a number of goals produces approach and avoidance motives.

Avoidance-avoidance conflict

A type of conflict in which the goals are negative, but avoidance of one requires approaching the other.

Approach-approach conflict

A type of conflict in which the goals that produce opposing motives are positive and within reach.

Approach-avoidance conflict

A type of conflict in which the same goal produces approach and avoidance motives.

What is conflict?

Conflict is the stressful feeling of being pulled in two or more directions by opposing motives. There are four kinds of conflict: approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, approach-avoidance (in the case of a single goal), and multiple approach-avoidance, when each alternative has its pluses and minuses.

Ellis

Albert _______ notes that our beliefs about events, as well as the events themselves, can be stressors.

Stressor

An event that gives rise to feelings of stress.

Type A Behavior

Behavior characterized by hostility, competitiveness and feelings of time urgency, competition, and hostility.

Decreases

Being able to predict and control the onset of a stressor _______ its impact on us.

Conflict

Being torn in different directions by opposing motives. Feelings produced by being in conflict.

More

African-Americans are ______ likely than European Americans to have heart attacks and to contract most forms of cancer.

How do irrational beliefs create or compound stress?

Albert Ellis showed that negative activating events (A) can be made more aversive (C) when irrational beliefs (B) compound their effects. People often catastrophize negative events. Two common irrational beliefs are excessive needs for social approval and perfectionism. Both set the stage for disappointment and increased stress.

Play

Genetic factors _______ a role in cancer.

What is health psychology?

Health psychology studies the relationships between psychological factors and the prevention and treatment of physical health problems.

Hypertension

High blood pressure.

Inflammation

Increased blood flow to an injured area of the body, resulting in redness, warmth, and an increased supply of white blood cells.

How has psychology contributed to the understanding and treatment of headaches?

Psychologists participate in research concerning the origin of headaches, including stress and tension. Psychologists help people alleviate headaches by reducing tension.

What characteristics are connected with psychological hardiness?

Kobasa and her colleagues found that psychological hardiness among business executives is characterized by commitment, challenge, and control.

How does the immune system work?

Leukocytes (white blood cells) engulf and kill pathogens, worn-out body cells, and cancerous cells. The immune system also "remembers" how to battle antigens by maintaining their antibodies in the bloodstream. The immune system also facilitates inflammation, which increases the number of white blood cells that are transported to a damaged area.

Adjustment, adaptation

Life changes, even pleasant ones, are stressful because they require _______.

Daily hassles

Notable daily conditions and experiences that are threatening or harmful to a person's well-being.

Uplifts

Notable pleasant daily conditions and experiences.

Socioeconomic status (SES)

One's social and financial level, as indicated by measures such as income, level of education, and occupational status.

Self-efficacy expectations

Our beliefs that we can bring about desired changes through our own efforts; that one can handle a task.

Externals

People who perceive the ability to attain reinforcements as largely outside themselves.

Internals

People who perceive the ability to attain reinforcements as largely within themselves.

Higher

People with ________ self-efficacy expectations tend to cope better with stress.

How do predictability and control help us cope with stress?

Predictability allows us to brace ourselves for the inevitable and, in many cases, plan ways of coping with it. Control--even the illusion of being in control--allows us to feel that we are not at the mercy of the fates.

Immune

Psychological states such as anxiety and depression impair the functioning of the ________ system, rendering us more vulnerable to health problems.

Commitment

Psychologically hardy executives are high in _______, challenge, and control.

Cholesterol

Risk factors for coronary heart disease include family history, obesity, hypertension, high levels of serum ______, heavy drinking, smoking, hostility, Type A behavior, and job strain.

How do our self-efficacy expectations affect our ability to withstand stress?

Self-efficacy expectations encourage us to persist in difficult tasks and to endure discomfort. They are also connected with lower levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline, thus having a braking effect on bodily arousal.

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Selye's term for a hypothesized three-stage response to stress.

Is there evidence that social support helps people cope with stress?

Social support has been shown to help people resist infectious diseases such as colds. It also helps people cope with the stress of cancer and other health problems. Kinds of social support include expression of emotional concern, instrumental aid, information, appraisal, and simple socializing.

How does stress affect the functioning of the immune system?

Stress depresses the functioning of the immune system by stimulating the release of corticosteroids. Steroids counter inflammation and interfere with the formation of antibodies.

