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Class notes 2.6C Stress and Anxiety
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Detailed English summary for the course 2.cC Challenges in Stress & Anxiety. Contains information about all problems, including visuals.
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STRESS2 components: physical (direct material/bodily challenge)
psychological (how individuals perceive
circumstances)
can be examined in 3 ways:
1 – environment; stress is seen as a stimulus
(demanding job)
2 – treats stress as a response; focuses on people’s
reactions to stressors (refers to state of tension)
3 – describes stress as a process that includes
stressors and strains & adds the relationship between
the person and the environment
transactions: continuous interactions and
adjustments; person affects environment affects
person
stress = a process in which the person can
influence the impact of stressors through
behavioral, cognitive, and emotional strategies
people differ in the amount of strain they
experience from the same stressor
stressors – physically or psychologically challenging events or
circumstances
strain – psychological or physiological response to a stressor
STRESS – THE CIRCUMSTANCE IN WHICH TRANSACTIONS LEAD
A PERSON TO PERCEIVE A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN THE
PHYSICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL DEMANDS OF A SITUATION AND
THE RESOURCEES OF THEIR BIOLOGICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, OR
SOCIAL SYSTEMS
*demands, resources and discrepancies may be either real or
just believed to exist
*stress often results from inaccurate perceptions of
discrepancies between environmental demands and actual
resources
*transactions generally involve cognitive appraisal (assessment
process)
cognitive appraisal – a mental process by which people
assess 2 factors:
primary appraisal – whether a demand threatens their
physical or psychological wellbeing
* possible judgements:
, -irrelevant
-good
-stressful
further appraisal:harm-loss (amount of damage
that has already occurred)
threat (expectations of future
harm)
challenge (opportunity to achieve
growth)
*can influence stress even when the stressor does not
directly relate to us (vicarious transaction)
secondary appraisal – the resources available for
meeting the demand
*occur continuously, but we are especially aware of them
here
*judgements include:
-i cannot do it – i know i’ll fail
-i’ll try, but my chances are slim
-i can do it if ginny will help
-if this method fails, i’ll try another
-i can do it if i work hard
-no problem – i can do it
*often depends on the outcome of the appraisals we make
what factors lead to stressful appraisal?
person-related
-intellect
-motivation
-personality (e.g. high self-esteem)
(perfectionism – tendency to appraise even minor issues as
major problems; causes emotional distress; damaging for
long-term health)
situation-related
-strong demands
DIMENSIONS OF STRESS
*amount of stress increases with stressor frequency,
intensity and duration
*chronic stress – occurs often/lasts long; makes people
more susceptible to catching a cold
,characteristics of a stressful situation:
BIOPSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF STRESS
*physical reactions to stress include: rapid heartbeat
muscle trembles
arousal
*sympathetic NS and endocrine system are responsible for
arousal
reactivity – the physiological portion of the response to a
stressor
*measured by comparisons against a baseline/”resting”
level
*genetic factors influence peoples degree of reactivity to
stressors
fight-or-flight response – basic reaction to emergencies;
prepares the organism to attack the threat or to flee
*perception of danger causes sympathetic NS to stimulate
many organs (e.g. heart) directly, and stimulates adrenal
glands of the endocrine system, which secrete
epinephrine, arousing the body even further
*arousal can have positive or negative effects: fight or flight is
adaptive (helps organism respond quickly to danger) but this
high arousal can be harmful to health if prolonged
the stress response (seyle)
*a cluster of physiological changes
*all stressors produce the same core pattern of changes
*in short-term: produces adaptive changes that help the animal
respond to the stressor (mobilization)
*in long-term: produces changes that are maladaptive
(enlarged adrenal glands)
*stress response is attributed to activation of the anterior-
pituitary adrenal-cortex system
, *stressors stimulate the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone
(ACTH) from the anterior pituitary
*ACTH triggers the release of
glucocorticoids from the adrenal
cortex
*glucocorticoids produce many of
the components of the stress
response
*stressors activate the sympathetic
NS, thereby increasing the
amounts of epinephrine &
norepinephrine released by the
adrenal medulla (seyle largely
ignored the contributions of the
sympathetic NS)
*most modern theories
acknowledge the roles of both the
anterior-pituitary adrenal-cortex
system and the sympathetic NS
adrenal-medulla system
*major feature of seyle’s theory:
assuming that both physical and
psychological stressors induce the same general stress
response (too simplistic!)
*stressors produce an increase in blood levels of cytokines
(peptide hormones released by many cells that participate in
many physiological and immunological responses); now
classified with the adrenal hormones as major stress hormones
animal models of stress
*early research used to include extreme forms of repeated
exposure to electric shock or physical restraint
*ethically very incorrect!
*such extreme, unnatural forms of stress are of questionable
scientific value
*subordination stress – enduring conspecific threat, studied in
species that form dominance hierarchies
bullying in humans
GENERAL ADAPTION SYSTEM
*studied by subjecting laboratory animals to a variety of
stressors
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