The General Adaptation Syndrome

Rats Take a rat Give it a name and put it aside for now.

What is Stress? What things make you stressed? What does stress feel like?

Selye’s (1939) Experiments on Rats You are going to do an experiment on your rat The first piece of paper will describe what you have to do to your rat. Don’t let the other groups hear. In your pairs, discuss what reaction you think your rat will have within 48 hours Does it match with what actually happened?

Selye’s (1939) Experiments on Rats Repeat with the next two time scales and fill in your sheet Show your procedure and findings to the rest of the class Listen to the other groups and then come to a conclusion about Selye’s experiment.

Stage 1: Alarm One of the sensory organs (such as _________, ______or _____) will send information to the hypothalamus in the brain. The brain interprets the stimuli as a threat, and activates the _________________________(SNS). These are nerves that lie beyond the ____________________ of the brain and the spinal cord. This system causes changes in our bodies (see diagram on next page). As well as the nervous system, the endocrine system (__________) is activated. __________ is released from the adrenal glands causing changes similar to that of the SNS. During this stage, the body’s resistance drops as it tries to cope with the stressor. If the threat subsides, or the stressor is removed, the _____________________________(PNS) returns the body to its normal state. This stage is often referred to as fight or ______. the eyes ears nose sympathetic nervous system central nervous system hormones Adrenaline parasympathetic nervous system flight

Stage 1: Alarm Watch the animation and label the picture with what physiological changes occur during the alarm stage. http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/2008-09/psychology/ebook/Animeiddiadau/Saesneg/nervous_system/player.html What is the point of an alarm reaction?

Stages 2 and 3 Stage 2 Stage 3 Match the hormone to the action What happens if our immune system is not 100%? Complete the graph to show how our body’s resistance changes during the 3 stages

Evidence for the GAS Aside from Selye’s experiments… De Groot (2002) injected rats with a virus and then exposed them to a social stressor. He foundthe stressed rats produced less antibodies and interleukins to fight the infection. How does this support the GAS? Write a summary of Selye’s research