Health Psychology An Introduction to Behavior and Health 8th Edition by Linda Brannon - Test Bank

Health Psychology An Introduction to Behavior and Health 8th Edition by Linda Brannon - Test Bank   Instant Download - Complete Test Bank With Answers     Sample Questions Are Posted Below   CHAPTER 5 Defining, Measuring, and Managing Stress   Lecture Outline   The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress The nervous system …

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Health Psychology An Introduction to Behavior and Health 8th Edition by Linda Brannon – Test Bank

 

Instant Download – Complete Test Bank With Answers

 

 

Sample Questions Are Posted Below

 

CHAPTER 5

Defining, Measuring, and Managing Stress

 

Lecture Outline

 

  1. The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

The nervous system is made-up of neurons (nerve cells) that provide internal communication by releasing chemical neurotransmitters across the synaptic cleft (the space between neurons). The billions of connections among neurons provide for complex actions. The nervous system is divided into the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord, whereas all the other nerves in the body are in the peripheral division (see Figure 5.1).

  1. The Peripheral Nervous System

The peripheral nervous system is also divided into two divisions, the somatic nervous system, which consists of the nerves that activate voluntary muscles in the body. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) serves internal organs and glands and works automatically. Although conscious control of autonomically controlled reactions is possible, this control requires training. The ANS is also divided into two parts, the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions (see Figure 5.2). These two divisions act reciprocally, the sympathetic increasing its activity in emergency or stress situations and the parasympathetic acting in normal situations. Neurotransmission in the ANS is conducted mainly by two chemicals, acetylcholine and norepinephrine, which exert complex effects.

  1. The Neuroendocrine System

The endocrine system consists of ductless glands, and the neuroendocrine system consists of endocrine glands controlled by the nervous system. These glands release hormones that travel through the blood and act on target organs (see Figure 5.3).

  1. The Pituitary Gland

The pituitary gland is located in the brain and releases a number of hormones that affect target organs in many parts of the body. One pituitary hormone—adrenocorticotropic  hormone (ACTH)—acts on the adrenal glands.

  1. The Adrenal Glands

The adrenal glands are located on top of the kidneys and contain two structures that produce different hormones, the adrenal cortex (outer covering) and the adrenal medulla (inner structure). The adrenocortical response occurs when ACTH stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete glucocorticoids, the most important of which is cortisol. The adrenomedullary response is activated by the sympathetic nervous system and secretes catecholamines, including epinephrine and norepinephrine.

  1. The Physiology of the Stress Reaction

The stress reaction mobilizes body resources in emergency situations. One route occurs through activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which is called the adrenomedullary response. The other route is through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and involves all these structures. The response of the hypothalamus prompts the pituitary to stimulate the adrenal cortex to produce glucocorticoids, including cortisol. (See Figure 5.4 for these two routes of activation.)

Maintaining an appropriate level of activation calls for varied levels of activation of the peripheral nervous system. This process is called allostasis, but prolonged activation of the sympathetic nervous system creates allostatic load, which may cause problems. Shelly Taylor and her colleagues have proposed that this “fight or flight” model may be more appropriate for men; women may manage stress through a “tend and befriend” strategy.

 

  1. Theories of Stress

Hans Selye and Richard Lazarus proposed influential theories of stress.

  1. Selye’s View

      Selye’s theory defined stress as a nonspecific or generalized response to a variety of environmental stressors. Whenever the body encounters a disruptive stimulus, it mobilizes itself in a generalized attempt to adapt to that stimulus.

  1. The General Adaptation Syndrome

      This mobilization is called the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). The GAS has three stages—alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. The potential for trauma or illness exists at all three stages (see Figure 5.5).

  1. Evaluation of Selye’s View

Selye concentrated on the physiological aspects of stress, downplaying the psychological ones and ignoring the perceptual and interpretative processes that can moderate the human experience of stress.

  1. Lazarus’s View

      Richard Lazarus saw a person’s perception of an event as more important than the event itself. His transactional view emphasizes psychological factors (such as cognitive mediation), appraisal, vulnerability, and coping.

  1. Psychological Factors

      Lazarus held that people are harmed by negative life events only if they perceive those events as being personally important, are in a vulnerable state, and believe that they lack the ability to successfully cope with those events.

  1. Appraisal

      Lazarus and his associates recognized three kinds of appraisal—primary, secondary, and reappraisal. Primary appraisal is one’s initial judgment of an event, which may be seen as (1) potentially harmful, (2) threatening or damaging to self-esteem, or (3) personally challenging. Secondary appraisal is one’s perceived ability to cope with harm, threat, or challenge. Reappraisal of an event occurs as an ongoing process to reevaluate a changing situation.

  1. Vulnerability

      Stress is most likely to be aroused when people are vulnerable; that is, when they perceive a lack of resources to cope with a situation of some personal importance.

  1. Coping

      Coping involves our constantly changing efforts to manage both internal and external demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding our resources. Coping is enhanced by such resources as health, energy, high self-efficacy, problem-solving skills, social skills, and social support.

 

III.    Measurement of Stress

The usefulness of stress measures rests on their ability to consistently predict some established criterion—for example, illness.

 

 

  1. Methods of Measurement

      Stress has been measured by several methods, but most fall under two groups: (1) physiological measures and (2) self-reports, which may be either life events scales or daily hassles scales.

  1. Physiological Measures

      Blood pressure, heart rate, galvanic skin response, respiration rate, and biochemical measures such as cortical and catecholamine release are some of the physiological indexes used to assess stress. A disadvantage of these procedures is that the equipment and the setting may themselves produce stress.

  1. Life Events Scales

      Most life events scales are patterned after the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale, an instrument that emphasizes change in a person’s life. The scale lists 43 life events arranged in rank order from most to least stressful. Respondents check the items they have experienced during a recent period, usually the previous 6 to 24 months.

Other stress inventors include the Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (USQ). The USQ is a self-report similar to the SRRS in that it provides a list of sources of stress and asks college students to check the ones that have happened to them during the past two weeks. Most items are hassles rather than major life events.

The Perceived Stress Scale, which emphasizes perception of events, is a 14-item scale that attempts to measure the degree to which situations in people’s lives are appraised as unpredictable, uncontrollable, or overloading. The scale assesses three components of stress: (1) daily hassles, (2) major events, and (3) changes in coping resources.

  1. Everyday Hassles Scales

      Lazarus pioneered scales that measure daily hassles rather than major life events. The original Daily Hassles Scale assumes that only unpleasant events (hassles) can be stressful; pleasant events (uplifts) may help reduce stress and even promote health. A companion measure was the Uplifts Scale, made up of items that might make a person feel good. Both scales emphasized the person’s view of the event. Later, Lazarus and his colleagues published the revised Hassles and Uplifts Scale, a shorter scale that allows participants to see an event as either a hassle or uplift. Specialized versions of hassles scales have also been developed.

  1. Reliability and Validity of Stress Measures

      The reliability of self-report inventories of stress is most often determined by having people fill out the instrument a second time at a later occasion or by having a close associate—such as a spouse—fill out the inventory as if answering for the person. Although most self-reports inventories have acceptable reliability, their validity to predict illness is more difficult to determine. The SRRS shows some ability to predict stress-related symptoms.

