Fight Or Flight Response Research Paper

Everyone`s first reaction when faced with danger is fight or flight. We have this reaction because the hypothalamus activates our pituitary gland, which then activates the adrenals to produce adrenaline causing our body to tense up. This “fight or flight” response can also cause our blood pressure to increase and rush oxygen into our organs. Our pupils dilate too, making it extremely hard to read up close. Since our body is so tense from the adrenaline when we try to straighten, our hands and legs begin to shake.

Fearful situations make the brain release chemicals like dopamine, adrenaline, and endorphins. In Allegra Ringo’s “Why Do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?”, an interview with Dr. Margee Kerr, who earned her PhD in sociology at The University of Pittsburgh, and wrote Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear, explaining the psychological process in

In Prospero 's case in Masque of the Red Death Prince Prospero, was faced with the threat of survival, surviving the Red Death, a plague sweeping his kingdom killing all it comes into contact with. To produce the fight-or-flight response, the hypothalamus activates two systems: the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system. The sympathetic nervous system uses nerve pathways to initiate reactions in the body, and the adrenal-cortical system uses the bloodstream. The combined effects of these two systems are the fight-or-flight response.When the hypothalamus tells the sympathetic nervous system to kick into gear, the overall effect is that the body speeds up, tenses up and becomes generally very alert. If there 's a burglar at the door, you 're going to have to take action fast. The sympathetic nervous system sends out impulses to glands and smooth muscles and tells the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine and norepinephrine into the bloodstream. These "stress hormones" cause several changes in the body, including an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.At the same time, the hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing factor into the pituitary gland, activating the adrenal-cortical system. The pituitary gland secretes the hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone). ACTH moves through the bloodstream and ultimately arrives at the adrenal cortex, where it activates the release of approximately thirty different

In your brain, there is something called the sympathetic branch which controls your body “flight or fight” mode. The sympathetic branch sends a warning, basically waking your body up and getting you ready for the upcoming situation. Your body is always on alert for danger. That is why when it’s night time and you are alone your sympathetic branch kicks in putting your body on alert. And you normally get scared when you hear a noise making you walk a little faster. The same thing happens when you are sleeping and you hear glass breaking you automatically go into flight or fight mode. Depending on the situation depends on whether you flee or fight. People normally fight when they have something at stake to fight for.

People like to read books or watch movies that are scary because of the adrenaline rush. “The moment we feel threatened we increasingly more strong and powerful physically and more intuitive emotionally. This charge to our physical and mental state is called an adrenaline rush.”(Ludwig).

According to Dr. Jaime De La Torre , there are a number of primary survival attitudes in animals and in humans as well. When an animal feels threatened, its first reaction is to move away from the threat. This avoids pain, danger and energy expenditure. However there are situations in which the escape is not possible, and it is in these cases when the animal becomes aggressive and activates a series of reactions in his body that prepare him for the fight. The aggression provoked by fear is characteristic of animals in danger that feel cornered and with no possibility of escape. As long as the animal feels that it has an opportunity to overcome what threatens it, it will fight against it. It is human nature, and hard wired into our brains to

The former causes us to pull away from a harmful condition, protects a damaged part as it heals, reminds us of the damage so that we continue to take care of it, and helps to keep us away from such experiences. Fear on the other hand causes us to look for safety and triggers our brain's hypothalamus that causes adrenaline to get injected into the blood, increasing the heart rate, sending more blood into our muscles and heightening our senses. When confronted with danger, we either stands up to the aggression or run away. This fight-or-flight response mechanism, a term created about a hundred years back by a Harvard University physiologist, is thanks to our earliest ancestors who faced such situations on a near daily

One of the oldest forms of survival is the fight or flight response. Numerous examples of outrageous feats performed by people can be found, but the most pure form can be found in those who still use it daily, and actually use it for survival. Animals utilize their fight or flight response to survive in nature, where a delay or lapse in judgement could result in their death.

It is Midnight July 1990 in a little neighborhood of Massachusetts. Shea McDonald, a teenage girl is coming back home from a party. She did not bother to lock up, and minutes after a burglar found that unlocked door. He entered in McDonald’s house with a mask and black clothing still stained with the blood of his last victim. As he walked into the dark hallway, he found Shea sleeping in her bed. She woke up feeling something cold on her neck; it was the blade of the attacker’s knife. After struggling and fighting for her life, she found a way out to another room. She immediately locked the door and called the police, but the killer escaped. This is a frightening instance of rational fear based on an imminent danger, but how many types of fears the living can experience?

Fight-Flight-Freeze System (FFS): Is associated with the emotion of fear and is responsible for orchestrating our reactions to aversive stimuli. May opt to confront or fight the stimulus, avoid or escape it, or to remain frozen in place hoping the danger passes.

Margaret Miller once said, “Violence is the instinctive response to fear.” In this quote, she implies that violence is the only response. While violence is a reaction of fear, it is not the only one.

Everyday routine is not what people really want for their lives, since adventure or drama always spicy things up a little. When scared, everyone is instantly fully aware while being conscious acts like an escape from boredom because, for minutes, we find ourselves not thinking about mistakes of the yesterday and obligations of the tomorrow. Feeling afraid, leads you to the rare state of thinking only about the moment. Walter Bradford Cannon, a famed American psychologist, named this amazing feeling and introduced to the world the “fight-or-flight response.”

Science of Fear Fear effects everyone, regardless of if you want it to or not. Whether it’s fueling the strength to protect yourself and run from a dangerous situation or making you react unnecessarily to something as safe as a balloon popping, the brain fires hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to make sure you are ready to face a situation. Reacting to a Stimulus In coming across something stressful, the brain sends the information from the senses to reach the thalamus where it is connected to both the reptilian brain (which still relies on animal-like instinct) and the advanced conscious brain (a far more developed section of the brain). The sensory information is processed in the cortex and labelled accordingly.

Defense mechanisms are ways that we are able to protect ourselves from feelings of guilt and anxiety. For example, in my case, I have always continue to struggled with test taking, as well as, writing papers for my classes, this cause my anxiety levels to rise. I would say that, my defense mechanisms would be Rationalization, which is defined as “the cognitive distortion of the facts to make event or impulse less threatening” (McLeod, 2006). How I would apply this, is to make sure that I have ample time to complete my assignment, this allows me time to step away when I being to have feelings of anxiety.

Perhaps one of the most significant challenges we face today is trying to manage the “flight or fight” response to real and perceived danger. Eons ago our ancestors protected themselves from daily existential dangers via the mechanism. Today however, the “flight or fight” response creates a bewildering cycle of overreactions since our brains continue to respond in this intense mode to mere petty (and perhaps unintended) insults or misunderstandings. Inside a medical group practice, staff members might experience countless and various types of “fear,” such as a fear that they are undercompensated - or that someone else is overcompensated, that they don’t have sufficient control -or that they are losing control, that they are working too hard - or that someone else is not working hard enough nor contributing his or her "fair share."