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PsychSim 5: All Stressed Out

PsychSim 5: ALL STRESSED OUT

Mizani Washburn

Name: __________________________________________ Date: __________________________________________

Section: ________________________

This activity examines the way that psychologists conceptualize stress, emphasizing that stress is a biopsycho-social process. You will explore the sources of stress in your own life, review your bodys response to stress, and then learn how cognitive appraisal dramatically affects how much stress you actually experience. Checking the Level of Stress in Your Life 39 What was your Stress Test score? ____________ Do you think that such a test accurately captures your experience? What other stressors should be included?
A stressor is an external event, situation, or other demand that triggers coping adjustments in a person. Stress is the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors that we believe to be threatening or challenging, and coping is the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional ways that people manage stressful situations.

Stress, Stressors, and Coping Psychologists differentiate stressors, strain, and stress. What does each of these terms mean?
Selye argued that every organism has a state of internal balance called homeostasis. External stressors disturb this balance, producing an immediate general physiological arousal. The organism adjusts to the stress in stages, rst mobilizing its resources, then using them to cope with the stress, and eventually depleting its energy resources. Selye called this sequence of body reactions the general adaptation syndrome. When the stressor occursfor example, when you hear footsteps behind you in a deserted alleyyour body briey goes into shock. It then mobilizes its resources to preserve homeostasis against your reaction to the stressor. If the stressor continues, those resources will be reduced and eventually exhausted.

The General Adaptation Syndrome Describe Selyes general adaptation syndrome.

PsychSim 5: All Stressed Out

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The Biology of Stress Although both men and women experience the fight-or-flight syndrome, some scientists argue that women also can experience stress differently (tend-and-befriend). Briefly explain this hypothesis.
University of California psychologist Shelley Taylor and her colleagues have suggested that although ght-or-ight characterizes the primary physiological responses to stress for both men and women, behaviorally, womens responses are more marked by a pattern of tend- and-befriend. Tending involves activities that are designed to protect the self and, especially, any offspring. Befriending involves the creation and maintenance of social networks.

Can you think of why this alleged gender difference in fight-or-flight and tend-and-befriend may make sense from an evolutionary perspective?
It is likely that our neuroendocrine and behavioral stress responses evolved from the ways in which our ancestors met serious, even life-threatening challenges. The idea that males and females have been selected for different responses under stress appears to make sense because, through this gender division of strategies, offspring may have the greatest chances of surviving dangerous situations.

Outline the bodys two-part endocrine response to stress.

During a moment of stress, the hypothalamus secretes releasing factors that coordinate the endocrine response of the pituitary and adrenal glands. The sympathoadreno-medullary (SAM) system is the primary or rst response to stress. Activation of the SAM complex leads to increased blood ow to the muscles, increased energy, and higher mental alertness. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) system reacts more slowly to stress and is activated by messages from the CNS. HPA activation functions to restore homeostasis to the body. Excessive cortisol production from the adrenal glands, however, may impair immune efciency.

Stress Harms Your Bodys Organ Systems List the effects of stress on: o

Recent studies by Sapolsky (1996) and others have demonstrated that, in rats and monkeys, elevated levels of glucocorticoids cause permanent damage to neurons in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, a structure involved in learning and memory. Although these types of experiments have not been performed on humans, new evidence from brain scans suggests that the hippocampus is smaller than normal in chronically depressed patients and military veterans with several years of combat exposure. The constant high levels of stress hormones in these individuals actually may have caused the hippocampus to shrink.

o the brain

Chronic stress raises blood pressure, which over time causes damage to the heart and blood vessels and increases the risk of the heart stroke. Also, high levels of glucocorticoids cause fat cells to release fatty acids into the bloodstream for fuel. If we dont need to burn the fat for energy, it builds up on the walls of our blood vessels (especially those damaged by high blood pressure), the digestive tract reducing blood ow to the brain and muscles and increasing the Stress causes a reduction in enzyme production and a reduction in blood ow to the stomach and intestines, making the lining of the stomach more vulnerable to damage from hydrochloric acid and ulcer-causing bacteria.

Cognitive Appraisal The Filter Through Which Stressors Are Processed According to the transactional model, what triggers the process of stress?
Stress is triggered whenever the stressors we experience exceed the personal and social coping resources we are able to mobilize.