 

  1. Sources of Stress

         Many sources of stress exist and can be organized into cataclysmic events, life events, and daily hassles.

  1. Cataclysmic Events

Certain unique and powerful events require major adaptive responses. These events affect large numbers of people and may be unintentional events such as natural disasters or intentional events such as terrorist attacks. Cataclysmic events are more stressful when they are intentional acts and when people are in close proximity to the events. People who experience cataclysmic events may develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

  1. Life Events

Cataclysmic events occur to some people, but everyone experiences life events that require change. These events affect individuals rather than groups and tend to take place across time rather than suddenly. Divorce and job loss are examples of such life events, but so is crime victimization, which is a life event that produces stress.

  1. Daily Hassles

Daily hassles are events that occur as part of everyday life that may arise from the physical or psychological environment.

  1. Daily Hassles and the Physical Environment

Sources of stress such as noise, pollution, crowding, and fear of crime are associated with urban living; Eric Graig gave this combination the name urban press. Each of these events may occur individually. Noise, or noxious, unwanted auditory stimulation that intrudes into a person’s environment, can be stressful. Population density is a physical situation, but crowding is a psychological condition that arises from the perception of a high-density environment. Both noise and crowding are more stressful when people believe they have little control over the situation. The “environment of poverty” describes a situation that often adds fear of crime to the other hassles common in urban life. People in ethnic minorities are more likely to live in such an environment, and these individuals are often subject to hassles from the psychosocial environment as well as from the physical environment.

  1. Daily Hassles and the Psychosocial Environment

Discrimination is a common experience for African Americans in the United States, creating daily hassles in the community and at work. Other ethnic groups and women also experience stress due to discrimination, which may affect cardiovascular health. Other situations that produce stress at work include jobs with high demands and low control, such as food servers and middle-level managers. Workplace stress may also affect personal relationships, producing conflict between work and family. Finding a balance between work and family is a challenge for both women and men. Family relationships are important because they are both sources of stress and sources of support.

 

  1. Coping with Stress
  2. Coping is the term applied to strategies people use to manage distressing problems and emotions in their lives.
  3. Personal Resources that Influence Coping

Folkman and Lazarus listed resources that affect coping, which included health and energy, positive beliefs about the ability to cope, problem-solving skills, material resources, social skills, and social support.

Social support refers to a variety of material and emotional supports that people receive from others. Social support differs from social contacts and social networks in that it is a measure of the quality of one’s social contacts. Social isolation refers to the absence of meaningful personal relationships. The Alameda County Study established a link between social support and good health and decreased mortality. Social support may help people’s health by providing encouragement to adopt healthy habits or seek medical care, by helping people cope with stress, by altering the physiological responses to stress, or by buffering against stress.

A feeling of personal control may also help people cope with stress, either by having an internal locus of control or by exerting control over one’s environment. A study of nursing home residents by Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin suggested that when people are allowed to assume even small amounts of personal control and responsibility, they live longer and healthier lives.

 

  1. Personal Coping Strategies

Coping strategies may be classified in many ways, but one approach divides them into problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. Problem-focused coping is aimed at changing the source of the stress, whereas emotion-focused coping is oriented toward managing the emotions that accompany stress. Both types of strategies can be effective, but problem-focused coping is generally a better choice than emotion-focused strategies.. The relationship between coping strategy and health is complex, involving an interaction between the type of coping strategy and whether the outcome is measured in terms of physical or mental health.

 

  1. Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

Some people classify behavioral techniques as alternative treatment or mind-body medicine, but psychologists focus on the behavioral aspects of these treatments and consider them part of psychology.

  1. Relaxation Training

Modern uses of relaxation training can be traced to Edmond Jacobson who developed progressive muscle relaxation during the 1930s.

  1. What Is Relaxation Training?

Several forms of relaxation training exist, but the ones most frequently used to manage stress and pain are progressive muscle relaxation and autogenics training. With progressive muscle relaxation, patients learn to relax the entire body, one muscle group at a time, and to breathe deeply and exhale slowly. Autogenics training consists of exercises to achieve relaxation and instructions to change thoughts.

  1. How Effective Is Relaxation Training?

Relaxation is an effective technique for coping with stress (see Table 5.1).

  1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy has roots in both cognitive and behavioral therapy approaches. Like cognitive therapy, this approach assumes that thoughts are important for behavior. Like behavior modification, cognitive behavioral therapy strives to make changes in the environment and in reinforcement contingencies to affect behavior.

  1. What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) aims to develop beliefs, thoughts, and skills to make positive changes in behavior. An example of CBT is stress inoculation training, an approach for managing stress. The training includes three stages: (1) a conceptualization stage in which clients are encouraged to think differently about their stress or pain experiences, (2) an acquisition and rehearsal of skills stage when clients are taught relaxation and controlled breathing skills, and (3) a follow-through stage in which clients apply their coping skills to their daily environment. Cognitive behavioral stress management is another example of CBT applied to the management of stress.

 

 

  1. How Effective Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Research has supported the effectiveness of inoculation programs and cognitive behavioral stress management for managing stress in a variety of situations and for many types of clients (see Table 5.2).

  1. Emotional Disclosure

James Pennebaker and his associates have demonstrated the therapeutic value of catharsis, that is, expressing emotions through talking or writing about them.

  1. What Is Emotional Disclosure?

Emotional disclosure is a therapeutic technique in which people express their strong emotions by talking or writing about the traumatic events that precipitated those emotions. The sessions typically last about 15 to 20 minutes, three or four times a week. Emotional disclosure is different from emotional expression, which involves emotional outbursts or emotional venting, such as crying, laughing, yelling, or throwing objects. Emotional disclosure, in contrast, involves the transfer of emotions into language and thus requires a measure of self-reflection.

  1. How Effective Is Emotional Disclosure?

Emotional disclosure can be effective in reducing feelings of distress and in improving health (see Table 5.3). When people are urged to find a less negative interpretation for their trauma or to make a plan to improve their stress, they benefit additionally from the process of emotional disclosure.

 

Exploring Health on the Web

 

Stress is a topic covered on many websites, including coverage of background and research on stress as well as resources to help people cope.

 

http://healthfinder.gov

Healthfinder® includes a search engine that will allow access to a variety of resources and organizations dealing with stress-related issues. Just type stress in the finder box and view the links. (This approach also works for other key words that apply to other chapters; Healthfinder is a great web resource for health information.)

 

http://helping.apa.org/

This website is provided by the American Psychological Association and offers help for various problems. The Psychology at Work option includes a focus on stress and several articles about problems associated with workplace stress.

 

HOME

The American Institute of Stress has a website devoted to promoting the dangers of stress and ways to cope. This group follows Selye’s view of stress, seeing a clear link between stress and illness. They offer background information about stress and specific guidelines to coping as well as links to other websites and publications.

 

http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~scohen/

Sheldon Cohen’s website provides numerous scales of stress and social support, as well as links to relevant research articles that use the scales.

