Stress

4 Components of Stress

1) Cogonitive appreisal: Evaluating the stressor and resources for coping.

2) Psychological Response: ‘Butterfly’ in your stomach feeling.

3) Subjective: Fear, anger, frustration.

4) Behavior: Aggression, crying, and running away.

Response to Stress

Fight or Flight

Spillover Effect

Description of how mood, emotions, and behaviors of your life spread to another.

High Road vs. Low Road of Emotion

Two neurological pathways that dictate how our brains’ process sensory information and how it triggers emotions.

High Road: aka “Slow Road” requires more process time, more analytical function for a wiser outcome.

Low Road: aka “Fast Track”, inate survival response that trigger’s flight or fight, less accurate since there isn’t cognitive recall.

Facial Feedback Effect

Facial expression(s) directly influence emotional exprience.

EX: Smiling though sad = Happy!

Sympathetic Nervous System vs. Parasympathetic Nervous System

Sympathetic Nervous system triggers flight or flight while the parasympathetic nervous system triggers rest and digest.

Sympathetic: Survival, faster heartbeat, tense muscles, dilated pupils.

Parasympathetic: Recovery, slows breathing, boosts digestion to increase energy.

Hormones Involved with Stress Response

Adrenaline (Epinephrine), Cortisol, Norepinephrine: Works alongside adrenaline (root) to increase alertness.

Lymphocytes and Macrophages

White blood cells that work in the immune system, related to PTSD and depression and psychological stress.

Catharsis

Releasing strong feelings of anger, or negative emotion, to reach a sense of tranquility or renewal.

(Venting, coping methods)

Feel Good, Do Good Phenomenom

It’s more likely that people will help when they are in a good mood compared to when they aren’t.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

If a task is moderately hard, then moderate arousal is best.

Problem-Focused Coping

Taking direct action to solve a problem.

Emotion-Focused Coping

Aims to regulate emotional response stressor rather than changing physical situation itself.