PSYC 3170 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Seat Belt, Sunscreen, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3170
• Professor: Krista Trobst

Document Summary

Describe how stress affects our physiological systems. (pp. Stress-related diseases emerges out of the fact that we so often activate a physiological system that has evolved for responding to acute physical emergencies, but we turn it on for months on end, worrying about mortgages, relationships, and promotions. Stress is important b/c it causes psychological distress and leads to changes in the body that may have short or long-term consequences for health. Two interrelated systems are involved in the stress response: sympathetic-adrenomedullary (sam) system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (hpa) axis. Sympathetic activation => catecholamines release: events perceived as harmful/threatening r labelled as stressful by cerebral cortex. Labelling causes chain of rxn 2 set of: info from the cerebral transmit to hypothalamus, hypo initiates the earliest responses to stress called sympathetic nervous system arousal aka flight- or-flight (fof) response, fof stimulates adrenal medulla, adrenal secretes: Catecholamines = epinephrine + norepi: leads to increased bp, hr, sweating, peripheral blood vessel constriction and influences immune system.