CHAPTER 12: Emotions, Stress and Health
Health Psychology: a subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to
behavioural medicine
Stress: a process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we
appraise as challenging or threatening
Stress Reaction: emotional or physical responses to stress
Stressors:
1. catastrophes
2. significant life changes
3. daily hassles
Stressful Event → Appraisal → Responce
Appraisal: how we respond initially to an event (ex. we can see it as a challenge on a threat)
SAM Pathway (Walter Cannon)
- in 1929 he confirmed that the stress response is part of a unified mind-body system
- stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine are released from the adrenal glands
- when altered by any number of pathways, the sympathetic nervous system increases heart
rate and respiration, diverts blood from digestion to the skeletal muscles, dulls feelings of
pain, releases sugar and fat from body stores
HPA Pathway
- from the cerebral cortex, the outer part of the adrenal glands secret glucocorticoid stress
hormones such as cortisol
- the two systems work at different speeds, the second stress response being slower
Hans Selye:
- the body’s adaptive response to stress is so general that it responds to almost anything
- created general adaptation syndrome
GAS: the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases
1. Alarm
2. Resistance
3. Exhaustion
Tend & Befriend: under stress people often provide support for others, bond with others and
seek support from others
Psychophysiological Illness: mind-body illness, any stress related to physical illness such as
hypertension and some headaches
Psychoneuroimmunology: the study of how psychological, neural and endocrine processes
together affect the immune system and health
1
Health Psychology: a subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to
behavioural medicine
Stress: a process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we
appraise as challenging or threatening
Stress Reaction: emotional or physical responses to stress
Stressors:
1. catastrophes
2. significant life changes
3. daily hassles
Stressful Event → Appraisal → Responce
Appraisal: how we respond initially to an event (ex. we can see it as a challenge on a threat)
SAM Pathway (Walter Cannon)
- in 1929 he confirmed that the stress response is part of a unified mind-body system
- stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine are released from the adrenal glands
- when altered by any number of pathways, the sympathetic nervous system increases heart
rate and respiration, diverts blood from digestion to the skeletal muscles, dulls feelings of
pain, releases sugar and fat from body stores
HPA Pathway
- from the cerebral cortex, the outer part of the adrenal glands secret glucocorticoid stress
hormones such as cortisol
- the two systems work at different speeds, the second stress response being slower
Hans Selye:
- the body’s adaptive response to stress is so general that it responds to almost anything
- created general adaptation syndrome
GAS: the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases
1. Alarm
2. Resistance
3. Exhaustion
Tend & Befriend: under stress people often provide support for others, bond with others and
seek support from others
Psychophysiological Illness: mind-body illness, any stress related to physical illness such as
hypertension and some headaches
Psychoneuroimmunology: the study of how psychological, neural and endocrine processes
together affect the immune system and health
1