 

Suggested Activities

 

Personal Health Profile — Assessing Stress

You can have your students complete the Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire

Link: http://www.utulsa.edu/~/media/Files/health-center/Undergraduate-Stress-Questionnaire.ashx  (automatically opens a .pdf)

Citation: Crandall, C. S., Preisler, J. J., & Aussprung, J. (1992). Measuring life event stress in the lives of college students: The Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (USQ). Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15(6), 627-662.

 

They should add this score to their Personal Health Profiles. They should be able to use the list of stressful events in the USQ to do an additional analysis by ranking the events that they checked. The USQ scores one point for each event, but your students may feel that this scoring procedure does not adequately capture the magnitude of their stress because some events are more stressful than others. For comparison purposes, you can tell students that that the average undergraduate reports 18 of the 83 events on the list. However, women on average report nearly 4 more stressful events than males. Prior research suggests that this gender difference is mostly due to females reporting more school-related stress than males.

Another possible use for the responses to the USQ is to instruct your students to group the checked items by type of stress, which may lead them to a more precise analysis of the areas of their lives that are producing stress. For example, if a student checked several items related to school but few or none concerning relationships, then this information could lead the student to a better understanding of the stresses in his or her life. The results from another stress assessment may be helpful in making these divisions, and dozens are available on the Internet. One assessment that divides student stress according to these dimensions appears at

http://wellness.uwsp.edu/Other/stress/sources.asp, a website maintained by the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point Health Center.

The classic assessment of stress is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale by Holmes and Rahe, which may be accessed online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale. About.com presents several stress assessments and quizzes about stress-related topics at http://stress.about.com/od/selfassessment3/. The Internet Health Library also includes stress assessments at http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/sq/stress/stress-assess.htm. This collection of stress assessments allows your students many possibilities for completing a personal assessment of their stress.

 

Aftermath of Victimization

Victimization and fear of victimization represent important sources of stress for people from childhood to old age. Thus, community, school, and domestic violence are a major source of stress. Your students can explore the varieties and the effects of victimization by gathering information on this topic from research and popular media sources.

Use this information to consider the developmental impact of victimization. Divide your students into groups and assign each group a developmental period during which victimization can occur (such as childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age). Then, assign these groups the task of finding the types of violence most often associated with this developmental period. Have all groups determine what researchers have found about the health effects of victimization and urge them to consider some remedies for this major social problem.

Analyzing Job Stress

Many students are employed (or have been at some time in their lives), so they have some experience with workplace stress. The types of jobs typical for students meet the description of high-demand/low-control jobs that are the most stressful. Instruct your students to perform an analysis of the demands of their jobs and the amount of control or decision latitude they have on these jobs. Then, have them compare their present job with the one they believe they will get when they finish their college degree. Try to keep their expectations for these future jobs realistic, although these occupations will likely be much more favorable in terms of demands and control.

 

Mapping Environmental Sources of Stress

You may wish to have your students interview people about their perceptions of environmental sources of stress, including crowding, pollution, and noise. Each student should interview at least 10 people concerning their perception of the importance of crowding, pollution, and noise as well as how much these three stressors personally annoy each person. The scaling for perception of the importance of stress could be done on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from Not At All Important or Not At All Bothered to Extremely Important or Extremely Bothered. Along with the attitude information, your students can present each participant with a map of the area and have that participant indicate the location of his or her residence. With this information the students can build a map of the perceptions and ratings of environmental stressors.

This activity is best suited to large classes in schools set in small communities. If your class is small or the community is large, then your students would have to interview many people in order to build a very complete map. An alternative to mapping the community would be to map the campus, restricting the interviews to students, faculty, and staff in an attempt to understand the environmental sources of stress for the school.

 

Observing Coping

Arrange a class study in which your students act as observers gathering data about coping techniques. First, decide what behaviors you and your students want to examine and prepare a data collection system or instrument that will allow students to collect comparable information. Next, allow each student to choose a situation in which people experience stress, trying to include a variety of situations (conflict with another person, problem at work, sleep deprivation, trouble finding a parking place, too little class preparation, and so forth). Then, allow your students to complete the observation, compile, and analyze the data. One possible analysis is a division of coping into emotion-focused or problem-focused strategies, but other analyses are also possible.

 

Demonstrating Coping Techniques

The behavioral management strategies of relaxation, emotional disclosure, and even cognitive behavioral therapy lend themselves fairly well to classroom demonstrations. Many people who teach courses in health psychology know these techniques and can do classroom demonstrations themselves. A demonstration from a practitioner who uses these techniques can be even more interesting for students, because they can ask questions about effectiveness, preferences of the practitioner, training, and so forth. Many practitioners use all these techniques and can arrange a demonstration of all three. Therefore, someone who uses these coping techniques in a practice that includes stress management can be a good choice for guest lecturer.

 

 

Coping with Stress and Assessing Coping Styles

Have students think of an event that they have experienced that is stressful and talk about how they experience stress physically (nervousness, appetite loss/gain, etc.). Then ask how they cope with such a stressor and what have been effective and ineffective methods. Next, students could identify their coping style by taking the following scale and seeing how often they use the following coping styles: active-cognitive; active-behavioral; avoidance.

Citation: Holahan, C. J., & Moos, R. H. (1987). Personal and contextual determinants of coping strategies. Journal of personality and social psychology, 52(5), 946-955.

 

Lecture Topic: Are Pets Better than Friends?

Recent research (see references below) has demonstrated that owning pets can have physiological health benefits, such as lower reactivity and faster recovery from a stress task. In the experiment (Allen, Blascovich, & Mendes, 2002), participants completed a stress task, such as a difficult mental arithmetic task or the cold pressor task. Participants who had pets with them as they did this stressful task have lower reactivity and faster recovery times than participants who did not own a pet and did the tasks alone.

Why might pets have such an effect? You could structure class discussion around the possible roles of physical activity and social support, or simply present some entertaining data from Allen et al. (2002) which suggests that support from a pet can more effective than support from a friend or spouse.

 

Citations: Allen, K., Blascovich, J., & Mendes, W. B. (2002). Cardiovascular reactivity and the presence of pets, friends, and spouses: the truth about cats and dogs. Psychosomatic Medicine, 64(5), 727-739.

Beetz, A., Uvnäs-Moberg, K., Julius, H., & Kotrschal, K. (2012). Psychosocial and psychophysiological effects of human-animal interactions: the possible role of oxytocin. Frontiers in Psychology, 3-15.

Cole, K. M., Gawlinski, A., Steers, N., & Kotlerman, J. (2007). Animal-assisted therapy in patients hospitalized with heart failure. American Journal of Critical Care, 16(6), 575-585.

 

“Pop quiz” stress demonstration

Pick an obscure fact from the text and do an in-class pop quiz on it at the start of lecture. After about a minute or so of watching students sweat, fidget, and swear, ask them “Are you all feeling stressed?”. Astute students will be the first to laugh; followed eventually by sighs of relief by the rest of the class. Ask student then to describe the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that they experienced. This is a good introduction to stress, can easily tie to an overview of definitions of stress, as well as physiological reactions that accompany stress.

