Psychology and Health chapter 15

Vocabulary

• Healthy psychology - focuses on the interrelationships between psychological factors and physical health

• Stress - pressure or demand placed on organisms to adjust or adapt

• Distress - state of emotional or physical suffering, discomfort, or pain

• Stressors - sources of stress

• Hassles - annoyances of everyday life that impose stress

• Chronic stress - continuing or lingering sources of stress

• Life events - significant changes in one’s life or life circumstances

• Frustration - a negative emotional state experienced when your efforts are thwarted

• Conflict

• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - psychological disorder involving a maladaptive reaction to traumatic stress

• Type A behavior pattern (TABP) - behavior pattern categorized by impatience, time urgency, competitiveness, and hostility

• Acculturative Stress - demands faced by immigrants in adjusting to a host culture

• General adaptation syndromes (GAS) - aka stress response, the body trying to return to a normal state before a stress event

• Alarm stage - first stage of GAS involving the rallying of the body resources to cope with immediate stress

• Fight or flight response

• Resistance Stage - the second stage of GAS where the body attempts to adjust or adapt to persistent stress

• Exhaustion stage - third stage of GAS characterized by depletion of body resources and lowered resistance to stress-related disorders

• Corticotropin-releasing hormones (CRH) - a hormone released by the hypothalamus that induces the pituitary gland to release ACTH

• Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) - pituitary hormone that activates the adrenal cortex that releases corticosteroids (cortical steroids)

• Adrenal glands - sit on top of kidneys

• Immune system - protest from the body from disease-causing organisms and rids the body of defective or diseased cells

• Lymphocytes - white blood cells that protect the body against disease-causing organisms

• Antigens - bacteria and viruses that are recognized by the immune system as foreign to the body and that induce it to produce antibodies

• Antibodies - protein molecules produced by the immune system that serve to mark antigens for destruction in specialized lymphocytes

• Vaccination - a method of acquiring immunity from infectious diseases

• Burnout - physical and mental fatigue caused by excessive stress relating to work or other commitments

• Psychological hardiness - a cluster of traits that may buffer the effects of stress

• Positive psychology - contemporary movement within psychology that emphasizes the study of human virtues and assets rather than weaknesses and deficits

Sources of Stress

• most common issue affecting millions of people

• varies from person to person and the way they handle it

• job stability

• so stressed they cannot function

• financial problems

• work - workplace doesn’t value their mental health

Signs of stress

• anxiety

• depression

• fatigue and heart palpitations

• mood swings

• stomach problems

Relationships

• both platonic and romantic relationships

• common stressors include

  • being too busy to spend time with people

  • abuse or control in the relationship

  • you’re not communicating

  • thoughts about divorce

• may avoid having conflict with the person

4 Different types of stress

• Acute stress - short-term stress that comes and quickly goes

• Chronic stress - long-term stress that goes on for weeks and months

• Episodic acute stress - when you experience acute stress on a regular basis

• Eustress - euphoric stress, fun, and exciting

• physical symptoms, emotional and mental symptoms

Personality and Resources

• Type A person is hard driven and perfectionists, tend to be impatient tense, and assertive

  • easily aroused with anger and hostility, prone to bullying

  • hostility and type A personality has been linked to coronary heart disease

• Type B is more relaxed, patient, easy going

  • more tolerant of others, less driven by time pressures

  • tend to have love levels of stress and less likely prone to aggression

  • lower rise of coronary heart disease than Type A personalities

Endocrine System

• releases hormones into the body

• pineal, gland, pituitary gland, adrenal glands, pancreas, hypothalamus and ovaries

• Adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys

• Under stress, the hypothalamus releases CRH which stimulates the pituitary gland to secrete ACTH that travels down to the adrenal glands

Nervous System

• branches of system

  • CNS

  • PNS

• PNS connects the spinal cord to the brain and rest of the body

  • somatic nervous system SNS

  • autonomic nervous system ANS

Autonomic Nervous System

• work unconsciously

• Flight or fight response comes from 3 uses of the sympathetic nervous system

  • exercising

  • stressed or sick

  • in danger

• Helps the immune system and healing

Body under Stress

• SNS triggers the adrenal medulla, (inner lining of the adrenal glands) to secrete the stress hormones norepinephrine and epinephrine

• These hormones make the heart beat faster and we get the fight or flight response

• How we experience a racing heart when dealing with stress

Stress and Immune system

• cortisol - stress hormone released by the adrenal glands

• greater stress = more cortisol

• Chronic stress = the body is used to the high levels of cortisol present

• the body gets used to too much cortisol in the blood, which can open the door to inflammation

• Chronic stress can lower the amount of lymphocytes in your body which leads to a weakened immune system

• Any other stressors are divorce, work, finance, relationships…

• more at risk for viruses like the common cold

• Fibromyalgia - widespread pain in the joints, muscles, and tendons

• arthritis

Destress

• yoga - helps control breathing and relax

• meditation - devotional time

• sleep

• diet

Vocabulary

• Arteries - carry oxygen blood away from the heart through the circulatory system

• Atherosclerosis - involves the narrowing of the artery walls from plaque build-up

• Coronary Heart Disease - most common form of heart disease, caused by blockages in coronary arteries

• Arteriosclerosis - where the artery walls become thicker and lose elasticity or hardening of the arteries

• Plaque - circulatory system, fatty deposits that accumulate along the artery wall

• Heart attack aka Myocardial Infarction - potentially life-threatening, involves the death of the heart tissue due to lack of blood flow to the heart

Coronary Heart Disease

• leading cause of death in US

• 2022 - 702k died of heart disease

• 1 in 20 had CHD 5%

• leading cause of death in racial and minority populations

• 35+

• stress can lead to coronary heart disease

• Signs of heart attack

  • chest pain or discomfort

  • shortness of breath

  • pain of discomfort in the jaw, neck, back, arm, or shoulder

  • women - feeling nauseous, light-headed, or unusually tired

Vocabulary

• Malignant tumors - uncontrolled growth of body cells that invade surrounding tissue

• Basal Cell carcinoma - potentially a lethal form of cancer, develops in melanin-forming cells and sometimes on other parts of the body

• Asthma - chronic lung disease characterized by temporary obstruction of breathing tubes, can lead to attacks

• Migraine headache - an intense, prolonged headache that is associated with throbbing or piercing sensations

• Peptic ulcer - sores that form on the lining of the stomach or small intestine lik

Tension Headaches

• feels like a tight band, wrapped around your head that puts pressure on the side of your head

• 70% of people suffer from tension headaches

• It affects more women than men

• Causes - eye strain, anxiety, depression, stress

• Symptoms - pressure and pain, sensitivity to sound, light, aching or tight neck and shoulder muscles, feeling like something is squeezing the sides of the head together

Migraine Headache

• throbbing, pulsing head pain on one side of your head

• gets worse with physical activity, bright lights, loud noises

• Causes - genetics

• Serotonin regulates the size of blood vessels in the brain

  • blood flow to different parts of the brain can cause pulsing

• four types

  • prodrome occurs 24 hours before mood changes, trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating

  • aura 60 minutes before vision, ringing of ears, muscle weakness

  • headache attack 4 to 72 hours nausea, severe head pain, sensitivity

  • postdrome 48 hours fatigue, neck stiff, trouble focusing