PSYC 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Autonomic Nervous System, Psychoneuroimmunology, Reaction Formation
14 Jun 2018
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PSYC 200 Chapter 12: Health, Stress & Coping
Health Psychology and Behavioural Risk Factors
• Health Psychology: Uses behavioural principles to prevent illness and promote health
• Behavioural Risk Factors: Behaviours that increase the chances of disease, injury, or
premature death (need to identify risk factors → then can prevent)
Health Promoting Behaviours
• Health-Promoting Behaviour: Any practice that tends to maintain or enhance good
health
• Refusal Skills Training: Program that teaches young people how to resist pressures to
begin smoking (Can also be applied to other drug and health risks.)
• Life Skills Training: Teaches stress reduction, self-protection, decision making, self-
control, and social skills
• Depends of goal for which technique to use
Wellness
• : A state of optimal physiological and psychological health.
• Associated with: (can compare if pick 1+ of these)
o Happiness
o Optimism
o Self-confidence
o Resilience
o Supportive relationships
o Meaningful work
Stress
• Stress: Mental and physical condition that occurs when a person must adjust or adapt to
the environment; includes marital and financial problems.
• Stress Reaction: PHYSICAL response to stress, consisting mainly of bodily changes
related to autonomic nervous system arousal.
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): Series of bodily reactions to prolonged stress;
occurs in 3 stages
o Alarm Reaction: Body resources mobilized to cope with added stress (Ex.
sympathetic system)
o Stage of Resistance: Body adjusts to stress BUT at a HIGH physical cost;
resistance to other stressors is LOWERED
o Stage of Exhaustion: Bod’s resources are drained and stress hormones are
depleted, possibly resulting in: psychosomatic disease (physical manifest of
mental issues), loss of health, complete collapse
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Yes ☺
Stress, Illness, and the Immune System
• Immune System: Mobilizes bodily defenses like white blood cells against invading
microbes and other diseases
o Stress WORSENS immune system → Could reducing stress help prevent illness?
• Psychoneuroimmunology: Study of connections among behaviour, stress, disease, and
immune system
Appraising Stressors
• Threat: An event or situation perceived as potentially harmful
• Primary Appraisal: Deciding if a situation is relevant to oneself and if it is a threat.
• Secondary Appraisal: Deciding how to COPE with a threat or challenge
o Big individual differences to how one copes
• Image: Stress is the product of an interchange b/w a person & the environment
Coping with Threat
• Problem-Focused Coping: Directly managing or remedying
a stressful or threatening situation (try to change situation)
o Ex) Issue w/ colleague → stressful → try to improve relation
• Emotion Focused Coping: Managing or otrollig oe’s
emotional reaction to a stressful or threatening situation.
• Often need both → 1st deal w/ emotion, then try to solve the problem
Frustration
• Frustration: Negative emotional state that occurs when one is prevented from reaching
desired goals
o External Frustration: Based on external conditions that hinder progress toward a
goal. Ex) Driving & get a flat tire
o Personal Frustration: Distress caused by personal characteristics that impede
progress toward a goal. Ex) Wanting to be a singer → tone deaf
Reactions to Frustration
• Aggression: Any response made with the intention of harming a person or an object
• Displaced Aggression: Redirecting aggression to a target other than the source of oe’s
frustration superior to, o’t fight ak, ofortale ith
Reactions to Frustration
• Scapegoating: Blaming a person or group for conditions they did not create; the
scapegoat is a habitual target of displaced aggression (same person receiving)
• Escape: Actually leaving a source of frustration (dropping out of school) or
psychologically escaping (Ex. apathy, leaving school)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
