Psychology 105

• Stress


  A stimulus that happens to us, and we respond to it
• Stress


  • Physical responses: Fight or flight
  • Emotional responses
• Stress as an Interaction


  An interaction between an event and our perception of that event
• Appraisal process


  1. Involuntary or unconscious manner

  2. We evaluate things every moment

  3. We use cognitive efficiencies and cognitive economy to cut down on our faith
• Event


  1. Primary appraisal: Looking to see if the situation is a threat

  2. Secondary Appraisal: Sympathetic nervous system is activated
• Coping


  • Problem-focused: Act directly upon the problem to change it
  • Emotion-focused: Change our reaction to the situation
• Diaphragmatic Breathing


  • Exhaling activates the parasympathetic system
  • Shallow breaths activate the sympathetic nervous system
• Diaphragmatic Breathing


  How to do it
• Syleye's General Adaptation Syndrome


  1. Exposure to prolonged stress can cause breakdown of our body, which leads to illness and other symptoms

  2. There are three stages
• Stage 1: Alarm Reaction


  1. Excitation of the autonomic nervous system and the limbic system

  2. Body will start to release adrenaline

  3. Body will release cortosol
• Stage 2: Resistance


  1. Must accept the situation and to cope

  2. Basil-ganglia will calm her down
• Stage 3: Exhaustion


  1. Individuals typically use all of their resources

  2. Activation levels will fall

  3. Can start to experience anxiety and organ damage
• Long-Lasting Stress Reactions


  • When we can't get out of stage 3
  • Common with people with (c)PTSD
  • Resilience among children - they can bounce back very quickly
• Tend and Befriend


  • Females are often the ones to take care of
  • Females may combine their fight and flight with their nurturing
  • Natural response to stress
  • Take care of yourself and seek support from those close to you
  • Oxytocin is released when we feel close with other
• Benefits of Stress


  • It can help you excel
  • It can help you grow
  • Short term stress can assist us
  • It can help us fight off colds
• Social Support


  Provides emotional confirmation
• Behavioural Control


  Taking action to reduce the impact of stress or prevent reoccurrence of the stressful situation
• Cognitive Control


  • Uses emotion focused coping
  • We change the way we think about the negative emotions
• Decisional Control


  Making a choice between alternative courses of action
• Informational Control


  Learning about the stressful event
• Emotional Control


  Managing emotions by suppressing or expressing them
• Individual Differences


  • Hardiness: Attributes of resilient people. View change as a challenge rather than a threat, committed to their life and work and believe they can control events
  • Optimism: More productive, focused, persistent, better at handling frustration, Correlated to positive health outcomes
  • Spirituality: The search for the sacred. Correlated to positive health outcomes
• The Immune System


  • Pathogens: Invader
  • Antibodies: First Shield
  • White blood cells
• White blood cells


  • Phagocytes
  • Lymphocytes
  • T-cell
  • B-Cell
• Psychoneuroimmunology


  Things that happen in our minds can influence our physical responses in our brain and immune system
• Relationship between stress and colds


  Longterm stressors increase the likelihood of colds
• Why is there a...
• Stress-Related Illnesses


  Psychophysiological: Biopsychosocial Perspective on illness
• Stress and Other Illnesses

  • Peptic Ulcers
  • Coronary Heart Disease
• CHD and Stress


  • Direct Effects
  • Indirect Effects
  • Easily Stressed Effects
  • Extreme Stress Effects
• CHD and Other Factors
• Alternative Medicine


  • Biological Based Therapies
  • Manipulative Body-based Methods
  • Mind-Body Medicine
  • Energy Medicine
• Social Psychology


  The study of how people influence others' behaviour, beliefs and attitudes
• People tend to believe that only others, but not ourselves, are vulnerable to social influence
• Humans


  • Social beings with a strong biological need to belong
  • Brains are developed to predispose us to form intimate interpersonal networks
  • Social influence processes serve us well most of the time, but they can occasionally backfire
• Social Comparisons


  Evaluate our attitudes and beliefs by comparing with others. Upward and downwards
• Social Contagion


  Look to others when a situation is ambiguous
• Social Contagion


  • Urban legends, mass hysteria
• Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)


  The tendency for observers to underestimate situational influences and overestimate dispositional influences on others' behaviour
• Cultural Influences


  • Collectivist vs Individualistic