 

Journaling

Have students keep a journal for a few days where they simply write down thoughts or feeling about their day and events in their day. Then have students share any kinds of physical or psychological effects they noticed after a few days of journaling. Students may be interested in learning the physiological and psychological effects that simply keeping a journal can have on health and well-being.

Citations:  Pennebaker, J. W. (1993). Putting stress into words: Health, linguistic, and therapeutic implications. Behaviour research and therapy, 31(6), 539-548.

Pennebaker, J. W., & Seagal, J. D. (1999). Forming a story: The health benefits of narrative. Journal of clinical psychology, 55(10), 1243-1254.

 

Technology and Stress

Phone technology is also being utilized to help people cope with stress and live happier lives. One iPhone app, entitled “Let Panic Go,” is available for download at the iTunes store, helps individuals remain calm during moments of panic (Further information can be found at www.letpanicgo.com).

 

Another iPhone app, created by Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, is called “Live Happy” and is designed to help individuals “boost their happiness.” More information can be found at: http://www.signalpatterns.com/iphone/livehappy_std.html

 

Neither app is free, but both are relatively inexpensive. The app could be used for week and then students could report on whether they believed the app helped them decrease feelings of stress (or increase feelings of happiness). Students could even compare using the “Live  Happy” app for a week versus journaling for a week, citing the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

 

Create a “stress log”

For 3 days, have students keep a log of things that cause them stress. Then have students apply Lazarus’s model to explain how these events caused feelings of stress. How did feelings of control affect perception of stress? What kinds of things did the student do to try to reduce the stress? Did they work?

 

Checklist measures

Have students complete measures of optimism (LOT-R), social support, stress, etc., to see how they fare on the relevant scales. This can be a useful activity when discussing each of the relevant psychosocial factors in class. If there is more than one scale that reportedly measures the same concept, then have students discuss differences and similarities between scales.

 

Optimism, measured by the Life Orientation Test, Revised (LOT-R)

Link: http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/ccarver/sclLOT-R.html-

Citation: Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): A re-evaluation of the Life Orientation Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1063-1078.

 

Hope, measured by the Hope Scale

Link:http://www.elsevierdirect.com/companions/9780123745170/Chapter%203/Chapter_3_Worksheet_3.4.pdf

Citation: Snyder, C. R., Harris, C., Anderson, J. R., Holleran, S. A., Irving, L. M., Sigmon, S. T., … & Harney, P. (1991). The will and the ways: development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. Journal of personality and social psychology, 60(4), 570-585.

 

Stress, measured by the Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire

Link: http://bit.ly/VgLRj3 (automatically opens a .pdf)

Citation: Crandall, C. S., Preisler, J. J., & Aussprung, J. (1992). Measuring life event stress in the lives of college students: The Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (USQ). Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15(6), 627-662.

 

Stress, Measured by the Perceived Stress Scale

Link: http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~scohen/

Citation: Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385-396.

 

Stress, Measure by Life Events Checklist

Link: http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~scohen/

Citation: Cohen, S., Tyrrell, D. A. J., & Smith, A. P. (1991). Psychological stress and susceptibility to the common cold. New England Journal of Medicine, 325, 606-612.

 

Social Support, Sheldon Cohen has the Social Network Index and  the

Interpersonal Support Evaluation List on this website: http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~scohen/

 

 

Video Recommendations

 

How Happy Can You Be? (2006) is a documentary, where the filmmaker interviews a number of psychologists, neuroscientists, and other academic researchers to better understand happiness.

 

From Films for the Humanities & Sciences:

 

9/11 and Beyond: Coping Strategies for Trauma and Stress (2003) features experts on trauma explaining the impact of cataclysmic events and how people can find meaning and positive outcomes, even after trauma.

 

Seriously Stressed (2006) explores the stress produced by modern society, including symptoms of chronic stress and potential negative effects by featuring case studies of individuals and the stresses in their lives.

 

The Age of Stress: Children Under Pressure (2008) features the types of stress that children experience, such as bullying, family conflict, testing anxiety, and overscheduling. By following several 8-year-old children, the video shows how stress can affect children in the same harmful ways it influences adults.

 

Stress Hurts! A Wake-Up Call for Women (2001) was produced by ABC News and examines gender differences in stress, harmful effects of stress, and coping. Dr. Nancy Snyderman offers advice.

 

Happier Women: 25 Ways to Reduce Stress Video Clip Collection (2008) includes a collection of 25 video clips that provide tips on coping and stress reduction.

 

Stress Management (2000) is a 10-minute program that demonstrates that stress, when managed, can be a positive factor in students’ lives but when not managed effectively, can be harmful.

 

Videos from the Web:

 

http://www.pbs.org/saf/1310/video/watchonline.htm – A series of videos from PBS’ American Frontline entitled “Worried Sick” investigate the links between stress and health. One video, “Angry at Heart” examines the link between hostility and heart disease. The third video, “To Heal or Not to Heal,” examines how marriage can affect the immune system. “Just Relax” features stress researcher Herbert Benson teaching relaxation techniques that can help reduce stress.

 

http://youtu.be/9xYvN4DlyUI – This video shows a video game that is meant to help reduce stress and increase productivity (1:16).

 

http://youtu.be/2IjdQnWmUAo – In this video “Scotty Nguyen Goads Opponents”, a poker player creates a stressful environment for his fellow opponents (9:54).

 

http://www.learner.org/series/discoveringpsychology/12/e12expand.html – An interview with Martin Seligman on optimism and pessimism” (27:39).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYG0ZuTv5rs – The excellent and memorable documentary, “Stress, Portrait of a Killer,” features stress researcher Robert Sapolsky, and describes the effects of modern life on the human body (56:04),.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHl7BewJ0yU&feature=fvst – This video examines how stress can affect memory (1:35).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_8zkrs1zDU – This video provides a good overview of stress, coping, and coping with health problems (13:50).

 

http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/series – “This Emotional Life” from PBS is a three-part series hosted by Harvard University’s Dan Gilbert. This series examines social relationships, coping with depression and anxiety, and how to become more positive, resilient individuals.

  • “Family, Friends & Lovers” (Episode 1) – Focuses on the importance of social relationships.
  • “Facing Our Fears” (Episode 2) – Focuses on negative emotions and how to best manage them.
  • “Rethinking Happiness” (Episode 3) – Features a nice overview of stress, resilience, positive emotion, and meditation.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/science/health-human-body-sci/human-body/science-stress-sci/  – This video provides a 3-minute overview of stress.

 

http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/stress-and-anxiety?ct=video – This site features 4 short video clips of top researchers and writers discussing causes and consequences of stress.

Multiple Choice Questions

 

  1. Individual nerve cells are called
    1. synapses.
    2. protons.
    3. neurons.
    4. ganglions.

ANS: c      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The space between neurons is called
    1. an interneuron.
    2. an intraneuron.
    3. a neurotransmitter.
    4. the synaptic cleft.

ANS: d      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The central nervous system consists of the
    1. heart and the blood vessels.
    2. brain and the spinal cord.
    3. brain and the blood vessels.
    4. somatic and the autonomic nervous systems.

