Reflection Paper : General Adaptation Syndrome

Stress Is the body’s way of responding to the hectic lives most of us live, whether good or bad. The body releases chemicals into the bloodstream, which creates a rush of energy and strength If an individual is feeling stressed. This energy can prove useful if an individual is in physical danger. Because it enables a person’s survival instinct kicks in; it is often described as ‘fight or flight.’ In addition, stress can also have a negative effect on the body, for example: suffering from stress and leaving it unchecked can contribute to health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

“Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances”. It is generally known as “pattern of disruptive physiological and psychological reaction to events that threaten the ability to cope” (Oxford Living Dictionaries, 2017).

Stress is a nonspecific response of the human organism to any demand make upon it. It can influence the way we perform on tests and homework and how we act at home or work. There are different types of stress that can occur in the body. Acute stress is the body’s response to imminent danger. This short-term stress usually occurs when we are told we will have a quiz or have to give a speech in class. Chronic stress is a prolonged physical or emotional stress. This can cause damage to the body if the stress lasts for too long. Optimal stress is intense enough to motivate and physically prepare us to perform well but not enough to cause harm to the body.

The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) can measure physiological response to stress. It starts with the alarm phase, where you recognize the stimulus and decide you need to confront the stress that you have. This activates the sympathetic nervous system and deactivates the parasympathetic nervous system. It releases a stress hormone that is a biological marker of stress. Once you have evaluated the situation and decided what to do, you enter the resistance phase, in which the body starts to address the stimulus and tries to go into

[Griffin n.d.] Physiological scientist Hans Seyle studied stress in rats and found that no matter what kind of stress they endured they suffered the same physiological change as if they had suffered prolonged stress. Seyle named the stages that the rats went through the General Adaptation Syndrome. [Kalat,2017] The three phases of the physiological change that occurs in response to long term stress are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Alarm is the first reaction to stress where your body releases hormones including cortisol. This is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal glands. A person wont immediate recognize the cortisol working because it is a multi-step process involving two minor hormones. The brain has two pathways that process stimuli. The first is the amygdala that has to recognize the threat and send a message to the hypothalamus part of the brain which releases a hormone that then tells the pituitary gland to release cortisol. In event of a life emergency, the high amounts of cortisol will help save your life. It helps to maintain fluid balance and blood pressure, while slowing down some body functions that aren’t crucial in the moment, like reproductive drive, immunity, digestion

A Canadian scientist by the name of Hans Selye name the result of his research the general adaptation syndrome, or GAS for short. He described the process of stress as a 3-way process. There is phase one, alarm reaction, phase two, resistance, and phase three, exhaustion. Being unable to cope with a stressor and remaining in the last phase for too long can have negative health effects. Men and women both traditionally deal with stress in different ways. Men, and least more often than women, tend to socially withdraw, turn to alcohol, or become aggressive, while women more often respond by nurturing and bonding together (Myers, 2014).

Stress is an emotional state that is difficult to define because everyone experiences stress in different ways. Pathologically speaking, stress is the brain’s response to certain demands for change and can be positive or negative depending on the individual. This state of mind is induced by physical and emotional stimuli; this in turn generates a response that affects many aspects of a person’s wellbeing. Psychological, behavioral and biological stressors all play a role in an individual’s mood, sense of well-being, behavior and health (Schneiderman, Ironson, & Siegel, Stress and health: psychological, behavioral, and biological determinants, 2005). These factors can threaten our internal homeostasis which

veryone experiences stress atleast one time in their lives. The human body shows signs of stress in two different ways; firstly, the boost of hormones that elevate your heart rate, then your blood pressure starts to rise, and stops digestion, then secondly the symptoms you are aware of such as clenced teeth, headaches and emotional upset. (Southern Cross, 2013). The most reconginziable symptoms of stress are sleeping problems such as insomnia, heartburn, nail-biting, trouble focusing, nausea and many more, but there are also conditions that you wouldn’t know was associated with stress like anorexia and depression. (Henry, 2011). Acute and chronic stress are both different forms of stress responses. Acute stress is one of the most common forms

I tend to worry a lot. But I also try not to focus on the bad, and instead think positively. In relating my stress levels to Hans Seyle’s General Adaptation Syndrome, I am currently experiencing the resistance stage. I am very stressed with school and wanting to pass all my courses in order to continue in the program. With finals being so close, my stress levels have definitely increased and I am anxious, and exhausted.

