Stress & Health
While playing a game of tennis, Ellies heart race began racing and she was extremely excited. Her type of stress motivated her to win the game.
Eustress: a positive, energized, motivating response to stress that enhances individual function
After waking up, you remember bright vibrant colors from your dream, falling from the top of a roller coaster, landing in a pillow of rainbows and sugar, and can remember yourself feeling excited and full of adrenaline. You were experiencing
REM sleep: highly active stage of sleep characterized by vivid dreaming, fast brain waves, and muscle paralysis
Major depressive disorder: mood disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a loss of interest in activities lasting for a minimum of 2 consecutive weeks.
Because of your depression you take medications like Prozac and Zoloft, these agonist blockers are classified as
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): a class of antidepressant medications used to alter brain chemistry by blocking the reabsorption of serotonin
Due to continuous unavoidable aversive events in your life, you begin to engage in learned helplessness to which you developed a passive helpless resignation. The psychologist who founded the learned helplessness concept umbrella-ed under positive psychology is
Martin Seligman: pioneered the study of learned helplessness and the founding of positive psychology
When encountering a venomous snake on a trail, Eric immediately ran into the opposite direction without a thought. This was due to his
Fight-or-flight response: an automatic, survival-driven physiological reaction to a perceived threat or stressful event
While at a sleepover, you notice your friend not in bed at 3 AM. You go downstairs to see them standing in front of a wall not saying anything. Their eyes are open but zoned out and dilated. Sleepwalking most commonly occurs in this stage
NREM-3: deepest stage of sleep, hardest to wake up from and characterized by slow, high-amplitude delta waves
When doing your taxes, you overview the bills needed to pay for a family members hospital fees. You look at the document numerous times even though you already know you don't have the money. You lose sleep over and obsess over the document and experience muscle aches from staying up so late on it. You're experiencing
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: characterized by persistent, excessive, and uncontrollable worry about everyday issues
Mere Exposure Therapy: gradually confronting clients with their fears to extinguish the fear response
You're a happy individual who feels good about themselves and is able to engage in activities indirected towards just survival. You like to play with friends, study in school, and see a bright future ahead of yourself. Underneath the framework of PERMA, you are
Flourishing: the state of well-being where an individual feels good and function effectively rather than just surviving.
While nursing at a hospital, you spent all day working with clients, working overtime, and putting more work in then you usually would. By the end of the day you are completely burned out, fatigued, and are in a state of exhaustion. This model represents your bodys reaction to stress
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): three-stage physiological response to stress developed by Hans Selye; how the body reacts, attempts to adapt to, and ultimately burns out from
After travelling to Germany from New Zealand, Josh was confused why he was still tired even though it was the morning. His bodys response still being tired from New Zealand can be explained through
Circadian rhythms: your bodys internal 24-hour biological clock that regulates your sleep-wake cycle, body temperature, and hormone levels
You experience terrifying mental images of violence, turning the steering wheel as someones driving, and continuous thoughts of hurting others. You tell yourself you would never do that, right? But continue to have the same intrusive thoughts. You would be diagnosed with
OCD: a psychological condition characterized by unwanted, intrusive thoughts (obsessions), and repetitive ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) performed to alleviate the anxiety caused by those thoughts
You failed your test and now doubt yourself and tell yourself you'll never succeed. You begin skipping classes and continue to feel demotivated. You see a therapist who asks you if its 100% true that one bad grade defines your entire intelligence. They reframe your thoughts to make you start thinking it could've been poor studying and preparation. This therapeutic approach is
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): helps clients identify and challenge maladaptive irrational thoughts and replace them with healthier, balanced behaviors
In a life or death situation you're stuck with your friend who is notoriously known for looking at the bad in everything. Your friend immediately began panicking, screaming, and became emotional. You however kept a positive mindset, kept calm, and began developing solutions to the problem. Through this theory you were able to expand your cognitive awareness due to your positive emotions.
Broaden-and-Build Theory: states that positive emotions broaden an individual's awareness and encourage novel, creative actions, over time building lasting physical, intellectual, psychological, and social resources
When receiving a bad grade on a test, instead of treating yourself as a complete failure, you remind yourself that there's still more you have to learn and use your score to target concepts you still need to work on. You're coping through
Emotion-focused coping: attempting to alleviate stress by managing your emotional response to a stressors rather than changing the stressful situation itself
This hormone, released by the pineal gland helps regulate sleep by signalling and promoting a state of quiet wakefulness.
Melatonin: a sleep-inducing hormone produced by the pineal gland responsible for regulating your circadian rhythm
Your mom often jumbled her words or substitutes words based on rhyme rather than meaning. Usually the family just laughs it off but people have gotten more concerned ever since she's stopped talking mid-sentence as she says her "thoughts have just vanished" and continues to lose all logical connection to her words. Your mom likely has
Schizophrenia: a severe chronic brain disorder characterized by delusions, reduced emotional expression, hallucinations, and disorganized thinking/behavior
Your brother used to always fight with your mom growing up. You noticed he blocked people out after arguments and seemed to suppress his emotions constantly. When he grew older he developed an unexplained fear of dogs. This can be explained through Sigmund Freuds perspective of
Psychoanalysis: explains personality and behavior through unconscious drive, childhood experiences, and unresolved conflicts
Through learned optimism and your knowledge of Martin Seligmans teachings, when having a bad day at school where you continuously doubt yourself, worry, and feel sad, you remind yourself that it's only temporary and tomorrow will be different. The thought process of ______ under Martin Seligmans 3 P's shows your thought process as optimistic.
Permanence: the dimension of a person's explanatory style that determines whether they view negative events as lasting forever (pessimistic) or temporary (optimistic)
You're about to receive a significant job promotion at work, you get a pay raise and a prestige title but are required to work an extra 15 hours every week and travel monthly. The conflict described is
Approach-avoidance: when a single goal/event has both attractive and unattractive qualities, creating a mental "tug-of-war"
While at a sleepover, you notice your friend continuously breaths at disorganized intervals, momentarily wakes themselves up, and snores consistently. They're experiencing
Sleep Apnea: sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations in breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings
Your brother often talks to himself, you notice in public he's highly alert and passive-aggressive, commonly picking fights and arguing with others. When he talks to himself however, he sounds sad, hopeless, and even moves around sluggishly/slowly. He likely has
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID): a severe psychological condition characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states that repeatedly take control of a person's behavior
While at therapy your therapist told you to talk about your daily life. You laid down and began continuously speaking about your activities and anything else coming to mind, even getting excited. Your therapist then asked about the time your brother died when you were little. Your mind immediately went blank and you shifted the topic. The therapist noted this resistance and sudden change in topic as a tie back to unresolved childhood trauma. The method used by the therapist was
Free Association: method used by therapists where patients relax and verbalize whatever comes to mind to reveal unconscious thoughts, repressed traumas, or hidden motives causing psychological distress to the therapist
Growing up you fought cancer your whole life. After 5 years you finally survived. You faced life-threatening instances, and even went through depression. After surviving you developed a profound gratitude for everyday moments, you shifted your career to focus more on personal fulfillment and no longer take your health for granted. You are demonstrating
Post-traumatic growth (PTG): the experience of positive psychological change and deeper meaning resulting from a highly challenging or traumatic life crisis