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UP10 Chapter 14
Health Psychology: Stress, Coping, and Well-Being
Question | Answer |
---|---|
stress | a person's response to events that are threatening or challenging |
cataclysmic events | strong stressors that occur suddenly and typically affect many people at once |
personal stressors | major life events, such as the death of a family member, that have immediate negative consequences that generally fade with time |
posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd) | a phenomenon in which victims of major catastrophes or strong personal stressors feel long-lasting effects that may include re-experiencing the event in vivid flashbacks or dreams |
background stressors ("daily hassles") | everyday annoyances, such as being stuck in traffic, that cause minor irritations and may have long-term ill effects if they continue or are compounded by other stressful events |
psychophysiological disorders | medical problems influenced by an interaction of psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties. |
health psychology | the branch of psychology that investigates the psychological factors related to wellness and illness, including the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of medical problems |
psychoneuroimmunology (pni) | the study of the relationship among psychological factors, the immune system, and the brain |
stressors | circumstances and events that produce threats to our well-being |
general adaption syndrome (gas) | a theory developed by selye that suggests that a person's response to a stressor consists of three stages: alarm and mobilization, resistance, and exhaustion |
coping | the efforts to control, reduce, or learn to tolerate the threats that lead to stress |
emotion-focused coping | manage emotions in face of stress by seeking to change the way they feel about or perceive the problem |
problem-focused coping | attempts to modify the stressful problem or source of stress |
avoidant coping | using wishful thinking to reduce stress or using more direct escape routes |
defense mechanisms | unconscious strategies that people use to reduce anxiety by concealing the source from themselves and others |
repression | unacceptable or unpleasant impulses are pushed back into the unconscious |
projection | people attribute unwanted impulses and feelings to someone else |
denial | people refuse to accept or acknowledge an anxiety-producing piece of information |
rationalization | people provide self-justifying explanations in place of the actual, but threatening, reason for their behavior |
learned helplessness | a state in which people conclude that unpleasant or aversive stimuli cannot be controlled |
hardiness | a personality characteristic that is associated with a lower rate of stress-related illness and consists of three components: commitment, challenge, and control |
resilience | the ability to withstand, overcome, and actually thrive after profound adversity |
social support | a mutual network of caring, interested others |
turning a threat into a challenge | treat the situation as a challenge and focus on ways to control it |
make a threatening situation less threatening | change your approach to the situation and modify your attitude towards it |
change your goals | adopt new goals that are partial in view of the particular situation |
take physical action | changing your physiological reaction to stress |
prepare for stress before it happens | anticipate and prepare for stress |
type a behavior patterns | a cluster of behaviors involving hostility, competitiveness, time urgency, and feeling driven |
type b behavior patterns | a cluster of behaviors characterized by a patient, cooperative, noncompetitive, and nonaggressive manner |
happy people | high self esteem, a firm sense of control, optimistic, similar activities, and social |