Psychology 1000 Chapter 15: Chapter 15 - Stress, Coping and Health

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Terrence Biggs

Document Summary

Psychologists view stress as a stimulus, a response and an organism-environment interaction. Stress: a pattern of cognitive appraisals, physiological responses, and behavioural tendencies that occurs in response to a perceived imbalance between situational demands and the resources needed to cope with them. Stressors: situations that place demands on organisms that tax or exceed their resources. Place demands on us that endanger well-being and require us to adapt. The greater the imbalance between demands and resources, the more stressful the situation. Can range from microstressors to catastrophic events: microstressors are daily hassles and annoyances, catastrophic events are unexpected and affect a large number of people. Major negative events (death of a loved one, victim of a major crime) cause major adaption. Life event scales: questionnaires that measure the number (and sometimes the intensity) of positive and negative life events that have occurred over a specific period of time.