Summary Of Stress: The Portrait Of A Killer

The documentary by Robert Sapolsky, “Stress, Portrait of a Killer,” (Stress: Portrait of a Killer [Documentary]. (2008). National Geographic.) emphasizes the dangers that are associated with prolonged stress that we experience in our everyday lives, and situations that we expose ourselves to. In the documentary Sapolsky travels to Africa, there he studies the baboons that live in the wild to see how they live, react, and respond to their environment. Like humans, the baboons also have their own social structures that determines who is the top baboon’s are, and as the social structure declines what baboons fall at the lower end of the social structure. This can be related to humans, because like the baboons we have our upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class, and poor (What is social class. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2, 2015, from http://udel.edu/~cmarks/What is social class.htm) While like humans, baboons in these groups that Sapolsky studied also are categorized by the same type of social structure, the higher the social rank the lower the stress, and the lower the social rank the higher the stress. He also emphasized that while one might have a lower social class ranking, they aren’t necessarily considered high stress.

Turner, R. Jay, Blair Wheaton, and Donald A. Lloyd. 1995. “The Epidemiology of Social Stress.” American Sociological Review 60:104–25.

The documentary, Stress, Portrait of a Killer, examined how stress is known to kill, yet humans still believe they are invincible. Dr. Robert Sapolsky studied primates in Africa in order to learn about what effects stress has on the body. Interestingly, he found that the baboons who were considered to have a higher rank actually had lower stress hormones in their blood. Conversely, the baboons who were considered to be low rankers actually had elevated stress hormones, increased heart rate, and a higher blood pressure—all of which lead to deteriorating health. Furthermore, the documentary uncovered that weigh and weight distribution is directly related to stress which is unfortunate because the more weight you gain, the more you stress! More

The National Geographic film, A Portrait of a Killer, examines the types of stress that living beings can endure, and how it can thus affect the rest of their bodies. Severe chronic stress can lead even lead to the destruction of brain cells. Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a neurobiologist of Stanford University who has been researching stress for over thirty years. In order to study stress and its implications upon nonhumans, he went to Africa to study baboons. This species has only three hours of stress caused by eating, and the rest of their daily routine is consumed by about nine hours of free time. Much like Western society, baboons socially stress out one another, as they have social hierarchies to regulate how them interact with one another.

Stress is induced by life events .Lazarus and Flokman in (Cavanaugh and Blanchard –Field (2005) point out stress is defined by the person and that no two people experiences stress the same event in exactly the same way. Each individual has a specific tolerance for stress depending on general level of adjustment, the internal and external resources available to that person, flexibility of learned coping mechanisms and the degree and type of stress being experienced .The rise in stress that results from emotional

An important question is how can we create a better society in which people can flourish with minimal stress? The answer may lie within Sapolsky’s Keekorock research. His first troop of baboons studied, named Keekorock, suffered a tragedy when the troop rummaged through the garbage and ate meat infected with tuberculosis. The result of this event caused almost all males in the troop to die. Sapolsky, being emotionally attached, felt that a decade of research was lost. However, he questioned not who died, but who survived. He discovered that the deaths revolved more around the dominant alpha males, who were more aggressive and not predominantly social. He further discovered that the troop underwent a transformation, in which females outranked

The misuse of the word stress occurs quite often between the members of the lower socioeconomic class. Recently the American Psychological Association conducted a nationwide survey to see how America is doing with its stress levels. The American Psychological Association came to the conclusion that the bulk of people encounter stress under the following conditions: loss of money, work (if employed), family responsibilities and health concerns. (“American Psychological Association Survey… NP). Members of the lower socioeconomic class very commonly fail to realize that stress is not only what makes things go wrong but, also what saves one’s life on occasions. Many people work better under pressure, what they don’t know is that they perform better because of how stressed they are to complete a certain assignment. The expectations one’s boss or teacher has for one on an assignment also turns into stress and helps one perform better. Members of higher classes realize this because they are able to afford therapists that help them analyze the root causes of their health. Members belonging to the higher classes also have proper methods of stress relief such as socializing with friends, listening to music and exercising. Rather than using the same or similar methods of stress relief, members of the lower socioeconomic class tend to smoke, drink alcohol and watch excessive amounts of television (Miller, NP). When members of the lower socioeconomic class misinterpret stress and engage in bad stress relief methods it results in more

This study examines the documentary Stress: portrait of a killer by John Heminway. The documentary exposes the audiences to different escapades that explore the impacts of stress and how human bodies respond to it. Most importantly, this study enlightens the readers to be very careful in managing stress. As depicted in the documentary, stress leads to death, when not handled with great care. The study is significant in exploring the way stress can lead to damaging effects on human life, and some coping strategies that a victim can explore to manage.

The first social determinant of health that the Johnson family had to face was “stress, and illness”. Stress or rather then response to the stress can cause harmful effects on number of biological systems that can lead to illnesses. Stress can affect the person

Stress is a subjective response involving interactions between an individual and the environment that is appraised by the individual as being detrimental to their mental and physical wellbeing (Selye, 2013). A combination of genetics, life stressors and ongoing stress can increase vulnerability to psychiatric disorders such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety (Haddadi & Besharat, 2010), alongside physiological disorders such as cardiovascular disease (Seery, 2011). However, the response to stress can be mediated by overcoming the adverse effects of risk exposure, avoiding negative trajectories and learning to cope successfully with traumatic experiences. This process of adapting to the environment following a stressful

Chronic stress puts your health at risk. (2016, April 21). Retrieved August 11, 2017, from

The term stress has many meanings, in the context of this discussion, according to Merriam-Webster, it refers to the following: (a) “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation” and (b) “a state resulting from a stress; especially: one of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium, (job related stress).” Stress is inevitable in each of our lives, but it is the management, adjustment, and resolution of that stress that is pertinent to our success as individuals, families, and societies. Reuben Hill and many theorists alike began to explore the topic of stress; as a result Family Stress theory (FS) is one such theory (Smith & Hamon, 2012). Great Depression, which brought upon abundant stress to every individual and family living during this period, served as the commencement for the research. Today, we continue to attempt to understand stress, how it affects families and individuals in order to

Explain how stress is one of the pathways through which social status “gets under the skins” – that is, how stress is a mechanism of the SES-health gradient. This question should include the following parts

The stress process model is an attempt to measure the social origins of one’s physical and mental health. A stressor is some event or stimulus that causes stress such as discrimination, or even just breaking a nail. Stressors can either be a minor annoyance or a major trauma, and it can occur just one time, or be a recurring problem in one’s life. Stress is one’s physical response to stressors, and is many times referred to as “wear and tear” on the body, which can result in health issues such as tissue damage, pain, and chemical reactions. Distress is the anguish or other adverse mental health outcomes that stem from being overwhelmed by stress, such as depression or anxiety.

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.