PSY 1102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Hiv, Aids, Coronary Artery Disease

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1102
• Professor: Ersin Asliturk

Document Summary

Stress: the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events; called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging. Three main types: catastrophes, significant life changes, and daily hassles. Catastrophes. unpredictable large-scale events such as wars, earthquakes, and famines. For those who deal with the stress by moving to another country, the stress is two-fold (culture shock and resettling). For some, the everyday annoyances can add up and take a toll on health and well-being. There is another stress response system in addition to the fight or flight sympathetic nervous system. On orders from the cerebral cortex (via the hypothalamus and pituitary gland), the outer part of the adrenal glands secrete glucocorticoid stress hormones such as cortisol. General adaptation syndrome (gas): selye"s concept of the body"s adaptive response to stress in three phases- alarm, resistance, exhaustion. Alarm reaction- sns activated (heart rate increases, blood diverted to skeletal muscles)