Acculturative Stress - Answers Pressure to adjust to a host or mainstream culture
Acute Stress Disorder - Answers A traumatic stress reaction occurring during the month following
exposure to a traumatic event
Adjustment Disorder - Answers A maladaptive reaction to an identified stressor, characterized by
impaired functioning or emotional distress that exceeds what would normally be expected.
Alarm Reaction - Answers The first stage in GAS, characterized by heightened sympathetic nervous
system activity.
Emotion-Focused Coping - Answers A coping style that involves reducing the impact of a stressor by
ignoring or escaping it rather than dealing with it directly.
Exhaustion Stage - Answers The third stage of the GAS, characterized by lowered resistance,
increased parasympathetic nervous system activity, and eventual physical deterioration.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) - Answers A controversial form of therapy
for PTSD that involves the client's eye tracking of a visual target while holding images of the traumatic
experience in mind.
Fight-or-Flight Reaction - Answers The inborn tendency to respond to a threat by either fighting or
fleeing.
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) - Answers The body's three-stage response to prolonged or
intense stress comprising of the alarm reaction, the resistance stage, and the exhaustion stage.
Hormones - Answers Substances secreted by endocrine glands that regulate body functions and
promote growth and development.
Immune System - Answers The body's system of defense against disease.
Positive Psychology - Answers A growing contemporary movement within psychology that focuses on
the positive attributes of human behavior.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - Answers A prolonged maladaptive reaction to a traumatic
event.
Problem-Focused Coping - Answers A coping style that involves confronting a stressor directly.
Prolonged Grief Disorder - Answers A psychological disorder characterized by a maladaptive grief
reaction lasting (in adults) more than a year since the death of someone with whom the person
shared a close relationship.
Psychological Hardiness - Answers A cluster of stress-buffering traits characterized by commitment,
challenge, and control.
Resistance Stage - Answers The second stage of GAS, involving the body's attempt to withstand
prolonged stress and preserve resources.
Self-Efficacy Expectancies - Answers Beliefs in one's ability to cope with challenges and to accomplish
particular tasks.
Stress - Answers A demand made on an organism to adapt or adjust.
Stressor - Answers A source of stress.
Agoraphobia - Answers Excessive, irrational fear of open or public places.
Anxiety - Answers An emotional state characterized by physiological arousal, unpleasant feelings of
tension, and a sense of apprehension or foreboding.
Anxiety Disorder - Answers A class of psychological disorders characterized by excessive or
maladaptive anxiety reactions.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) - Answers A psychological disorder characterized by preoccupation
with an imagined or exaggerated physical defect in appearance.
Cognitive Restructing - Answers A cognitive therapy method that involves replacing irrational
thoughts with rational alternatives.
Compulsion - Answers A repetitive or ritualistic behavior that the person (with OCD) feels compelled
to perform.
Fear-Stimulus Hierarchy - Answers An ordered series of increasingly fearful stimuli.
Flooding - Answers A behavior therapy technique for overcoming fears by means of exposure to high
levels of fear-inducing stimuli.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) - Answers A type of anxiety disorder characterized by general
feelings of dread and foreboding and heightened states of bodily arousal.
Gradual Exposure - Answers (1) A behavior therapy technique for overcoming fears through direct
exposure to increasingly fearful stimuli; (2) In behavior therapy, a method of overcoming fears