ANS: b      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The peripheral nervous system is divided into two parts:
    1. the afferent and efferent branches.
    2. the spinal cord and brain.
    3. the spinal cord and parasympathetic nervous system.
    4. the somatic and autonomic nervous systems.

ANS: d      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The autonomic nervous system has two subdivisions:
    1. afferents and efferents.
    2. central and peripheral nervous systems.
    3. the brain and the spinal cord.
    4. sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

ANS: d      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The sympathetic nervous system
    1. is a division of the parasympathetic nervous system.
    2. mobilizes the resources of the body during stressful or emergency situations.
    3. is activated at an elevated rate during the exhaustion stage.
    4. all of these are correct.

ANS: b      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

 

 

 

  1. Which of the following responses is NOT part of sympathetic activation?
    1. increased heart rate
    2. increased blood pressure
    3. increased digestive system activity
    4. decreased salivary activity

ANS: c      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. Activation of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system produces ____ in heart rate, and activation of the parasympathetic division produces ____.
    1. increases . . . additional increases in heart rate
    2. increases . . . decreases in heart rate
    3. decreases . . . increases in blood pressure
    4. decreases . . . additional decreases in heart rate

ANS: b      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The term that refers to the body’s maintenance of an appropriate level of activation under changing circumstances is
  1. “fight or flight” response.
  2. allostatic load.

ANS: b      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. When the physiological stress response has been active for a prolonged amount of time, ______ may occur.
  1. allostatic load
  2. survival
  3. “fight or flight” response
  4. coping

ANS: a      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. ________, or the wear and tear of the body, may be responsible for a number of health problems, such as high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and decline in cognitive functioning.
  1. Allostatic load
  2. Survival
  3. “Fight or flight” response
  4. Coping

 

ANS: a      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. The hormone ________ may be responsible for women’s stress response being characterized as “tend and befriend” rather than “fight or flight.”
  1. adrenocorticotropic hormone
  2. cortisol
  3. norepinephrine
  4. oxytocin

ANS: d      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. If the activity level of the sympathetic nervous system increases, the level of activity in the parasympathetic nervous system
    1. decreases.
    2. increases.
    3. doubles.
    4. remains constant.

ANS: a      REF:  The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The two principal neurotransmitters of the autonomic nervous system are
    1. serotonin and dopamine.
    2. acetylcholine and norepinephrine.
    3. epinephrine and dopamine.
    4. the same as the principle neurotransmitters of the central nervous system.

ANS: b      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The endocrine system consists of
    1. a system of ductless glands within the brain and spinal cord.
    2. a system of ducted glands in the digestive system.
    3. a system of both ducted and ductless glands oriented toward reproduction.
    4. a system of ductless glands distributed throughout the body.

ANS: d      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. What is the difference between glands of the endocrine and neuroendocrine systems?
    1. Glands in the neuroendocrine system are controlled by the nervous system.
    2. Glands in the endocrine system are controlled by the autonomic nervous system not the sympathetic nervous system.
    3. Glands in the neuroendocrine system secrete hormones, but those in the endocrine system do not.
    4. Glands in the endocrine system secrete hormones, but those in the neuroendocrine system do not.

ANS: a      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. Which chemical substances of the endocrine system serve functions similar to the neurotransmitters of the nervous system?
    1. lymph nodes
    2. hormones
    3. arterioles
    4. efferents

ANS: b      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

  1. The adrenal glands are located
    1. in the midbrain.
    2. in the forebrain.
    3. just above the stomach.
    4. just above the kidneys.

ANS: d      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The adrenal glands are an important part of the _______ system.
    1. cardiovascular
    2. nervous
    3. immune
    4. digestive

ANS: c      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. The class of chemicals containing epinephrine and norepinephrine is called
    1. acetylcholines.
    2. catecholamines.
    3. neurotransmitters.
    4. glucocorticoids.

ANS: b      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. Epinephrine
    1. is produced by the pituitary gland.
    2. is another word for norepinephrine.
    3. is secreted exclusively by the sympathetic nervous system.
    4. is so strongly associated with stress that it has been used as an index of stress.

ANS: d      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. During periods of extreme stress, the _________ helps mobilize the body’s resources for the “fight or flight” response.
    1. somatic nervous system
    2. sympathetic nervous system
    3. parasympathetic nervous system
    4. digestive system

ANS: b      REF:  The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

  1. In recent years, some observers have criticized the “fight or flight” hypothesis on the grounds that
    1. it defies common sense.
    2. it is inconsistent with the behaviors of nonhuman animals.
    3. it is valid for adults but not for children.
    4. it is more valid for men than for women.

ANS: d      REF: The Nervous System and the Physiology of Stress

 

 

 

 

  1. The person(s) who proposed the view of stress as a nonspecific response was
    1. Selye.
    2. Lazarus.
    3. Meichenbaum.
    4. Dohrenwend.

ANS: a      REF: Theories of Stress

 

  1. Stress has been considered as
    1. a stimulus.
    2. a response.
    3. the interaction between stimulus and response.
    4. all of these.

ANS: d      REF: Theories of Stress

 

  1. Which of these is NOT a stage of the General Adaptation Syndrome?
    1. resistance stage
    2. illness stage
    3. exhaustion stage
    4. alarm stage

ANS: b      REF: Theories of Stress

 

  1. One criticism of Selye’s theory of stress is that it emphasizes the ______ factors but largely ignores the influence of _______ factors.
    1. external . . . internal
    2. physical . . . psychological
    3. psychological . . . individual
    4. retrograde . . . proactive

ANS: b      REF: Theories of Stress

 

  1. Lazarus and Folkman suggested that stress is
    1. a nonspecific response.
    2. influenced by one’s view of the situation.
    3. a transactional process.
    4. both b and c are correct

ANS: d      REF: Theories of Stress

 

  1. According to Lazarus, a person’s perceived ability to cope with harm or threat would be called
    1. primary appraisal.
    2. secondary appraisal.
    3. reappraisal.
    4. vulnerability.

ANS: b      REF: Theories of Stress

 

 

 

 

  1. According to Lazarus, a person who loses her job but sees the prospect of finding a new job as a challenge would be
    1. more vulnerable to stress than someone who saw the event as a threat.
    2. more likely to reappraise the situation than someone who saw the event as a threat.
    3. less vulnerable to stress than someone who saw the event as a threat.
    4. unrealistic and less capable of coping with the situation than someone who saw the situation more realistically.

ANS: c      REF: Theories of Stress

 

  1. Lazarus saw stress as stemming from
    1. strong emotional reactions to environmental stimuli.
    2. negative life events.
    3. positive life events.
    4. the person’s perception of an event.

ANS: d      REF: Theories of Stress

 

  1. Both Selye’s and Lazarus’s theories of stress suggest that stress
    1. is a nonspecific response.
    2. has both environmental and personal sources.
    3. is analogous to a pathogen.
    4. is characterized by all of these.

ANS: b      REF: Theories of Stress

 

  1. Several methods have been used to measure stress, but the approach taken by most health psychologists is
    1. self-report scales.
    2. performance tests.
    3. physiological measures.
    4. estimates by close associates.

