126 Key Terms for Stress & Health
- alarm reaction
- first stage of the general adaptation syndrome; characterized as the body’s immediate physiological reaction to a threatening situation or some other emergency; analogous to the fight-or-flight response
- asthma
- psychophysiological disorder in which the airways of the respiratory system become obstructed, leading to great difficulty expelling air from the lungs
- biofeedback
- stress-reduction technique using electronic equipment to measure a person’s involuntary (neuromuscular and autonomic) activity and provide feedback to help the person gain a level of voluntary control over these processes
- cardiovascular disorders
- disorders that involve the heart and blood circulation system
- coping
- mental or behavioural efforts used to manage problems relating to stress, including its cause and the unpleasant feelings and emotions it produces
- cortisol
- stress hormone released by the adrenal glands when encountering a stressor; helps to provide a boost of energy, thereby preparing the individual to take action
- daily hassles
- minor irritations and annoyances that are part of our everyday lives and are capable of producing stress
- distress
- bad form of stress; usually high in intensity; often leads to exhaustion, fatigue, feeling burned out; associated with erosions in performance and health
- eustress
- good form of stress; low to moderate in intensity; associated with positive feelings, as well as optimal health and performance
- fight-or-flight response
- set of physiological reactions (increases in blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, and sweat) that occur when an individual encounters a perceived threat; these reactions are produced by activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system
- flow
- state involving intense engagement in an activity; usually is experienced when participating in creative, work, and leisure endeavours
- general adaptation syndrome
- Hans Selye’s three-stage model of the body’s physiological reactions to stress and the process of stress adaptation: alarm reaction, stage of resistance, and stage of exhaustion
- happiness
- enduring state of mind consisting of joy, contentment, and other positive emotions; the sense that one’s life has meaning and value
- health psychology
- subfield of psychology devoted to studying psychological influences on health, illness, and how people respond when they become ill
- heart disease
- several types of adverse heart conditions, including those that involve the heart’s arteries or valves or those involving the inability of the heart to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs; can include heart attack and stroke
- hypertension
- high blood pressure
- hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
- set of structures found in both the limbic system (hypothalamus) and the endocrine system (pituitary gland and adrenal glands) that regulate many of the body’s physiological reactions to stress through the rel