Psych Final-Ch.18
Terms
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- health psychology
- researchers study relations between the mind and the body, and how these two components respond to challenges from the environment to produce illness or health
- alarm stage
- first stage in Seyle's GAS; it consists of the flight or fight response of the sympathetic nervous system & the associated peripheral nervous system reactions
- chronic stress
- refers to stress that does not end, like an abusive relationship that grinds the individual down until his or her resistance is eroded; can result in serious systemic diseases, decreased immune system functioning, or cardiovascular disease
- post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- a syndrome that occurs in some individuals after experiencing or witnessing life-threatening events, such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults (rape)
- optimistic bias
- most people generally underestimate their risks; it may actually lead people in general to ignore or minimize the risks inherent in life or to take more risks than they should
- hostility
- tendency to respond to everyday frustrations with anger & aggression, to become irritable easily, to feel frequent resentment, & to act in a rude, critical, antagonistic, & uncooperative manner; subtrait in the type A behavior pattern
- secondary appraisal
- (Lazarus), in order for stress to be evoked for a person, 2 cognitive events must occur, this one is when the person concludes that they do not have the resources to cope with the demands of the threatening event
- daily hassles
- the major sources of stress in most people's lives; minor, but can be chronic & repetitive; can be chronically irritating, though, they do not initiate the same GAS evoked by some major life events
- problem-focused coping
- refers to thoughts & behaviors that manage or solve the underlying cause of stress
- general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
- (Seyle)-1) when a stressor 1st appears, people experience the alarm stage; 2) if the stressor continues, then stage of resistance; if the stressor remains constant, the person enters 3) the stage of exhaustion
- stress
- the subjective feeling that is produced by uncontrollable and threatening events
- time urgency
- subtrait in the type A personality; hate wasting time; always in a hurry & feel under pressure to get the most done in the least amount of time; often do 2 things at once
- traumatic stress
- a massive instance of acute stress, the effects of which can reverberate within an individual for years or even a lifetime; differs from acute stress mainly in terms of its potential lead to post-traumatic stress disorder
- exhaustion stage
- 3rd stage in Seyle's GAS; the stage where we are most susceptible to illness & disease, as our physiological resources are depleted
- predisposition model
- suggests that associations may exist between personality and illness because a 3rd variable is causing them both
- primary appraisal
- (Lazarus), in order for stress to be evoked for a person, 2 cognitive events must occur, this one is when the person perceives that the event is a threat to their personal goals
- frustration
- high-arousal unpleasant subjective feeling that comes when a person is blocked from attaining an important goal
- major life events
- (Holmes & Rahe), require that people make major adjustments in their lives; death or loss of a spouse, jail, losing a close family member, or being severely injured
- disclosure
- refers to telling someone about some private aspect of ourselves
- competitive achievement motivation
- aka Need for Achievement; a subtrait in the type A behavior pattern
- acute stress
- results from the sudden onset of demands or events that seem to be beyond the control of the individual; tension headaches, emotional upsets, & feelings of agitation & pressure
- emotional inhibition
- refers to the suppression of emotional expressions
- interactional model
- suggests that objective events happen to a person, but that personality factors determine the impact of those events by influencing the person's ability to cope
- dispositional optimism
- the expectation that in the future good events will be plentiful and bad events will be rare
- stressors
- events that cause stress; extreme, produce opposing tendencies (wanting & not wanting an activity or object), uncontrollable
- health behavior model
- personality does not directly influence the relation between stress & illness; instead, it affects health indirectly through health-promoting or health-degrading behaviors;
- additive effects
- the effects of different kinds of stress adding up and accumulating in a person over time
- resistance stage
- 2nd stage in Seyle's GAS; here the body is using its resources at an above average rate, even though the immediate flight response has subsided; stress is being resisted, but the effort is making demands on the person's resources & energy
- positive reappraisal
- refers to a cognitive process whereby a person focuses on the good in what is happening or has happened to them
- self-efficacy
- (Bandura); refers to the belief that one can behave in ways necessary to achieve some desired outcome; also refers to the confidence one has in one's ability to perform the actions needed to achieve some specific outcome
- leukocyte
- a white blood cell; direct link between hostility and elevated white blood cell counts
- transactional model
- personality has 3 potential effects: 1) it can influence coping, as in the interactional model; 2) it can influence how the person appraises or interprets the events; and 3) it can influence exposure to the events themselves
- creating positive events
- creating a positive time-out from stress; ex. humor
- illness behavior model
- suggests that personality influences the degree to which a person perceives & pays attention to the bodily sensations, & the degree to which a person will interpret & label those sensations as an illness
- arteriosclerosis
- hardening or blocking of the arteries; when the arteries that feed the heart muscle itself become blocked, then the subsequent shortage of blood to the heart is called a heart attack
- episodic acute stress
- refers to repeated episodes of acute stress, such as having to work at more than one job every day, having to spend time with a difficult in-law, or needing to meet a recurring monthly deadline