Module 40 Review

REVIEW Stress and Illness

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

RETRIEVAL PRACTICE Take a moment to answer each of these Learning Objective Questions (repeated here from within this section). Then click the 'show answer' button to check your answers. Research suggests that trying to answer these questions on your own will improve your long-term retention (McDaniel et al., 2009).

40-1 What events provoke stress responses, and how do we respond and adapt to stress?

Stress is the process by which we appraise and respond to stressors (catastrophic events, significant life changes, and daily hassles) that challenge or threaten us. Walter Cannon viewed the stress response as a “fight-or-flight” system. Hans Selye proposed a general three-phase (alarm-resistance-exhaustion) general adaptation syndrome (GAS). Facing stress, women may have a tend-and-befriend response; men may withdraw socially, turn to alcohol, or become aggressive.

40-2 How does stress make us more vulnerable to disease?

Health psychology is a subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine. Psychoneuroimmunologists study mind-body interactions, including stress-related physical illnesses, such as hypertension and some headaches. Stress diverts energy from the immune system, inhibiting the activities of its B and T lymphocytes, macrophages, and NK cells. Stress does not cause diseases such as AIDS and cancer, but by altering our immune functioning it may make us more vulnerable to them and influence their progression.

40-3 Why are some of us more prone than others to coronary heart disease?

Coronary heart disease, the United States’ number one cause of death, has been linked with the reactive, anger-prone Type A personality. Compared with relaxed, easygoing Type B personalities, Type A people secrete more stress hormones. Chronic stress also contributes to persistent inflammation, which heightens the risk of clogged arteries and depression.

TERMS AND CONCEPTS TO REMEMBER

RETRIEVAL PRACTICE Match each of the terms on the left with its definition on the right. Click on the term first and then click on the matching definition. As you match them correctly they will move to the bottom of the activity.

Question

stress
general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
tend and befriend
health psychology
psychoneuroimmunology
coronary heart disease
Type A
Type B
the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries.
Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people.
under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend).
Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.
the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.
Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases—alarm, resistance, exhaustion.
the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health.
a subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s conribution to behavioral medicine.

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