Stress and Positive Psych Quiz

Health Psych

Studies how bio, psycho, and social factors influence health, illenss and wellness

Stress

physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral resposne to events that are apprised to be threatening or challenging

Stressors

events that cause a stressful reactionn

• Can be psychlogical or environmental

Distress

effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors

Eustress

effect of positive events, requires adaptation

Anxiety

exxcessive worries about potential future threats that do not go away, even if there is no clear source

Daily Hassles

irritating, frustraiting, distressing demands of everyday lfie

Internal conflcits

When a choice is required between motivations or actions that are incompatible

Pressure

stress created from demands or expectations to perform or conform

• Self imposed or peer pressure

Catastrophes

unpredictable, large-scale events, such as natural disasters or devastations that affect community

Major life changes

big events that occur in a perosn’s life that contribute to their lfie story

Environmental stressors

stress caused by physcial or social environment

Acculturation

When people are adjusting to life in a new culture

Social readjustment Rating Scale

measurs amount of stress resulting from major life events in a person’s life over a 1 year period

Hassles Scales

Measure the cumulativr effects of relatively minor hssles on indiivuals

Percieved Stress Scales

Measure the degree to whcih individuals appraise their lives as unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded over the past month

Frustration

psychological experience produced by the blocking of a desired goal or fulfillment of a perceived need.

Conflict

 psychological experience of being pulled toward or drawn to two or more desires or goals, only one of which may be attained.

Approach–approach conflict:

person must choose between two desirable goals. Relatively easy to resolve, not very stressful.

Avoidance–avoidance conflict

person must choose between two undesirable goals. Typically stressful

Approach–avoidance conflict

person must choose (or not choose) a goal that has both positive and negative aspects. Possibly the most stressful of all the types of conflict.

Double approach–avoidance conflict:

person must decide between two goals, each possessing both positive and negative aspects.

Multiple approach-avoidance conflict

a person has many goals or options to consider. Often very difficult and stressful.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). 

Reactions of stress on body remarked in three stages

1. Alarm 

2. Resistance

3. Exhaustion

Alarm

when the body first reacts to a stressor, the sympathetic nervous system is activated. The adrenal glands release hormones that increase heart rate, blood pressure, and the supply of blood sugar, resulting in a burst of energy. Reactions such as fever, nausea,, and headache are common.

Resistance

 as stress continues, the body settles into sympathetic division activity, continuing to release the stress hormones that help the body fight off, or resist, the stressor. The early symptoms of alarm lessen and the person or animal may actually feel better, this stage will continue until the stressor ends or the organism has used up all of its resources. Researchers have found that one of the hormones released under stress, noradrenaline, actually seems to affect the brain’s processing of pain, so that when under stress a person may experience a kind of analgesia (insensitivity to pain)..

Exhaustion

when the body’s resources are gone, this occurs. Exhaustion can lead to the formation of stress-related diseases (high blood pressure, or a weakened immune system) or death if the organism if outside help is unavailable. When the stressor ends, the parasympathetic division activates and the body attempts to replenish its resources.

cognitive appraisal approach

how people think about a stressor determines, at least in part, how stressful that stressor will become.

Primary appraisal

• estimating the severity of a stressor and classifying it as a threat, a challenge, or a harm/loss that has already occurred. 

Secondary appraisal

• involves estimating the resources available to the person for coping with the stressor.

Type A

Ambitious, time conscious, extremely hardworking, tends to have high levels of hostility and anger, easily annoyed, more likely to develop heart disease than Type B

Type B

Relaxed and laid-back, less driven and competitive than Type A, slow to anger

Type C

• Pleasant but repressed person, tends to internalize anger and anxiety, finds expressing emotions difficult, higher cancer rates

• Hardy personality (or Type H)

• Seems to thrive on stress but lacks the anger and hostility of the Type A personality, deep sense of commitment to values, sense of control over their lives, view problems as challenges to be met and answered

Optimists

• the people who tend to expect positive outcomes. “Glass half full”

Pessimists

• tend to expect negative outcomes. “Glass half empty”

Coping strategies

actions that people can take to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize the effects of stressors.

Problem-focused coping

 when one tried to eliminate the source of a stress or reduce its impact through direct actions.

Emotions-focused coping

•  is when one changes the impact of a stressor by changing your emotional reaction to the stressor

Meditation

• series of mental exercises meant to refocus attention and achieve a trancelike state of consciousness and relaxation that can aid in coping with stress.

Concentrative meditation

•  when a person focuses their mind on some repetitive or unchanging stimulus so that the mind can be cleared of disturbing thoughts and the body can experience relaxation.

Positive Psychology

ic study of what makes life most worth living. It focuses on human strengths, virtues, and factors that contribute to happiness and flourishing.

• feel-good, do-good phenomenon

When in a oood mood, we are likely to do something good

• Adaptation-level phenomenon 

tendency to evaulatre new experiences, stimuli, or emotions based on a neutral baseline established by past experiences

• Making them the “new normal”

• Relative deprivation

perception that one is worse off in comparison to a reference group for expectation

Virtues of Positive Psych

Wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence

Wisdom

Cognitive strengths (creativity, curiosity, judgement)

Courage

Emotional strengths to face chellenges

Humanity

Interpersonal strengths (love, kindness, social intellect)

Justice

Civic strengths (fairness leadership, teamwork))

Temperance

Strengths protecting against excess (forgiveness, modesty, self-control)

Transcendence

Strengths connecting to the larger universe (beauty, gratitiude, hope)

Resilience

 The ability to bounce back from adversity, trauma, or significant stress. It's about adapting well in the face of challenges.

Posttraumatic Growth (PTG):

 Positive psychological change experienced as a result of struggling with highly challenging life circumstances. It's not just bouncing back (resilience), but bouncing forward to a higher level of functioning in some area