Ap Psychology Chapter 14

The Science of Stress is an informative video by National Geographic detailing the body response to stress. Stress is the body’s way of getting itself prepared to face a challenge. It is constant problem that everyone has to deal with. It was originally meant to aid our survival, but over time it has become dangerous and lethal to our well being. National Geographic’s video gives us a scientific view of what goes on in our bodies when experiencing stress and its effects on it.

Stress has a profound effect on health becoming a topic under health psychology, a subfield of psychology dealing with ways psychological factors influence the causes, treatment of physical illness and maintenance of health. Stress has a multitude of sources from natural disasters to small annoyances that interrupts people’s daily lives. Research from Brown and McGill has also shown that positive events can also generate stress due to readjustment or unpreparedness. Unfortunately in life people will experience chronic stressors which are sources of stress that occur continuously or repeatedly. Accumulation of small stressors such as bullying and money troubles can lead up to distress and illness. These daily stressors are reported to have more psychological and physical symptoms which can have a greater and long lasting impact than major life

In Chapter 7 of our What Is Psychology textbook, we learned about the importance, details and strategies of memory techniques. One type of memory is Short Term, which only last up to thirty seconds before forgetting. Whenever has to remember a number or a name, they often repeat the information multiple times so that the Short Term Memory can transition into Long Term Memory. In order for this transition to occur, the information must be constantly repeated, or important enough to be held in the permanent memory, which helps create a “folder” with all retaining information and reminiscing. Another way short term can become long term is using a method called Chunking, this breaks the bigger pictures into smaller ones for the brain to remember,

2. The caring mother was looking to assuage her son after he was hurt on the playground.

1) I want to take AP Psychology because the subject is very intriguing. For the past few summers, my parents force to learn something over the vacation of my own choosing, every Summer I would learn something psychology related and I would genuinely enjoy learning about the topic. I started off with the gripping Stanford prison experiment. Even though I was at a young age, learning this would peak my interest, next summer I would learn about B.F. skinner and his rats, then to pavlov and his dogs, and then lastly during the 8th grade summer about to become a Freshman, I learned about “Baby Albert” positive reinforcement, and negative punishment, how the “flight or flight” reaction occurred and if a paper bag really helps. I was upset that I

Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding. Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience. Punishment is defined as the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than to increase it.

Kelly McGonigal discusses the importance of viewing stress as positive, as opposed to negative, by detailing three specific studies and findings about stress. In the first study, it was discovered that people with a significant amount of stress had a higher mortality rate; however, this was only statistically significant if the subject viewed stress as harmful. If the overly-stressed subject didn’t view stress as harmful, they were actually at the lowest risk of dying, even compared to those with a minimal amount. Therefore, it is important to change a person’s perspective of stress. In particular, McGonigal emphasizes that stress is important for a person’s body: it energizes and prepares them to meet whatever challenge they are facing. Furthermore, it helps the blood vessels remain relaxed, thereby allowing the heart to remain healthy.

Our book describes stress as “any circumstances that threaten or are perceived to threaten one’s well-being and tax one’s coping ability” (Weiten, 2014). Stress is not necessarily a traumatic, life destroying event. It can be as simple a small change in one’s daily schedule. People will have multiple stresses throughout their lifetime. Some will be little and daily, but overtime these add up and can affect you in many ways. Stress can be positive or negative and can take many forms; a few being frustration, internal conflict, change, and pressure. All of which make almost a daily appearance in my life (Weiten, 2014).

Stress is one of the number one causes that contribute to people’s health problems. According to Weber.edu, “in Healthy People 2000, a report from the U.S.

According to the American Psychological Association, “more than half of working adults and 47 percent of all Americans-say they are concerned with the amount of stress in their lives” (Stambor). As the results, many Americans are dealing their stress by making poor decision, being inactive, or make unhealthy choices (Stambor). Without a coping strategy, they can be overwhelmed of stress hence; this can negatively impact an individual’s social life and health. His or her own jobs can be affected by the their own stress if it is not dealt with correctly. In the long-run, stress can affect mental health. According to researchers from the Society for Neuroscience meeting held in New Orleans, stress, no matter the cause, can affect the brain circuitry; thus, will have a long term effect on mental health (DiSalvo). To avoid this long-term effect, the individual needs to deal with this stress. Medication can be an option, but requires money to acquire and an individual needs to worry about its side effects. Another way to help cope with stress is by exercising regularly. In Exercise and Mental Health, “appropriate exercise can make a substantial contribution to a comprehensive program of…mental health…benefits includes reductions in anxiety…and probably an enhanced capacity for coping with mental stress (Haskell 50). This is based off on multiple researches William Haskell had

Psychological stress is a result of many factors and should be dealt with very carefully. Stress can be defined as “An excess of demand made upon the adaptive capabilities of the mind and body”.(Joseph 1). Another way of putting it, is that there are some things that put certain demands on us. The effects of stress should not be limited to unpleasant emotional states. Many studies have concluded that the effects on our physical health from stress can be extremely detrimental. These adverse physical effects include heart disease and formations of cancer. There are also some societal issues that psychological stress can hamper.

Everybody has at least one thing in common. Can you guess what it is? If you guessed, heartbreak, you’re right, but that’s not the answer I’m looking for. The correct answer is stress. Everyone has stress in his or her life at one point or another. It’s one of many inevitable parts of life. Whether it’s busting out a research paper for Psychology at the last minute, expecting your first child to be born, to making sure you’re up in time to catch the Saturday morning cartoons, it’s clearly evident that everyone goes through stress. The real question is, how is stress handled in our society? A person is defined by how they handle the stressors in their lives and how they overcome stressful moments. This paper will explore the aspects of

Whether caused by a job termination or simple day-to-day traffic, stress is seen daily in the human life. While it is possible for every person to be affected by stress, the outcomes are clearly different for each individual. Personality differences also can cause stressors to vary between persons. While stress is inevitable within lives and has the potential to affect individuals physically, psychological research has shown that it is also possible to cope with.

When there are inadequacies in these factors, a person may experience a great deal of stress that can lead to physiological and psychological changes (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010). The increase of stress can “lead to prolonged biological reactions that strain the physical body” (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010, pg.10). This stress can also make people increasingly vulnerable to cardiovascular or immune diseases and diabetes (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010). There can be increased in anxiety and hopelessness that leads to exhaustion, thus making it more difficult to have healthy coping skills (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010). Unhealthy coping skills may be alcohol use, smoking or overeating (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010).

“Stress is a silent disease” (Doctor Hobel). Over the years, stress has played a major rule in a large majority of people’s lives throughout the United States. When thought about, it is said to be extremely surprising as to how many people really have stress in each individual’s life. People do not consider what the reasons are for the feelings and emotions they experience. There are all different types of stress, and stress can do a lot to a person. Each person also handles stress in a different way. Some can handle more than others, because every single person’s body works in a different way. Stress has also been told to cause people to act out of character (Dr. David Posen). They often do not act the way they usually would while under