Indo Asian News Service reported an article on the effects of stress about our immune system. In this article it mentions a study done to show that controlled stress improves the immune system. “Short-term stress, the fight-or-flight response, a mobilisation of bodily resources lasting minutes or hours in response to immediate threats -- stimulates immune activity” (“Stress” 2). This statement was given by a researcher and professor, Firdaus Dhabhar. He was explaining his purpose for his research and the process he would go through. He expected to see a pattern almost like a triangle on his graph when he analyses stress effects on the immune system. In other words, if there is not enough stress in a person's immune system, it will not have the help it needs to fight diseases. With the “right” amount of short term stress, then the person's body can fight or heal faster than average. If a person exceeds the “right” amount of stress to help their body, it is no longer helping it is destroying the immune system. Just as Whyte was trying to explain in his article, stress can be helpful, but a person can not over stress or it is harmful. “ "Mother Nature gave us the fight-or-flight stress response to help us, not to kill us,” said Dhabhar” (“Stress” 7). This statement declares that the fight or flight response is the type of stress that helps us. That funny feeling

Cooper & Marshall (1976). A response based definition; this comes in three stages, first being the body is alerted and responds with a reaction. Moving on to the next stage being autonomic activity is activated so the body prepares to deal with the stress, but if the stress becomes overbearing the body cannot handle this and begins to breakdown and become damaged Selye (1956) And lastly stress as a dynamic process; this definition of stress which has contributing factors to the other two definitions of stress. This suggests stress is a dynamic process including internal and external factors, the characteristics of an individual and also the interactions between them. Cognitive factors are more focussed upon in this definition; the amount of stress experienced by a person is determined by demands. This definition suggests there is a link between emotional and environmental factors Sulsky and Smith (2005). The definition of stress is subjective to an individual and each have their own perceptions of what stress is. Stress is the concept how well a person can deal with lifestyle factors but in fact there are many ways stress can impact in anyway, it depends on the individual’s tolerance and view of a situation. In addition to Butler.G., the researchers Kranner, I., Minibayeva, F. V., Beckett, R. P., and Seal, C. E. (2010) definitions of stress were largely

The ‘general adaptation syndrome’ (GAS) model, theorized by Hans Selye (1936, 1950), showcases how the biological approach explains the behaviour of stress. Selye noticed that animals exhibit the same response to unpleasant stimuli, known as a ‘stressor’, and proposed 3 stages of stress response that could lead to illness. The first of the stages is the ‘alarm reaction’ which consists of the shock phase and the countershock phase (Gale, 2001). During the shock phase, where the stressor is recognised, the body experiences biological changes such as lowered body temperature and blood pressure. However during the countershock phase the hypothalamus increases the production of hormones such as adrenaline from the adrenal glands. This causes the sensation of an ‘adrenaline rush’ by increasing blood pressure and body temperature to induce a ‘fight or flight’ response, enabling the individual to surpass their usual

Hans Selye started to use the term “stress” when he discovered that all of his patients looked sick and worn out. He concluded that all of them had something in common: they were all under physical stress. Selye did not stop when he provided convincing arguments that stress impacted health. Could it be psychological? Could it be stressful? John Mason, a physician, designed an experiment to test if psychological stress was equivalent physical stress. Either way hormone levels increased when put in a stressful situation. There was also a debate about whether people react the same way or react different. Eventually it came to be that there are common element that cause stress, however, people will react differently to the stressors. In my research,

There are three stages to the general adaptation syndrome: Alarm, resistance and the exhaustion phase. The alarm phase is the body’s initial reaction to the stressor, where the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the adrenal gland. The sympathetic nervous system is than starting to alert organ systems in a response to the second stage, known as resistance. This is where the body is trying to let itself know that it’s an unwanted stressor that needs to be avoided…the flight response. The third response may result in death as the sympathetic nervous is so overstimulated for so long that it becomes burned out. This stage is known as the exhaustion stage (Ireland, 2013).

Psychological and physical well-being and the overall quality of life are under a constant threat of stress and thus, psychological and medical sciences have long been concerned with studying stress response. Cox (1979) claimed that because of the poor understanding and defining it, the concept of stress tends to be rather elusive. The term, “stress”, commonly describes any physchological or physical alteration that deranges the organism’s homeostasis (or balance). This essay reviews some of the biological factors involved in stress and it has been organized in the following way. The paper begins by briefly introducing the concept of stress. It will then go on to discus and describe the automatic response (fight or flight reaction),