The General Adaptation Syndrome Model

Critical incident stress results from the crisis of a critical event such as a death of a loved one, a traumatic incident, or an officer-involved shooting. A crisis for an individual is defined as “the perception or experiencing of an event or situation as an intolerable difficulty that exceeds the person’s current resources and coping mechanisms” (James & Gilliland, 2013, p. 8). For a law enforcement officer, “Mitchell (1991) said that a critical incident is one in which the officer’s expectations of perfect performance suddenly are

“In the natural environment the most adaptive response to threat is likely to be fight or flight. In order to do either effectively, the physical body must prepare.”(Cassidy, p.21) This is the basis to Selye’s ‘alarm’ stage, but unfortunately, his model omits the person’s cognitive process behind the stress response. It simply states that the stressful stimulus presents itself; whereas in the transactional model, the perception of the stimuli as being stressful is the 2nd stage. This model states that stress occurs through an imbalance of the “Perception of demand and capability to cope”(generic reference). When a person perceives a demand as being beyond their capability, imbalance is created which then results in a stress response.

The bystander effect is a social psychological scenario where a person who is in an urgent situation is not given any help by the people around due to the discourage from the presence of others (whatispsychology.biz, 2017). Social psychologists, John Darley and Bibb Latane, introduced the bystander effect in the 1960s after the murder of Kitty Genovese, a young woman who was stabbed to death outside her home in New York City. It took her attacker more than half an hour to kill her, and during that time, thirty-eight people saw her being murdered, and they did nothing to help her. “The responsibility for helping was diffused among the observers” (Darley & Latane, 1968).

The first victimization theory is victim precipitation. According to Dr. Marvin Wolfgang, some people may initiate confrontation, provoking the offender, which could eventually lead to his or her death or injury. (Siegel 78) During his research, he concludes that victims are not entirely innocent or blameless. Consequently, the victim sets into motion their own victimization using confrontation. These precipitations are performed in one of two ways, active or passive. Both have strengths and weaknesses.

Van der Kolk (1987) notes that human responses to trauma are relatively constant across various types of traumatic stimuli, where individuals have poor tolerance to arousal stimuli and may experience social and emotional withdrawal. These changes in the body’s arousal and perception prevent the continuance of “normal” life, and require help.

Disorders are abnormal conditions that affect the normal functioning of body organelles. There are various disorders that affect the function of the human body. They are caused by exposure to harmful substances, deficiency in essential components of a balance diet, infections from disease vectors and many others. Urgent care is needed for any detection of disorders in patients because lack of treatment makes them develop into diseases. This paper highlights some of the disorder depicted by the symptoms of the three different patients in the attached article. In addition, the article details the epidemiology, pathophysiology, risk

Psychology, specifically family psychology plays an important role. Meagan C. Tucker and Christina M. Rodriguez’s 2014 article “Family Dysfunction and Social Isolation as Moderators Between Stress and Child Physical Abuse Risk: states that “In 2010, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) confirmed over 754,000 cases of child maltreatment (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2011; Tucker and Rodrigues 2014). Of these, nearly 18 % were victims of physical maltreatment or child physical abuse (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2011; Tucker and Rodrigues 2014)”. Stress is a big factor and a significant contributor to child physical maltreatment risks. abusive parents often report experiencing a number of significant life events (or stressors), such experiences affect individuals differently because each person’s perception of an event is uniqueusive parents often report experiencing a number of significant life events (or stressors), such experiences affect individuals differently because each person’s perception of an event is unique (Tucker and Rodrigues). Since each person is unique and handles different situations differently, these significant life events can lead to different things. This article specifically points out way to be able to break the cycle of abuse and family dysfunction.

A person who is physically abused reacts in society differently then others. The way a person interact socially molds the way society accepts and works with them. Teisl and Cicchetti (2008) study showed that children who are maltreated are more aggressive and disruptive them those who are not maltreated. People develop the basis how is it appropriate to act in society at a young age. When trauma takes place, like physical abuse, it disrupts the process. Some research done on students in high school has shown that the abuse had lower effectiveness. This may mean that the students are able to develop effective coping skills or that the full effects have not yet emerged (Kamsner & McCabe, 2000). It was made known

cope in the face of danger. In situations of chronic threat, a condition called ‘hypercortisolism’

re-victimization (Fortier et al, 2009). Overemphasizing avoidant coping can result in psychological distress. Education on positive coping skills is important in avoiding these effects.

Bruises and fear it is sad to imagine someone being barbaric to a child. More often than not, kids know their abusers and the misuse happens in the home. This makes it troublesome for children to talk up. They may feel caught by the friendship they feel for their abusers or dreadful of the force the abusers have over them. According to "Journal of Interpersonal Violence" published 2015 author John Briere inform his readers of the statistics completed on the Suicidality scale of the Detailed Assessment of Posttraumatic Stress apparently three hundred and eighty-seven participants completed the Suicidality scale of the Detailed Assessment and 14% of adults reported some degree of suicidal ideation and 2% reported an active or passive suicide attempt. Towards the end of the article Briere attempt to inform the reader further became emotional how she elaborated childhood emotional abuse were associated with

Although not everyone that comes across a stressor in life will experience a crisis, some are unable to cope with the stressor in a healthy manner and eventually succumb to a crisis. If this person does not receive the adequate crisis intervention during this state, he or she is likely to be unable to function at the level he or she had been functioning before the crisis. This will inevitably lead to additional crisis scenarios for every stressor they must face in life. “This pattern can go on for many years until the person’s ego is completely drained of its capacity to deal with reality; often such people commit suicide, kill someone, or have a psychotic breakdown.” (Kanel, K. 2007).

There are four elements that an adolescent will react to in a crisis situation. First, the emotional responses involve anger, shock, grief, a sense of helplessness, loss of pleasure in everyday activities, terror, guilt and even phobias. These emotional responses then result in cognitive distortions such as impaired decision making, lowered self-esteem, worry, memory impairment and nightmares. The physical effects of the emotional and cognitive changes can also be a detriment of the adolescents health due to having

Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome Model was created by Hans Selye in 1936. The Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Model states that when a stressful event occurs, it acts as a stressor causing one’s body to react to it through three stages if it is not removed. The three stages are alarm stage, resistance stage and exhaustion stage.

The four different defense mechanisms I have used in my life is denial, regression, displacement, and rationalization. The first one I have used is denial. This is a mechanism that I seem to find myself using very often in my life. According to Freud in Theories of Personality by Schultz, denial is a “ defense mechanism that involves denying the existence of an external threat or traumatic event.” (Schultz 50) An example of myself using the denial mechanism is a traumatic event that I remember very clearly. It was December 7th, 2016 around 8:00 pm, I was sitting in my living room watching television with my boyfriend. I just so happened to be scrolling on Facebook on my phone when I saw all these strange posts on my cousins James’s Facebook wall. These posts were stating rest in peace and you will be missed. I immediately ran into the other room and said mom what happened to James? My mother had no idea and both of us thought these posts were some silly prank. I then texted James and laughed to myself saying this is a joke I know its not real. A few