Psychology Ch. 12

Front 1

Define Stress.

Back 1

A negative emotional state that occurs in response to events that are taxing, or events that exceed a person's resources, or ability to cope.

Front 2

How did early stress researchers define stress?

Back 2

In terms of the phsycological response to harmful or threatening events.

Front 3

Whether we experience stress depends on.....

Back 3

...our cognitive appraisal of an event and the resources we have to deal with the event.

Front 4

Define Health Psychology.

Back 4

The branch of psychology that studies how biological, behavioral, and social factors influence health, illnessm medical treatment, and health-related behaviors.

Front 5

Define the Biopsychosocial model (what health psychologists are guided by).

Back 5

The belief that physical health and illness are determined by the complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors.

Front 6

Define Stressors.

Back 6

Events or situations that are precieved as harmful, threatening, or challenging.

Front 7

Name 2 early stress researchers and what did they develop/what did it do?

Back 7

-Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe.
-Developed the Social Adjustment Rating Scale which was an attempt to measure the amount of stress people experienced.

Front 8

What did Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe believe?

Back 8

They believed that any change, whether postive or negative that required you to adjust your behavior or lifestyle would cause stress.

Front 9

Name some common sources of stress.

Back 9

life events and change, daily hassles, social and cultural, and conflict.

Front 10

Define Daily Hassles.

Back 10

Everyday minor events that annoy and upset people.

Front 11

What did stress researcher Richard Lazarus suspect?

Back 11

Supspected that daily hassles were an important source of stress.

Front 12

What is the freqency of daily hassles linked to?

Back 12

Both psychological and physical symptoms.

Front 13

What are some social factors that are a source of stress?

Back 13

-Crime
-Poverty
-Crowding
-Unemployment
-Racism
-Discrimination

Front 14

When people live in a stressful environment they often experience...

Back 14

Chronic Stress.

Front 15

Who tends to have the highest levels of psychological distress, illness, and death?

Back 15

People that live in the lowest socioeconomic situations.

Front 16

How is stress related to culture?

Back 16

Stress can be caused when cultures clash or when a person is adopting to a new culture.

Front 17

Define Acculturative Stress.

Back 17

The stress that results from the pressure of adapting to a new culture.

Front 18

Define Conflict.

Back 18

A situation in which a person feels pulled between two or more opposing desires, motives, or goals.

Front 19

What are the 3 basic types of conflict?

Back 19

1-Approach-Approach conflict
2-Avoidance-Avoidance conflict
3-Approach-Avoidance conflict


-Each of these has a different potential to produce stress

Front 20

Descibe Approach-Approach conflict.

Back 20

Represents a win-win situation where you are faced with a choice between 2 equally appealling outcomes.

-Easy to resolve

Front 21

Describe Avoidance-Avoidance conflict.

Back 21

Choosing between 2 unappealing or undesireable outcomes.

Front 22

Describe Approach-Avoidance conflict.

Back 22

A goal has both desirable and undesirable aspects.

Front 23

What 2 people demonstrated the effects of stress on physical health?

Back 23

-Walter Cannon
-Hans Selye

Front 24

In what 2 ways does stress undermine physical well being/health?

Back 24

1-Indirectly (prompting behaviors that jepordize physical well being such as not eating or sleeping right.

2-Directly (by altering body functions leading to symptoms, illness or disease.

Front 25

Define the Fight-or-Flight Response.

Back 25

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

Front 26

Who came up with the Fight or Flight response and what else did he discover?

Back 26

-Walter Cannon.
-Discovered that both the Sympathetic nervous system and the Endocrine system are invloved with the fight or flight response.

Front 27

Define Catecholamines.

Back 27

Hormones secreted by the adrenal medulla that causes rapid psychological arousal; include adrenaline and noadrenaline.

Front 28

Define General Adaptation System.

Back 28

Selye's term for the three-stage progression of physical changes that occur when an organism is exposed to intense and prolonged stress, there are 3 stages.

Front 29

What are the 3 stages of the general adaptation system.

Back 29

1-Alarm Stage (intense arousal from the demands of a stress producing event)
2-Resistance Stage (the body tries to resist a stressful situation)
3-Exhaustion Stage (symptoms of the alarm stage reappear and the body's energy becomes depleted causing exhaustion)

Front 30

Define Corticosteriods.

Back 30

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

Front 31

Define the Immune System.

Back 31

Body system that produces white blood cells that protect the body from bacteria, viruses, and tumor cells.

Front 32

Define Lymphocetes.

Back 32

Specialized white blood cells that are responsible for immune defenses.

Front 33

What 2 people helped develop Psychoneuroimmunology?

Back 33

Psychologist Robert Ader and immunologist Nicolas Cohen.

Front 34

Define Psychoneuroimmunology.

Back 34

An interdisciplinary field that studies the connection between psychological processes, nervous and endocrine system functions, and the immune system.

Front 35

What are the 3 main findings of psychoneuroimmunology.

Back 35

1-The central nervous system and the immune system are linked by the sympathetic nervous system.
2-Lymphocytes contain receptor sites for neurotransmitters and hormones.
3-Lymphocytes produce neurotransmitters and hormones which influence the nervous and endocrine systems.

Front 36

Psychological factors that influence responses to a stressful event.....:

Back 36

-person's appraisal of the event and their resources for coping with it.
-Having a sense of control over the situation
-Being able to take steps to minimize/avoid the stressor.

Front 37

Define Optimistic Explanatory Style.

Back 37

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

Front 38

Define Pessimistic Explanatory Style.

Back 38

Acounting for negative events or situations with internal, stable, and global explanations.

Front 39

What are 2 effects of chronic negative emotions?

Back 39

1- People who are always anxious, depressed, angry, and hositle are likely to develop chronic diseases (heart disease, arthritis)

2-People who are tense, angry, and unhappy experience more stress than happier people.

Front 40

Define Type A Personality behavior.

Back 40

Behavior and emotional style characterized by time urgency, hostility, and competitiveness.

Front 41

Explain Type B personality beahvior.

Back 41

laid back
easy going
not associated with heart disease.

Front 42

Defin Social Support.

Back 42

The resources provided by other people in times of need.

Front 43

Define Coping.

Back 43

Behavioral and cognitive responses used to deal with stressors; involves our own efforts to change circumstances to make them more favorable.

Front 44

What 2 psychologists named 2 types of coping and what were they?

Back 44

-Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman
1-Problem-focused coping
2-Emotion-focused coping.

Front 45

Define Problem-focused coping.

Back 45

Coping efforts aimed at changing/managing a threantening/harmful stressor.

Front 46

Define Emotion-focused coping.

Back 46

Coping efforts aimed at releiving or regulating the emotional impact of a stressful situation.