What is stress?

Stress is the demand made on an organism to adapt, cope, or adjust. Whereas some stress--called eustress--is desirable to keep us alert and occupied, too much stress can tax our capacities to adjust and contribute to physical health problems.

Eustress

Stress that is healthful.

Antibodies

Substances formed by white blood cells that recognize and destroy antigens.

What is the general adaptation syndrome?

The GAS is a cluster of bodily changes triggered by stressors. It consists of three stages: an alarm reaction, a resistance stage, and an exhaustion stage. Corticosteroids help us resist stress by fighting inflammation and allergic reactions. Adrenaline arouses the body by activating the sympathetic nervous system, which is highly active during the alarm and resistance stages of the GAS. Sympathetic activity is characterized by rapid heartbeat and respiration rate, release of stores of sugar, muscle tension, and other responses that deplete the body's supply of energy. The parasympathetic division of the ANS predominates during the exhaustion stage of the GAS and is connected with depression and inactivity. Prolonged stress is dangerous.

Migraine

The _______ headache has a sudden onset and is identified by throbbing pain on one side of the head.

Stress

The demand that is made on an organism to adapt, cope, or adjust.

Conflict

The feeling of being pulled in two or more directions by opposing motives is called _______.

Health psychology

The field of psychology that studies the relationships between psychological factors (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, situational influences, and behavior patterns) and the prevention and treatment of physical illness.

Psychoneuroimmunology

The field that studies the relationships between psychological factors (e.g., attitudes and overt behavior patterns) and the functioning of the immune system.

Alarm reaction

The first stage of the GAS, which is triggered by the impact of a stressor and characterized by sympathetic activity.

Alarm

The general adaptation syndrome has three stages: ________, resistance, and exhaustion.

White

The immune system produces _____ blood cells, called leukocytes, that routinely engulf and kill pathogens.

What are the major risk factors for coronary heart disease?

The major risk factors for coronary heart disease include family history; physiological conditions such as hypertension and high levels of serum cholesterol; behavior patterns such as heavy drinking, smoking, eating fatty foods, and Type A behavior; job strain; chronic tension and fatigue; sudden stressors (such as natural disasters); and physical inactivity.

Muscle-tension

The most common kind of headache is the ________ headache.

Locus of control

The place (locus) to which an individual attributes control over the receiving of reinforcers—either inside or outside the self.

Resistance stage

The second stage of the GAS, characterized by prolonged sympathetic activity in an effort to restore lost energy and repair damage; also called the adaptation stage.

Immune system

The system of the body that recognizes and destroys foreign agents (antigens) that invade the body.

Exhaustion stage

The third stage of the GAS, characterized by weakened resistance and possible deterioration.

What is the multifactorial approach to health?

This view recognizes that many factors, including biological, psychological, sociocultural, and environmental factors affect our health. Nearly 1 million preventable deaths occur each year in the United States. Measures such as quitting smoking, eating properly, exercising, and controlling alcohol intake would prevent the majority of them.

Migraine headaches

Throbbing headaches that are connected with changes in the supply of blood to the head.

Catastrophize

To interpret negative events as being disastrous; to "blow out of proportion."

How can too much of a good thing make you ill?

Too many positive life changes can affect one's health because life changes require adjustment, whether they are positive or negative. In contrast to daily hassles, life changes occur irregularly. Research shows that hassles and life changes are connected with health problems such as heart disease and cancer. However, the demonstrated connection between life changes and health is correlational; thus, causality remains clouded.

Adrenaline, epinephrine

Two hormones that play a role in the alarm reaction are secreted by the adrenal medulla: _______ and noradrenaline.

What is Type A behavior?

Type A behavior is connected with hostility, competitiveness, and impatience. Type B people relax more readily.

Corticosteroids, steroids

Under stress, pituitary ACTH causes the adrenal cortex to release ________ that help the body respond to stress by fighting inflammation and allergic reactions.

Leukocytes

White blood cells. (Derived from the Greek words leukos, meaning "white," and kytos, literally meaning "a hollow" but used to refer to cells.)

Befriend

Women may show a tend-and-________ response to stress rather than fight-or-flight.

Is there any evidence that "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine?"

Yes. Research evidence shows that humor can moderate the effects of stress.