ANS: a      REF: Measurement of Stress

 

  1. Instruments that measure stress by quantifying physiological reactions are ordinarily
    1. highly reliable.
    2. highly unreliable.
    3. valid predictors of physiological illness.
    4. valid predictors of psychological disorders.

ANS: a      REF: Measurement of Stress

 

  1. The Social Readjustment Rating Scale assumes that
    1. daily events are more crucial than major life events.
    2. change in life adjustment is the key factor in measuring stress.
    3. only desirable events are valid predictors of stress.
    4. positive life events tend to reduce stress.

ANS: b      REF: Measurement of Stress

 

 

  1. Which of the following has been used to measure stress?
    1. blood pressure
    2. daily hassles scales
    3. self-reports
    4. all of these

ANS: d      REF: Measurement of Stress

 

  1. The Perceived Stage Scale (PSS)
    1. consists of 105 items that people have experienced during the past week.
    2. measures changes in coping responses, as well as daily hassles and major life events.
    3. measures events in people’s lives that they perceive as unpredictable and uncontrollable.
    4. measures events in people’s lives that they see as being controllable.

ANS: c      REF: Measurement of Stress

 

  1. Lazarus’s Hassles Scale assumes that
    1. stress is an objective environmental stimulus.
    2. physiological instruments are more reliable measures of stress than self-reports.
    3. the person’s perception of an event is the critical factor in the measurement of stress.
    4. frequency of hassles is more crucial than their intensity.

ANS: c      REF: Measurement of Stress

 

  1. The revised Hassles and Uplifts Scale
    1. asks people to rate everyday events either positively or negatively.
    2. is longer and more complex than the original Hassles Scale.
    3. is less able to predict headaches than the Social Readjustment Rating Scale.
    4. shows that the number of hassles is more important than the severity of hassles.

ANS: a      REF: Measurement of Stress

 

  1. If spouses fill out a self-report measure of stress from their spouse’s point of view, and if scores of the spouses match closely, we can say that the self-report inventory is
    1. reliable.
    2. valid.
    3. both reliable and valid.
    4. neither reliable nor valid, based on the information given.

ANS: a      REF: Measurement of Stress

 

  1. Self-report inventories of stress are useful to the extent that
    1. they are reliable.
    2. they predict future illness.
    3. they include the items that people actually find stressful.
    4. all of these.

ANS: d      REF: Measurement of Stress

 

  1. Stressful events that are so powerful that they affect large numbers of people fit into the category of
    1. life events.
    2. cataclysmic events.
    3. daily hassles.
    4. unintentional events.

ANS: b      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. Life events produce stress by
    1. making the affected person’s life more unpleasant.
    2. creating change and requiring adaptation.
    3. putting people’s lives in danger.
    4. all of these.

ANS: b      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. Noise is considered a type of pollution because
    1. one person’s music is another person’s noise.
    2. one person’s noise is another person’s music.
    3. it is loud.
    4. it is a noxious, unwanted stimulus.

ANS: d      REF:  Sources of Stress

 

  1. The experiments with rats living in highly crowded cages suggest that
    1. overcrowding leads to changes in social behavior among rats.
    2. overcrowding leads to short life spans for most rats in crowded conditions.
    3. rats become more fertile, thus leading to even more crowded conditions.
    4. crowding eventually reduces the population to about a tenth of its original size.

ANS: a      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. John, a Montana rancher, lives five miles from his nearest neighbor. John’s living conditions could be described as
    1. dense but not crowded.
    2. crowded but not dense.
    3. both crowded and dense.
    4. neither crowded nor dense.

ANS: d      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. During a recent football game, 77,000 people were present in a stadium with a capacity of 73,000. The accumulation of that number of people in a relatively small area would be consistent with Stokols’s definition of
    1. crowding.
    2. learned helplessness.
    3. mob behavior.
    4. density.

ANS: a      REF: Sources of Stress

 

 

  1. Which of these could be a source of stress?
    1. noise
    2. crowding
    3. air pollution
    4. all of these

ANS: d      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. The experience of discrimination
    1. has been linked to health problems, including cardiovascular disease.
    2. creates stress but has little ability to harm physical health.
    3. creates stress, which harms physical health but has little ability to produce psychological distress.
    4. occurs mostly in the workplace rather than in the community.

ANS: a      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. Which of these jobs is ordinarily LEAST stressful?
    1. farm worker
    2. waiter or waitress
    3. chief executive officer
    4. construction worker

ANS: c      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. The most stressful occupations are those that offer
    1. high demands and low control.
    2. high demands and high control.
    3. low demands and low control.
    4. low demands and high control.

ANS: a      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. Which of the following is NOT a common source of stress for women?
    1. occupying multiple roles of employee and mother
    2. conflict with husbands over household work
    3. having a husband who supports her career goals
    4. the expectation that employed women will perform the majority of child care

ANS: c      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. People experience less stress during, and after, a vacation than before a vacation. However, this “vacation effect” tends to only last
  1. one- two days
  2. one week
  3. two weeks
  4. three-four weeks

ANS: d      REF: Sources of Stress

 

 

 

  1. Cataclysmic events, such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, can cause individuals to experience a prolonged stress response and feelings of depression and anxiety, and after such events individuals are often diagnosed with
  1. posttraumatic stress disorder.
  2. social anxiety.
  3. stomach ulcers.

ANS: a      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. In the past year, Kelly has graduated from college, changed jobs, and bought a house. All of these events can be classified as
  1. cataclysmic life events.
  2. major life events.
  3. daily hassles.
  4. none of the above.

ANS: b      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. Amy faces a long commute to college every day and once there parking is difficult to find. These everyday events can be classified as
  1. cataclysmic life events.
  2. major life events.
  3. daily hassles.
  4. none of the above.

ANS: c      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. Individuals who live closer to “green spaces” in cities report ___________.
  1. higher stress
  2. worse self-reported health
  3. lower stress
  4. being victims of crimes, like muggings.

ANS: c      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. Discrimination is a source of stress that may increase the risk for _______.
  1. cardiovascular disease
  2. mental health problems
  3. both a and b
  4. none of the above

ANS: c      REF: Sources of Stress

 

  1. When people use strategies to manage the distressing problems in their lives, they are
    1. coping.
    2. becoming more vulnerable to stress.
    3. dispersing sources of stress.
    4. in the alarm stage of the GAS.

ANS: a      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. To Lazarus and Folkman, several factors determine a person’s ability to cope with an event. Which of these is NOT one such factor?
    1. material resources, such as money
    2. the belief that one can bring about the desired consequences
    3. problem-solving skills
    4. the magnitude of the event

ANS: d      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. A combination of emotional concern, instrumental aid, information, and appraisal best describes
    1. social networks.
    2. social contacts.
    3. social support.
    4. all of these.

ANS: c      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. Phyllis is 65 years old, lives alone, and has no close friends or relatives. Her condition is best described as
    1. social isolation.
    2. widowhood.
    3. sociopathy.
    4. socioeconomic deficiency.

