1. Stress: How and why do we experience it?
Stress is a response to perceived threats that activate thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and physiological arousals that promote adaption and survival
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

2. What is Stress? Stressor
Stress is a physical and mental response to a challenging or threatening situation caused by a…
Stressor
A stressful stimulus or condition demanding adaption
ex: your hands up in the air is a reaction to the stressor (gun) being pointed at you

3. Stress Appraisal Appraisal Response Stressful event (tough math test)
Threat
(“Yikes! This is
beyond me!”)
Challenge
(“I’ve got to apply
all I know”)
Panic, freeze up
Aroused, focused
Appraisal
Response

4. The Physical Stress Response
Nearly any stressor follows the same physical sequence
Initial arousal
Protective behavioral reaction, fight/flight
Internal responses to autonomic/endocrine system
Decrease in effectiveness of immune system

5. Stress Relief Activities
Stress is an unavoidable fact of life. As a result, it’s important to find healthy ways to manage stress. Today you will have an opportunity to try out a few different methods of managing your stress. Complete the questions that accompany each activity.

6. Physical Stress Response
Hans Selye (1956
“Father of Stress”
General Adaption Syndrome (GAS)
A pattern of responses to any serious chronic stressor
Prolonged stressor response can contribute to heart disease, ulcers, arthritis, asthma, and even death

7. The General Adaptation Syndrome
Alarm Reaction
Alarm reaction – the body mobilizes it’s resources to cope with a stressor
Resistance
Resistance – the body seems to adapt to the presence of the stressor
Exhaustion
Illness/death
Exhaustion – the body depletes it’s resources
Successful Resistance
Level of
normal resistance
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

8. IF STRESSOR IS NOT REMOVED IN TIME, THE ORGANISM MOVES TO NEXT STAGE
GAS – Stage 1
Alarm Reaction
Body mobilizes its resources to cope with a stressor
Hypothalamus signals response through endocrine system
Adrenal hormones are released
The sympathetic nervous system is activated
IF STRESSOR IS NOT REMOVED IN TIME,
THE ORGANISM MOVES TO NEXT STAGE
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

9. IF STRESSOR IS NOT REMOVED IN TIME, THE ORGANISM MOVES TO NEXT STAGE
GAS – Stage 2
Resistance
Alarm reaction (arousal) subsides
Body tries to adapt to stressor
Hormonal changes to cope with stress
Conservation of resources
The parasympathetic nervous system is activated and adrenal output slows
IF STRESSOR IS NOT REMOVED IN TIME,
THE ORGANISM MOVES TO NEXT STAGE
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

10. IF STRESSOR IS NOT DISAPPEAR IN TIME, DEATH OCCURS TO ORGANISM
GAS – Stage 3
Exhaustion
Organism tires fighting stressor(s)
Symptoms of stage one (alarm reaction) reappear
The parasympathetic nervous system overcompensates in an attempt to stop surging hormones
IF STRESSOR IS NOT DISAPPEAR IN TIME,
DEATH OCCURS TO ORGANISM
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

11. Studying the Stress-Illness Relationship
This is the subject of a new field of study: psycho-neuroimmunology, the study of how interacting psychological, neural, and endocrine processes affect health.
Psychologists no longer use the term “psychosomatic” because it has come to mean an imagined illness.
We now refer to psychophysiological illness, a real illness caused in part by psychological factors such as the experience of stress.
Lymphocytes
two types of white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system
B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections
T lymphocytes form in the thymus and, among other duties, attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances
Click to reveal bullets.

12. Stress and Heart Disease
Many factors contribute to heart disease.
Biological: genetic predisposition to high blood pressure and high cholesterol
Behavioral: smoking, inactivity, and high-fat diet
Psychological: chronic stress, and personality styles that worsen the experience of stress
In coronary heart/artery disease, the blood vessels that provide oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle itself become clogged, narrowed, and closed.
Click to reveal sidebar bullets.
Stress increases the risk of heart disease over decades and causes immediate heart attacks. However, stress can also increase cholesterol levels and artery clogging factors in the space of weeks (the accountant study in the text) and prevent the liver from filtering cholesterol and fat from the blood.
Clogging of the coronary artery

13. Stress and the Heart Hopelessness scores Heart attack Death 3.5 3 2.5
1.5 1
0.5
Heart attack
Death
Low risk
Moderate risk
High risk
Men who feel extreme hopelessness
are at greater risk for heart attacks
and early death

14. Stress and the Heart

15. Stress and the Immune System
The human immune system response, which evolved to respond to short-term stressors, may react to chronic stressors by breaking down and turning on itself
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

16. Quiz time… go to your email and check this link out http://www. psych

17. Stress and Personality
Personality Types
Type A Personality
Behavior pattern characterized by intense, angry, competitive, or ‘perfectionist’ responses to challenging situations
Type B Personality
Behavior pattern characterized by a relaxed, unstressed approach to life