Health Psychology Exam 2

Stress

A negative emotional experience accompanied by a predictable, biochemical, psychological, cognitive, and behavioral changes directed at altering an event/accommodating effects

Stressors

Demanding event/situation that triggers coping/adjustment

Eustress

Stress that is interpreted to be beneficial to a person

Distress

Stress that is interpreted to be negative to a person

Is not a concrete emotion but can appear as emotions such as anger, sadness, etc

Is Stress an Emotion?

Work, Money, Health Problems, Family Responsibilities, Relationships

What are the top 5 biggest stressors in the United States today? (APA Stress Survey)

Brain and Spinal Cord

What does the Central Nervous System consist of?

Nerves

What does the Peripheral Nervous System consist of?

Dilated Pupils, Increased Respiration/HR, Decrease of Digestion and Secretion of Hormones

What are the psychological effects of Sympathetic Arousal?

Activates the Sympathetic Nervous System

How does the Reticular Formation react when faced with a stressor?

Responsible for Main hub for information of stressor

How does the Thalamus react when faced with a stressor?

Responsible for Emotional Processing of stressor

How does the Amygdala react when faced with a stressor?

Responsible for the Physical Symptoms related to stressors

How does the Hypothalamus react when faced with a stressor?

Sympatho-Adreno-Medullary (SAM) Pathway

Fast, acute stress system triggered when the adrenal medulla releases hormones after Sympathetic Activation

Catecholamines

Fight/Flight hormones released by Adrenal Medulla in the SAM Pathway

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical (HPA) Axis

System that helps the body cope with stress in the long-term by releasing hormones (cortisol)

SAM is the “first” part, and the HPA is the “second” part, SAM is instantaneous while HPA is not

What are some differences between the SAM and the HPA?

SAM acts as the “cruise control” that guides your body, HPA is the “brake” that stops Sympathetic Response

What is the “car metaphor” in terms of the SAM and HPA?

Adrenaline, Noradrenaline, Cortisol

What hormones are released during the stress response?

Cortisol

What is the most popular/studied hormone that is released during stress?

Appraisal

The process in which a person both receives and responds to events that are judged to be stressful

Explains how two people can react differently to the same stressor

Why is Appraisal important?

Simply changing your perspective on a stressor can lower stress

What did the Stress TED Talk have to say about Appraisal?

When it was started to be tested on humans rather than just animals

When did scientists discover the importance of Appraisal?

Transactional Model

A model of stress in which people make “transactions” when a stressor challenges us

Primary Appraisal

The first step of the Transactional Model, the step in which your body decides whether a stressor is irrelevant, or Positive/Negative

Secondary Appraisal

The second step of the Transactional Model, the step in which your body evaluates possible coping mechanisms for stressors

Response to Stress

The third step of the Transactional Model, the step in which there are psychological, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive responses

Events are not inherently stressful, Appraisal is vulnerable to the characteristics of a person, Appraisal can be powerful by itself

What are the important messages of the Transactional Model?

If they cost significant resources, If the event is negative, If the event can be controllable

What criteria can cause events to become more stressful to most people?

They are undesired events, and they cause more physical symptoms

Why are negative events more likely to cause distress compared to positive ones?

Major Life Events

What do Life Events Scales measure?

Found a positive correlation between Major Life Events and Illness later in life

What did early research on Life Events find?

Vague descriptions of Life Events, Individual experiences are not accounted for, Includes both Positive and Negative Events

What was the problem with Early Research into Major Life events?

Smaller Stressors that occur on a daily basis (Hassles)

What do Hassle Scales measure?

Hassle Scales

Are Hassle or Life Event scales more effective at predicting psychological/physical health?

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)

What is the most widely used measure of stress?

How stressful people perceive their lives to be

What does the PSS measure?

Measures people’s appraisal of stress rather than just objective symptoms

Why is the PSS the most advantageous form of Stress Measurement?

Acute Stress

A form of stress that is short-term and has a beginning and end

Chronic Stress

A form of stress that is long-term and with no discernable end

Coined “Fight-or-Flight” response in animals

What was Walter Cannon’s contribution to Stress?

A reaction that was a threat to homeostasis

How did Walter Cannon define Stress?

Electric Shocks, Temperature Changes

What did Walter Cannon use as stressors?

Coined “General Adaptation Syndrome”

What was Hans Selye’s contribution to Stress?

A non-specific response of the body to any demand put upon it

What was Hans Selye’s definition of Stress?

That the stressor does not have to be specific to something to produce a response

What did Hans Selye mean by “non-specific?”

All of the rats produced essentially the same patterns of physiological changes regardless of stimuli

What happened to Hans Selye’s rats during his stressor experiment?

General Adaptation Syndrome

A general profile for how most organisms react to stressful situations, developed by Hans Seyle

Alarm Stage

The first stage of General Adaptation Syndrome, the body is immediately mobilized to deal with a threat

Resistance Stage

The second stage of General Adaptation Syndrome, the body copes with the threat, the longest stage

Exhaustion Stage

The third stage of General Adaptation Syndrome, the body can no longer cope with stressors and gives up/the stress ends

Chronic Stress effects health

What big idea was the GAS model trying to convey?

Hans Selye, he was the first to make a connection between stress and illness

Who is the “father” of Modern Stress Theory?

Allostatic Load Model (AL)

Framework that shows the accumulating adverse effects of stress in conjunction with pre-existing risks on biological systems, useful for understanding how chronic stress increases likelihood of illness

GAS describes the immediate reaction of the body to stressors, AL describes the wear-and-tear that stressor can cause on the body

How does the GAS model compare to the AL model?

Our body systems help to solve stress in the short-term, but damage us in the long term

What paradox does the AL model help to explain?

Homeostasis

Biological process in which the body maintains stable internal conditions

Allostasis

Biological process in which the body maintains stability through changes by changing physiological systems, extension of Homeostasis

The constant changes in the environment

Why does Allostasis need to be “flexible” in order to be effective?

Excessive Stress

First pattern of AL in which the stress response is constantly turned on and off over time

Lack of Adaptation

Second pattern of AL in which habituation to stressor does not improve after repeated exposure

Non-Stop Stress Response

Third pattern of AL in which the stress response is turned on and never turned off

Insufficent Stress Response

Fourth pattern of AL in which the stress response is not relational to the stressor due to fatigue or lack of care

Certain behaviors and belief systems can influence how quickly/slowly a person can get illness

How does cognition/behavior “moderate” the relationship between AL and Illness?

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)

A field that studies the interaction among behavior, the nervous system, and the immune system

Acute Stress Paradigm, Infectious Disease Paradigm

What two paradigms provide strong support for PNI?

Acute Stress Paradigm

Controlled lab procedure in which a short-term, moderate stressor is administered to the subject to elicit emotional, psychological, or behavioral responses

Speech Task, Cold Pressor, Trier Social Stress Test

What are some examples of tasks that are performed under the Acute Stress Paradigm?

Trier Social Stress Test (Combination of Arithmetic/Speech)

Which tasks under the Acute Stress Paradigm is the most reliable a substantial increase in cortisol?

Psychological Distress, Reactivity

What two things are measured in the Acute Stress Paradigm?

Injected 276 people with the Cold and monitored stressful life events (LEDS Scale)

What were the methods of Coen et al. (1999)’s study

Risk of a cold was increased as stress continued longer

What did Coen et al. (1999) find about Acute and Chronic Stressors?

Caregiver

A person who takes care of sick/vulnerable family members not part of their job

Do not have benefits from a typical job, Have emotional attachments, 24/7 care

How do Caregivers differ from Healthcare Professionals?

Caregiver Burden

The high level of stress that is involved with taking care of sick family members

High BP/HR, Increase in Cortisol, Depression

What outcomes has Caregiver Burden been linked to?

Depression

What outcome has been the most consistently linked with Caregiver Burden?

Caregivers and Non-Caregivers were given intentional wounds and followed for healing time

What were the methods of Kiecolt-Glazer (1995)’s study on the Wound-Healing Paradigm on Caregivers?

Caregiver’s wounds healed slower compared to Non-Caregivers

What were the results of Kiecolt-Glazer (1995)?

For 7 out of 11 studies, CHD was associated with Depression, 64% increase in CHD in all 11 studies

What was found in Ruglies (2002)’s analysis on the correlation between Depression and Coronary Heart Disease?

26% increase in CHD for Anxiety, lower than Depression

What was found in Ruglies (2002)’s analysis on the correlation between Anxiety and Coronary Heart Disease?

Job Strain

The chronic stress that comes from any aspect of work

Sense of Belonging

Feeling accepted, valued, and connected to a group or place

Sense of Mattering

Characterized by feeling acknowledged, feeling of importance of actions, others are dependent on us/emotionally invested in us

Workers want to have community/have their work to matter but do not feel that way

What did the ASA Work Survey say about the Sense of Belonging/Mattering among workers?

Protection from Harm, Connection/Community, Work-Life Harmony, Mattering at Work, Opportunity for Growth

What are the five workplace essentials given by the Surgeon General?

Perceived Control, Job Demand

What are the two crucial factors in Job Strain?

Perceived Control

Which of the two factors of Job Strain is the most crucial?

Low Control/High Demand

What is the “worst combination” of Perceived Control and Job Demand?

Role Conflict

A situation in which a person faces a problem involving either an action going against their values, or information coming from two separate sources

Financial, Emotional Support

What are the two kinds of support that Supervisors can give workers?

The over-controlling nature of it causes less Perceived Control and more Job Strain

How does supervisor micromanaging affect workers?

Both showed an increase as Job Satisfaction increased

What did Johnson et al. (2005) show about how Job Satisfaction affect physical/psychological health?

Chronic Illness

Illnesses that are prolonged, do not resolve themselves spontaneously, and are rarely cured entirely

7 out of 10 have at least 1, 5 out of those 10 have 2 or more

How many adults are dealing with chronic illnesses in the United States?

Most research focuses on what happens after diagnosis, Chronic Illness is a unique and subjective experience

Why has the number of people with Chronic Illnesses hard to quantify?

7 out of the top 10 causes of death each year come from CI

What are the rates of death of Chronic Illness in the United States?

Disability

Limitation of one or more major life activities

William James

Father of American Psychology, coined “Empirical Self”