ANS: a      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. The benefits of marriage ________ in terms of health; ___________.
    1. are not equal . . . women benefit more than men
    2. are not equal . . . men benefit more than women
    3. are almost equal . . . college-educated women have an advantage, but other women do not
    4. are equal . . . men and women benefit equally

ANS: b      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. Claudia believes that her own health is mostly due to genetics and germs; she can do very little to improve her health. This attitude is consistent with
    1. an internal locus of control.
    2. an external locus of control.
    3. a high level of self-efficacy.
    4. a low level of self-efficacy.

ANS: b      REF: Coping With Stress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. A study by Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin of nursing home residents showed that older people were more likely to retain good health if they
    1. had plants in their rooms.
    2. received flowers at least once a week from family members.
    3. were responsible for caring for plants in their rooms.
    4. received attention from the nursing staff in the form of frequent rearrangement of room furniture.

ANS: c      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. According to Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin’s research about personal control and older people, the degree of control that is necessary to produce health benefits
    1. may be created by decisions about relatively minor matters.
    2. should include decisions about where to live.
    3. should include choosing one’s personal physician.
    4. are so extensive that it is not feasible for most elderly people to be allowed such control due to safety concerns.

ANS: a      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. The _________________ suggests that social support lessens or eliminates the harmful effects of stress.
  1. stress-buffering hypothesis
  2. personal control hypothesis
  3. tend and befriend hypothesis
  4. emotion focused coping hypothesis

ANS: a      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. A recent meta-analytic review found that social support buffered the effects of discrimination on __________ but not __________.
  1. mental health; physical health
  2. mental health; environmental stressors
  3. physical health; mental health
  4. physical health; environmental stressors

ANS: a      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. Marty believes that he has control of events that shape his life. Psychologists would say that Marty has high ____________.
  1. problem-solving skills
  2. social support
  3. free will
  4. personal control

ANS: d      REF: Coping With Stress

 

 

 

 

 

  1. People who own a _____ are 8 times more likely to be alive 1 year after their heart attack than those who do not own one.
  1. bicycle
  2. dog
  3. pedometer
  4. heart monitor

ANS: b      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. Individuals who frequently face situations that offer little control have increased production of ___________.
    1. adrenocorticotropic hormone
    2. cortisol
    3. norepinephrine
    4. oxytocin

ANS: b      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. _______ is the better coping strategy to deal with chronic stressors, such as discrimination, HIV infection, and diabetes.
  1. Problem-focused coping
  2. Emotion-focused coping
  3. Avoidance-orientated coping
  4. Meaning-focused coping

ANS: a      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. Individuals are more likely to use this form of coping when they appraise the situation as controllable.
  1. Problem-focused coping
  2. Emotion-focused coping
  3. Avoidance-orientated coping
  4. Meaning-focused coping

ANS: a      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. The Alameda County Study was the first study to show a strong link between _______ and longevity.
  1. self-esteem
  2. narcissism
  3. social support
  4. social isolation

ANS: c      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. People who are ________ are more likely to use problem-focused coping and adjust their coping strategies to meet the demands of specific situations.
  1. pessimistic
  2. optimistic
  3. narcissistic
  4. healthy

ANS: b      REF: Coping With Stress

  1. People who experience a trauma, such as losing a loved one, but then can find positive aspects concerning their trauma, often experience better psychological adjustment. This type of coping is:
  1. problem-focused coping
  2. emotion-focused coping
  3. avoidance-orientated coping
  4. meaning-focused coping

ANS: d      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. Erin is worried about her grade in a psychology class. To receive her best grade, Erin needs to make and follow a study schedule. Folkman and Lazarus would call this preferred approach:
    1. danger control.
    2. emotion-focused coping.
    3. problem-focused coping.
    4. reappraisal.

ANS: c      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. Rather than make a study schedule, Erin spends a lot of time complaining to her roommates about how hard her psychology course is and how worried she is about her grade. Folkman and Lazarus would call this approach
    1. danger control.
    2. emotion-focused coping.
    3. problem-focused coping.
    4. reappraisal.

ANS: b       REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. In general, which type of coping strategy is related to good health?
    1. emotion-focused coping
    2. problem-focused coping
    3. avoidant coping
    4. danger control

ANS: b      REF: Coping With Stress

 

  1. Research has confirmed that cultural differences in personal coping strategies exist for
    1. people from Asian cultures, who are less likely than Westerners to seek social support from families.
    2. African Americans, who are more likely than Whites to use emotion-focused coping.
    3. Hispanic Americans, who are more likely than African Americans to use emotion-focused coping.
    4. all of these.

ANS: a      REF: Coping With Stress

 

 

 

 

  1. Research evidence suggests that relaxation training
    1. is not an effective pain analgesic.
    2. is useful for a variety of people as well as for a variety of problems.
    3. works best when patients are trained in groups rather than individually.
    4. is less effective than biofeedback.

ANS: b      REF: Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

 

  1. Cognitive behavioral therapy
    1. works toward changing attitudes and behavior.
    2. emphasizes attitudes and minimizes the role of behavior.
    3. focuses on the analysis of irrational beliefs and thoughts rather than behavior.
    4. both b and c.

ANS: a      REF: Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

 

  1. James Pennebaker has demonstrated that
    1. writing or talking about traumatic events can produce positive results.
    2. relaxation techniques are more effective than temperature biofeedback in reducing headache pain.
    3. social support is critical in helping pain patients cope.
    4. social support is not critical in helping pain patients cope.

ANS: a      REF: Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

 

  1. Emotional expression improves not only _____________ but also _____________.
    1. social support . . . number of close friends
    2. feelings of distress . . . physical symptoms
    3. fever . . . hepatic indicators
    4. difficulties in sleeping . . . number of negative life events

ANS: b      REF: Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

 

  1. Rosario participated in a program in which she wrote about a traumatic event in her life as a way to improve her distress about this event. Maxime participated in the same program, but in addition to writing about a traumatic event in her life, she received instructions to focus on finding something positive about this negative experience. Research indicates that
    1. both women will benefit from the program equally.
    2. Rosario will profit more than Maxime because trying to find a positive aspect to a negative situation will detract from the value of emotional expression.
    3. Maxime will profit more than Rosario because focusing on something positive has additional benefits to emotional expression.
    4. neither woman will profit from the program as much as a man would have.

ANS: c      REF: Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Research on the topic of emotional disclosure has demonstrated its effectiveness
    1. in reducing the symptoms of asthma.
    2. is enhanced when people find some positive aspect of their experience.
    3. with psychological but not with physical problems.
    4. both a and b.

