PSY 202 Chapter 13: Stress, Health, and Coping

Type A behavior pattern

A behavioral and emotional style characterized by a sense of time urgency, hostility, and competitiveness.

fight-or-flight response

A rapidly occurring chain of internal physical reactions that prepare people to either fight or take flight from an immediate threat.

optimistic explanatory style

Accounting for negative events or situations with external, unstable, and specific explanations

pessimistic explanatory style

Accounting for negative events or situations with internal, stable, and global explanations. ***Pessimists are also inclined to believe that no amount of personal effort will improve their situation. Not surprisingly, pessimists tend to experience more stress than optimists.***

Resistance stage

As the body tries to adapt to the continuing stressful situation, physiological arousal lessens but remains above normal. Resistance to new stressors is impaired.

coping

Behavioral and cognitive responses used to deal with stressors; involves our efforts to change circumstances, or our interpretation of circumstances, to make them more favorable and less threatening.

Walter Cannon

Cannon (1932) found that the fight-or-flight response involved both the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system

Alarm stage

Catecholamines are released by the adrenal medulla. Intense arousal occurs, and the body mobilizes internal physical resources to meet the demands of the stress-producing event.

problem-focused coping

Coping efforts primarily aimed at directly changing or managing a threatening or harmful stressor. Problem-focused coping strategies tend to be most effective when you can exercise some control over the stressful situation or circumstances

What endocrine pathways are involved in the general adaptation syndrome?

Hans Selye found that prolonged stress activates a second endocrine pathway that involves the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal cortex. In response to a stressor, the hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland to secrete a hormone called adrenocorticotropic hormone, abbreviated ACTH. In turn, ACTH stimulates the adrenal cortex to release stress-related hormones called corticosteroids, the most important of which is cortisol.

general adaptation syndrome

Hans Selye's term for the three-stage progression of physical changes that occur when an organism is exposed to intense and prolonged stress. The three stages are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

How do feelings of control, explanatory style, and negative emotions influence stress and health?

Having a sense of personal control also enhances positive emotions, such as self-confidence and feelings of self-efficacy, autonomy, and self-reliance. In contrast, feeling a lack of control over events produces all the hallmarks of the stress response. Levels of catecholamines and corticosteroids increase, and the effectiveness of immune system functioning decreases

corticosteroids

Hormones released by the adrenal cortex that play a key role in the body's response to long-term stressors.

catecholamines

Hormones secreted by the adrenal medulla that cause rapid physiological arousal, including adrenaline and noradrenaline.

Exhaustion stage

If the stress-producing event persists, the symptoms of the alarm stage reappear, only now irreversibly. The body's energy reserves become depleted and adaptation begins to break down, leading to exhaustion, physical disorders, and, potentially, death.

telomeres

Repeated, duplicate DNA sequences that are found at the very tips of chromosomes and that protect the chromosomes' genetic data during cell division. With each cell division, the string of telomeres gets shorter. When telomeres become too short, the cell can no longer divide and may die or atrophy, causing tissue damage or loss. A growing body of literature has linked shorter telomeres with aging, age-related diseases, and mortality

Describe the three stages of Selye's general adaptation syndrome.

Selye's three stage theory is comprised of alarm, resistance and exhaustion. In the alarm stage stress hormones, catecholamines, are released by the medulla. This leads to intense arousal and the body's stress center (the internal sympathetic system) is triggered. Resistance follows as the body tries to adapt to the ongoing stressors. Physiological arousal lessens but remains at a heightened level. If this stage of arousal persists, the body will enter the exhaustion phase. Symptoms of the early alarm stage reappear and the body once again goes into sympathetic arousal. This becomes irreversible where the body actually loses the ability to return to a normal non-stress function. Energy reserves are depleted, adaptation to the stressor breaks down, exhaustion, physical disorders and potentially death ensue.

lymphocytes

Specialized white blood cells that are responsible for immune defenses. Lymphocytes are initially manufactured in the bone marrow. From the bone marrow, they migrate to other immune system organs, such as the thymus and spleen, where they develop more fully and are stored until needed.

How does stress affect our vulnerability to diseases?

Stress affects our overall immune system functioning. Extreme stressors as well as the hassles of daily life, all affect the body's ability to function appropriately. Stress, regardless of type, inhibits the body's immune system, meaning it takes longer for the body to heal itself. Even small wounds or minor illness can take up to 40% longer heal.

social support

The resources provided by other people in times of need.

informational support

When people offer helpful suggestions, advice, or possible resources

confrontive coping

When people tackle a problem head on; confrontive coping is direct and assertive but not hostile or angry

emotion-focused coping

When the stressor is one over which we can exert little or no control, we often focus on the dimension of the situation that we can control—the emotional impact of the stressor on us. When people think that nothing can be done to alter a situation, they tend to rely on this:

What endocrine pathways are involved in the fight-or-flight response?

With the perception of a threat, the hypothalamus and lower brain structures activate the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system stimulates the adrenal medulla to secrete hormones called catecholamines, including adrenaline and noradrenaline. Circulating through the blood, catecholamines trigger the rapid and intense bodily changes associated with the fight-or-flight response. Once the threat is removed, the high level of bodily arousal subsides gradually, usually within about 20 to 60 minutes.

Psychologists and other scientists are cautious in the statements they make about the connections between personality and health for several reasons. First, many studies investigating the role of psychological factors in disease are:

correlational

Emotional support

includes expressions of concern, empathy, and positive regard

Tangible support

involves direct assistance, such as providing transportation, lending money, or helping with meals, child care, or household tasks

Planful problem solving

involves efforts to rationally analyze the situation, identify potential solutions, and then implement them. In effect, you take the attitude that the stressor represents a problem to be solved. Once you assume that mental stance, you follow the basic steps of problem solving

Traditionally, coping has been broken down into two major categories

problem-focused and emotion-focused

psychoneuroimmunology

the scientific study of the connections among psychological processes (psycho-), the nervous system (-neuro-), and the immune system (-immunology)

hostility

the tendency to feel anger, annoyance, resentment, and contempt, and to hold cynical and negative beliefs about human nature in general. Hostile people are also prone to believing that the disagreeable behavior of others is intentionally directed against them.

immune system

your body's surveillance system. It detects and battles foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, and tumor cells. Your immune system comprises several organs, including bone marrow, the spleen, the thymus, and the lymph nodes. The most important elements of the immune system are lymphocytes—the specialized white blood cells that fight bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders.