AP Psychology Unit 5

Stress

The process we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, which can be threatening or challenging. Involves psychological perception of pressure and bodily response to pressure.

Stressor

Any event, force, or conditoino that results in physical or emotional stress.

Stress Response

Body’s adaptive reaction that occurs in response to a real or perceived danger which causes physicalogical and psychological changes that help a person respond and survive.

Stress Appraisal

Cognitive process that evaluating a situation as stressful or not, how we appraise an event influences how much stress we experience and how effectively we respond.

Primary Appraisal

Individual’s perception of threat associated with the situation. How dangerous is this.

Secondary Appraisal

Individual’s evalution of their ability to control the situation and manage emotional reaction to respond to it. Can I do it or can I not with the given resources.

Coping Efforts

Individual’s strategies to manage the situation or reactions to it.

Physical Stressors

Physical expereinces that threaten homeostasis. Examples; injury, illness, pain, sleep deprivation.

Psychological Stressors

a wild range of social and interpersonal experiences that threaten homeostasis. Example: COVID, weddings, traffic.

Eustress

Stress that evokes positive response, involves optimal levels of stimulation, result from chellenging but attainable and enjoyable or worthwhile tasks, generate sense of achievement.

Distress

Stress that evokes negative response, involve negative emotions and physiological reactivity, results from being overwhelmed by demands, losses, or percieved threats, generate physical + psychological maladaptation and posing serious health risks.

Acute Stress

Any stress occurs from events that are expected for a short period and have clear endpoints.

Chronic Stress

Any stress that prolonged internal or external, the stress does not need to be physically present to have its effects.

Environmental Stress

Any kind of stress caused by factors in one’s physical and social sorroundings, physical: urbanization, noise, pollution, etc, social: crime levels, poverty, inequality/discrimination.

Acculturation Stress

Stress caused by the processes by which groups/individuals adjust the social and cultural values, ideas, beliefs and behavioral patterns of their culture to those of a different culture.

Catastrophes

Large scale unpredictable events

Daily Hassles

Anything that causes you aggravation or anxiety in your daily life.

Anticipatory Stress

Stress causes from anticipating an approaching future event, that is usually percieved as uncertain or challenging.

Approach-Approach

Situation where there are two choices equally desirable but incompatible alternatives.

Avoidance-Avoidance

Situation where there are two choices with equally objectionable alternatives.

Approach-Avoidance

Situation involving a single option that has both desirable and undesirable aspects or consequences.

Double Approach-Avoidant

Situation where there are two options that each have significant attractive and unattractive features.

Physiologial Response

When triggered the body is prepared for immediate action, suppressing non-critical functions.

Cortisol

Mobilizes energy, increase blood sugar, and boosts heart rate. Helps temporary suppresses non-essential functions to aid immediate responses.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

An adaptive response by the body to stress, like an alarm sounding to anything intruding.

Alarm Phase

Phase 1 of GAS, sympathetic nervous system is suddenly activated, heart rate increase and blood is diverted to skeletal muscles, resources are mobilized.

Resistance Phase

Phase 2 of GAS, temperature, blood pressure and respiration remaind high. Adrenal glands pump hormones like cortisol into the blood stream.

Exhaustion Phase

Phase 3 of GAS, body becomes more vulnerable to illness or collapse and death. Can act as a silent killer leading to premature death.

Health Psychology

Subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine.

Psychneuroimmunology

Study of how psychological, neutral, and endocrine processes together affects immune systen and resulting health.

Problem-Focused Coping

Attempt to alleviate stress directly - challenge the stressor or the way we interact with the stressor, used when feel a sense of control over the situation and think can change the circumstances.

Emotion-Focused Coping

Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding the stressor and attending to emotional needs related to stress reaction, used when believe cannot change the situation.

Tend-and-Befriend Response

How one nurture themselves and others and bond with and seek support from others.

External Locus of Control

Perceiption that outside forces beyond our personal control determines our fate.

Internal Locus of Control

Perceiption that we are in control of our own fate.

Pessimism

Expect things to go badly.

Optimism

Expect to have more control, cope better with stressful events and to enjoy better health.

Social Support

Feeling liked and encouraged by intimate friends and family, promotes happiness and good health.

Positive Psychology

The scientific study of human flourishing, with the goals of promoting strengths and virtues that foster well-being, resilience, and positive emotions that help individuals and communities thrive.

