Psychology 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Coronary Artery Disease, Sympathetic Nervous System, Cortisol

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Dr.Mike

Document Summary

Psychologists view stress in 3 ways: stimulus, response, and organism-environment interaction. Stressors (eliciting stimuli or events that place strong demands on us) Stress (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) The greater imbalance between demands and resources, the more stressful a situation is. Catastrophic events (natural disasters, war, concentration camp confinement) Major negative events (victims of rape, loss of loved one, academic failure) Life event scales (quantify amount of life stress that a person has experienced over a given period of time) Primary appraisal begins as you evaluate the situation in terms of its demands and its significance to you. Secondary appraisal begins as you find resources available to deal with the situation (i. e. knowledge, verbal skills, social resources) Take into account the personal consequences of failing to cope with the situation (seriousness and likelihood that they will occur)