ANS: d      REF: Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

 

  1. A recent meta-analytic review showed that emotional disclosure is more effective in helping people with __________ than _________problems.
  1. physical, psychological
  2. psychological, physical
  3. emotional, physiological
  4. psychological, emotional

ANS: a      REF: Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

 

  1. ________ is the most effective therapy for stress management.
  1. Progressive muscle relaxation
  2. Autogenics training
  3. Cognitive behavioral therapy
  4. Emotional disclosure

ANS: c      REF: Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

 

  1. ________ has been shown to be an effective intervention for posttraumatic stress disorder, chronic back pain, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
  1. Progressive muscle relaxation
  2. Autogenics training
  3. Cognitive behavioral therapy
  4. Emotional disclosure

ANS: c      REF: Behavioral Interventions for Managing Stress

 

 

 

True/False Questions

 

  1. Neurons are more like a chain than like a net.

                        ANS: F

 

  1. The two major divisions of the nervous system are the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system.

                        ANS: T

 

  1. Catecholamines are a class of chemicals containing epinephrine and norepinephrine.

                        ANS: T

 

  1. The first stage of the general adaptation syndrome is alarm.

                        ANS: T

 

  1. According to Richard Lazarus, people’s perception of their ability to cope with a stressful event can diminish their feelings of stress.

                        ANS: T

 

  1. According to the Social Readjustment Scale, a person who wins $50,000 in the lottery may experience increased stress.

                        ANS: T

 

  1. Cataclysmic events such as hurricanes and earthquakes are more stressful than those caused by intentional acts.

                        ANS: F

 

  1. Life events and everyday hassles are two terms for similar sources of stress.

                        ANS: F

 

  1. The more workplace decisions a person must make each day, the more stress that person will experience.

                        ANS: F

 

  1. Whenever Preston faces a major source of conflict, he “drowns” his problems by drinking alcohol. Such a tactic is referred to as problem-focused coping.

                        ANS: F

 

  1. Cognitive behavior therapy includes components of cognitive therapy and behavior modification.

                        ANS: T

 

  1. Emotional expression such as crying, laughing, yelling, or throwing objects leads to improved psychological and physical health.

                        ANS: F

 

13.  Research has confirmed a gender difference in responses to stress.

ANS: T

 

  1. New physiological measures that assess cortisol in human hair allow researchers to examine cortisol production over the preceding 6 months.

ANS: T

 

  1. Physiological measures, such as measuring epinephrine or norepinephrine in blood samples, can provide a reliable index of stress.

ANS: T

 

  1. Perceived discrimination can result in mental and physical health problems and this may be due to maladaptive health behaviors that people use to cope with experiences of stigma and discrimination.

ANS: T

 

  1. Social support influences stress in just one-way; having more people around you encourages you to eat healthy.

ANS: F

 

  1. There are relatively small differences between men’s and women’s coping strategies.

ANS: T

 

  1. People who experience less stress benefit from emotional disclosure more than those who experience more stress.

ANS: F

 

  1. The effect of emotional disclosure does not differ based on gender, age, or ethnicity.

ANS: F

Essay Questions

 

  1. Describe the physiology of stress reactions.
  2. The stress reaction is controlled by the sympathetic division of the ANS, which mobilizes the body for “fight or flight.”
  3. The mobilization occurs through two routes:
  4. A direct route occurs through activation of the adrenomedullary systems, which
  5. Activates the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine and norepinephrine.
  6. Produces effects throughout the body such as increased heart, respiration, decreased digestion, etc.
  7. An indirect route through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which
  8. Stimulates the hypothalamus to produce corticotropin releasing hormones
  9. Activates the anterior pituitary to secrete ACTH, which causes the adrenal cortex to secrete glucocorticoids.
  10. Mobilizes the body’s energy resources, raising blood sugar and suppressing the inflammation response.

 

 

  1. Compare and contrast the views of stress of Selye and Lazarus.
  2. Selye’s view
  3. Was strongly influenced by his background in physiology.
  4. Initially described stress as a stimulus but later as a response to a wide range of stimuli.
  5. Emphasizes the physical response to stressors, including the general adaptation syndrome with its three stages.
  6. Holds that the stress response could weaken resistance and injure organ systems, making people sick.
  7. Lazarus’s view
  8. Emphasizes the cognitive variables that mediate stress.
  9. Includes individual appraisal and reappraisal, which affect the response to stressful events.
  10. Includes coping resources and how these influence the appraisal of threat.

 

 

  1. What types of hassles arise from the psychosocial environment to produce stress?
  2. Discrimination is a stressor that is a fairly common experience for women and members of ethnic minorities.
  3. Discrimination occurs in the workplace.
  4. This experience applies to many daily activities and has been linked to a variety of health problems.
  5. Workplace stress also arises from the psychosocial environment.
  6. Jobs with high demands and low control are particularly stressful.
  7. Stress in the workplace may spill over into relationships, creating conflict.
  8. Relationships may produce stress, but they also offer the possibility of social support, which can buffer stress.
  9. Work and family demands often conflict.
  10. Women’s multiple roles of employee, wife, and mother create a workload that is difficult to fulfill; trying to do so often creates stress.

 

  1. In what ways does social support influence health?
  2. The Alameda County study is a longitudinal study that established a link between social support and health.
  3. People with the fewest social ties had the highest mortality rate.
  4. The relationship is apparent for both women and men.
  5. Gender is a factor in social support; men receive greater benefits from social support than women do.
  6. Women may experience costs associated with giving social support as well as benefits from receiving support.
  7. Men receive benefits from marriage that women do not.
  8. Several types of social support are helpful.
  9. Marriage decreases health risks, but more so for men than for women.
  10. Relationships that offer emotional support are beneficial.
  11. The beneficial effects of social support may occur through several routes.
  12. Social support buffers the harmful effects of stress and helps people cope with negative life events.
  13. Social support urges people to care for themselves, including caring for their physical health.
  14. Someone who prompts a person to take care of their health can be useful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. What are the advantages of problem-focused coping? Does emotion-focused coping have any advantages?
  2. Problem-focused coping is aimed at changing the source of the stress, which is generally more effective than emotion-focused coping, a strategy aimed at managing the emotions that accompany stress.
  3. Problem-focused strategies are effective when the situation is controllable.
  4. Problem-focused strategies are effective when effort can change the source of the stress.
  5. Meta-analyses show that using problem-focused strategies is related to good health.
  6. Emotion-focused strategies are effective when the situation is uncontrollable and the person must endure the stressful situation.
  7. What strategy is more effective depends on the situation, and either problem-focused or emotion-focused coping can be effective.

 

  1. Evaluate the behavioral interventions for managing stress, addressing the types of stress-related problems for which each is successful.
  2. Relaxation training is suitable for a wide range of problems in a variety of people, including children, adolescents, and adults.
  3. Techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation are easy to learn.
  4. Relaxation is an excellent choice for helping people manage daily stress, sleep problems, and stress related to treatment for cancer and other stressful chronic conditions.
  5. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective in treating many stress-related conditions.
  6. CBT addresses the cognitions that may create stress and teaches ways to cope more effectively.
  7. Stress inoculation is one type of CBT that is effective in helping with problems such as managing school or workplace stress, but it can also be useful in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
  8. Cognitive behavioral stress management is directed toward stress management and is one of the most effective approaches for PTSD.
  9. Emotional disclosure is also helpful in managing stress.
  10. Talking or writing about traumatic events can relieve distress, possibly through the process of self-reflection that occurs when people use language to frame their experience.
  11. People who use this process experience decreased distress and increased health.
  12. Finding meaning in the traumatic experience and finding some positive aspect of the trauma adds to the effectiveness of emotional disclosure.

 

 

 

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