Subjective Well-Being

self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life, used along with measures of objective well-being

Positive Well-Being

satisfaction with the past, happiness with the present, and optimism about the future

Positive Character

focuses on exploring/enhancing creativity, courage, compassion, integrity, self-control, leadership, wisdom, and spirituality

Positive Group

community and culture that seeks to foster a positive ecology

Feel-Good, Do-Good Phenomenon

tendency for people to be helpful when in a good mood

Resilience

process/outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences

Adaption-Level Phenomenon

tendency to form judgements relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experiences

Relative Deprivation

the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

Broaden-and-Build Theory

theory that proposes that positive emotions broaden our swareness, over time help us build meaningful skills and resilience that improves well-being

Psychological Disorder

a significant disturbace in people’s thoughts, emotions, or behaviors that causes distress and impacts daily life

dysfunctional

prevent one from functioning normally

maladaptive

prevent one from adapting or adjusting to different aspects of life

diathesis-stress model

model that suggests that genetic predispostions combine with environmental stressors to increase/decrease the likelihood of developing a psychological disorder

DSM-5-TR

the american psychiatric association’s diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition

mental health stigma

a negative attitude or idea about a mental health feature of a person or group of people, social, structural, health practitioner

anxiety disorders

psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

an anxiety disorder in which a person is tense, apprehensive, and in a constant state of autonomic nervous system arousal

social anxiety disorder

intense fear or avoidance of social situations, social phobia

taijin kyofusho

cultual bound anxiety to japanese fear others judging their bodies as undesirable, offensive or unpleasing

panic disorder

an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which the person may experience terror accompany with chest pain, choking, or other freightening sensations

agoraphobia

fear of situatuons like crowds or open wild places, may experience loss of control and panic

ataque de nervois

cultural bound syndrome found among latinos, loss control over body (shouting, crying, rise of heat), follow by a seizure like episode

obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitve thoughts (obsession), actions (compulsions), or both

hoarding disorder

a disorder characterized by persistent difficulty of parting with possessions, regardless of value

posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, social withdrawl, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience

post-traumatic growth

theory that explains a kind of transformation one goes through after experiencing a traumatic event and endured, allowing them to see positive growth afterward

major depressive disorders

a state of hopelessness and lethargy lasting several weeks or months

persistent depressive disorder (dysthmia)

similar to major depressive disorder, but with milder depressive symptoms and longer periods of time

seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

a mood disorder in which there is a predictable occurance of major depressive episode at particular time of the year, mostly winter

bipolar disorders

a disorder in which a person alternates between hopelessness and overexcitement, called a mania

bipolar 1

most servere form, experience mania lasting a week or longer

bipolar 2

less servere, move between depression and milder hypomania

rumination

compulsive fretting, overthinking problems and their causes

explanatory style

how we explain bad events

nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI)

engage in activities that brings pain to self but not lethal

psychotic disorders

group of disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality

schizophrenia

a disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and/or diminished, inapproapriate emotional expression

positive schizo symptoms

hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech or thinking, disorganized movement, exhibit inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage, inappropriate behaviors that are present

negative schizo symptoms

absence of emotion in voices, expressionless face, unmoving bodies, appropriate behaviors that are not present

hallucinations

false sensory experience, seeing things in absence of an external visual stimulus

delusion

false belief, may accompany psychotic disorders

disorganized speech

comes from formal thought disorder and is a symptom related to cognition and not language

catatonia

a state of muscular rigidity or other disturbance of motor behavior

catatonic stupor

remaining motionless and rigid

chronic schizophrenia

form of schizo appearing by late adolescence or early adulthood, usually last longer and recovery period shorten

acute schizophrenia

a form of scizo that can begin at any age, frequently occurs in response to a traumatic event

dopamine hypothesis

The idea that a hyper-responsive dopamine system may intensify brain signals in schizo, creating positive symptoms like hallucinations and paranoia

viral infections and schizo

during prenatal development or delivery can cause brain abnormalities in people with schizophrenia

genetics and schizophrenia

idea that risks of developing schizo varies with one’s genetic relatedness to someone with the disorder, the closer relation means higher the chance of getting the disorder

dissociation

A coping mechanism in which conflicting impulses are kept apart or threatening ideas and feelings are separated from the rest of the psyche, disconnection from one’s sense of self or one’s surroundings

dissociative disorders

a controversial, rare group of disorders characterized by a disruption of or discontinuity in the normal integration of conscicousness memory, identity, emotion, perception, body representation, motor control, and behavior

psychosis

breaking away from reality and believing things that are untrue or having hallucinations about things that don’t exist

dissociative amnesia

a disorder in which people with intact brains report experiencing memory gaps, may not remember traumatic related events

dissociative identity disorder (DID)

a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more conflicting alter personalities

Personality Disorder

a group of disorders characterized by enduring inner experiences or behaviour patterns that differ from someone’s cultural norms and expectations, goes throughout a person’s life and inflexible, usually begins at adolescence or early adulthood

personality disorder cluster a: eccentric or odd

characterized by thinking and behaviour that appears unusual or eccentric to others; often leads to social problems

personality disorder cluster b: dramatic or impulsive

characterized by unpredictable emotions and erratic behaviors; often have intense, unstable relationships

personality disorder cluster c: anxiety

characterized by fear of rejection, anxiety, and avoidance

paranoid personality disorder

suspicious; distrust of others

schizoid personality disorder

social detachment; limited emotional expression, hard to get close relationships

schizotypal personality disorder

intense social discomfort, distorted cognitions or perceptions, eccentric behaviour, closer to schizophrenia