AP Psychology Chapter 12 - Emotions, Stress and Health

Emotion

a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience

Polygraph

a machine, commonly used in attempts to detect lies, that measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion

Catharsis

an emotional release which brings about renewal of the self or welcome relief from anxiety, tension, etc.

Feel-good, do-good Phenomenon

People's tendency to be helpful when in a good mood.

Adaptaton-level Phenomenon

Our tendency to for judgments relative to a "neutral" level defined by our prior experience.

Relative Deprivation

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

James-Lange Theory

The theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.

Cannon-Bard Theory

The Theory that emotion arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and the subjective experience of emotion.

Two-factor Theory

Schachter's theory that to experience emotion one must e physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal.

Subjective Well-being

Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life.

Behavioral Medicine

an interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease

Health Psychology

a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine

Stress

the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress as composed of three stages-- alarm, resistance exhaustion.

Burnout

physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion brought on by persistent job related stress

Coronary Heart Disease

the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 555)

Type A

Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people

Type B

Friedman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people

Problem-focused coping

Attempting to alleviate stress directly--by changing the stressor or the way we interact with the stressor.

Emotion-focused coping

Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one's stress reaction.

Psychoneuroimmunology

study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health.

Psychophysiological Illness

Literally, "mind-body" illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches.

Lymphocytes

the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system: B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T lymphocytes form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 557)

Aerobic Exercise

sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety

Biofeedback

a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension

Alternative Medicine

A variety of therapeutic or preventative health care practices that are alternatives to mainstream medicine, such as chiropractic, homeopathy, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, naturopathy, and herbal medicine.

Approach-approach Conflict

Involves choosing between two situations that both have pleasurable consequences.

Avoidance-avoidance Conflict

Involves choosing between two situations that both have disagreeable consequences.

Approach-avoidance Conflict

Involves a single situation that has both pleasurable and diagreeable aspects.