A student hears about a surprise exam and immediately judges whether it threatens her grade or is a chance to show what she knows. In Richard Lazarus's model, this first judgment is called what?
Primary appraisal
✓
Secondary appraisal
Reappraisal
Alarm reaction
Correct Answer
Primary appraisal
Primary appraisal is the initial judgment of whether an event is a threat, with potential for harm, or a challenge, with potential for growth. Secondary appraisal comes next and evaluates the coping options available. Reappraisal is a later re-evaluation of the stressor as the situation or new information changes, and the term also names the coping strategy of reinterpreting a stressor more positively; either way it is not the first judgment. The alarm reaction is the first stage of Selye's general adaptation syndrome, a physical response rather than a judgment.
Category: Defining Stress
Question 2
Hans Selye used which term for good, motivating stress that is linked with positive feelings and optimal performance?
Distress
Eustress
✓
Homeostasis
Catharsis
Correct Answer
Eustress
Eustress is beneficial stress that energizes a person, such as excitement before a performance. Distress is stress beyond the optimal level that harms performance and health. Homeostasis is the body's stable internal balance, not a type of stress. Catharsis is the release of pent-up emotion.
Category: Defining Stress
Question 3
Walter Cannon described which reaction, in which the sympathetic nervous system rapidly prepares the body to confront or escape a threat?
Relaxation response
Orienting response
Fight-or-flight response
✓
General adaptation syndrome
Correct Answer
Fight-or-flight response
Cannon named the fight-or-flight response, in which the sympathetic nervous system and adrenal hormones raise heart rate, breathing, and energy to meet an emergency. The relaxation response is Herbert Benson's technique for lowering arousal. The orienting response is a brief shift of attention toward a new stimulus. The general adaptation syndrome is Hans Selye's three-stage model of long-term stress.
Category: Stress Physiology
Question 4
What is the correct order of the stages in Hans Selye's general adaptation syndrome?
Resistance, alarm, exhaustion
Alarm, exhaustion, resistance
Exhaustion, alarm, resistance
Alarm, resistance, exhaustion
✓
Correct Answer
Alarm, resistance, exhaustion
The body first mounts an alarm reaction similar to fight-or-flight, then adapts during resistance, and finally reaches exhaustion if the stressor continues and resources run out. Resistance, alarm, exhaustion puts adaptation before the initial emergency response. Alarm, exhaustion, resistance places depletion before adaptation. Exhaustion, alarm, resistance starts with the final stage.
Category: Stress Physiology
Question 5
Several months into caring for a seriously ill parent, a man's body has adjusted to the ongoing strain, with physiological arousal lower than at first but still elevated. According to Selye, he is in which stage?
Resistance
✓
Alarm
Exhaustion
Recovery
Correct Answer
Resistance
In the resistance stage the body adapts to a continuing stressor, keeping arousal reduced but above normal. Alarm is the immediate, intense first response to a threat. Exhaustion occurs when the body's resources are depleted, raising the risk of illness. Recovery is not one of Selye's three stages.
Category: Stress Physiology
Question 6
Activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis leads the adrenal glands to release which hormone, often called the stress hormone?
Melatonin
Cortisol
✓
Oxytocin
Insulin
Correct Answer
Cortisol
In the HPA axis, signals from the hypothalamus and pituitary cause the adrenal glands to secrete cortisol, which mobilizes energy during stress. Melatonin is released by the pineal gland and regulates sleep. Oxytocin is a pituitary hormone involved in bonding and childbirth. Insulin is released by the pancreas to regulate blood sugar.
Category: Stress Physiology
Question 7
How does Holmes and Rahe's Social Readjustment Rating Scale measure a person's stress?
By counting minor daily annoyances over one week
By measuring cortisol levels in a saliva sample
By totaling points for major life changes in the past year
✓
By rating how much control a person feels at work
Correct Answer
By totaling points for major life changes in the past year
The scale lists major life events, each assigned life change units based on how much readjustment it requires, and a person adds up the units for events from the past 12 months. Counting minor daily annoyances describes measures of daily hassles. Measuring cortisol in saliva is a biological measure, not this rating scale. Rating control at work relates to job strain research.
Category: Sources of Stress
Question 8
On Holmes and Rahe's life events scale, which event carries the highest life change value?
Divorce
Marriage
Being fired from work
Death of a spouse
✓
Correct Answer
Death of a spouse
Death of a spouse is rated 100, the highest value on the scale, because it demands the most readjustment. Divorce is rated high but below the death of a spouse. Marriage is rated lower, though it still counts as a stressful change. Being fired from work also ranks below the death of a spouse.
Category: Sources of Stress
Question 9
Losing your keys, sitting in heavy traffic, and arguing with a roommate over dishes are examples of which kind of stressor?
Daily hassles
✓
Traumatic events
Major life changes
Catastrophes
Correct Answer
Daily hassles
Daily hassles are minor, everyday irritations that can add up and affect health. Traumatic events involve actual or threatened death or serious injury. Major life changes, such as marriage or moving, require significant readjustment. Catastrophes are large-scale disasters affecting many people at once.
Category: Sources of Stress
Question 10
A nurse feels emotionally drained, has started treating patients as cases rather than people, and believes she accomplishes little. These three signs together define which condition?
Learned helplessness
Job burnout
✓
Type A behavior
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Correct Answer
Job burnout
Job burnout consists of exhaustion, depersonalization or detachment from the people one serves, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. Learned helplessness is giving up after repeated uncontrollable events. Type A behavior is a competitive, time-urgent personality pattern. Post-traumatic stress disorder follows exposure to a traumatic event and involves symptoms such as intrusive memories.
Category: Sources of Stress
Question 11
According to research on job strain, the most stressful jobs combine which two features?
Low demands and high control
High demands and high control
High demands and low control
✓
Low demands and low control
Correct Answer
High demands and low control
Job strain occurs when heavy workload and demands are paired with little say over decisions, and it is linked to hypertension, heart attacks, and depression. Low demands and high control describes a relaxed job. High demands and high control describes an active job in which control buffers the stress. Low demands and low control describes a passive job.
Category: Sources of Stress
Question 12
Physical conditions such as tension headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, and hypertension, whose real symptoms are caused or worsened by stress and emotion, are known as what?
Conversion disorders
Autoimmune diseases
Anxiety disorders
Psychophysiological disorders
✓
Correct Answer
Psychophysiological disorders
Psychophysiological disorders are genuine physical illnesses in which psychological factors such as stress cause or aggravate the symptoms. Conversion disorders involve neurological symptoms without a medical explanation. Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system attacks the body's own tissue. Anxiety disorders are psychological disorders marked by excessive fear and worry.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 13
Which field studies how psychological factors such as stress influence the immune system?
Psychoneuroimmunology
✓
Psychopharmacology
Behavioral genetics
Psychophysics
Correct Answer
Psychoneuroimmunology
Psychoneuroimmunology examines the links among psychological states, the nervous system, and immune function, including how stress weakens immune defenses. Psychopharmacology studies how drugs affect behavior and mental processes. Behavioral genetics studies hereditary influences on behavior. Psychophysics studies the relationship between physical stimuli and sensory experience.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 14
In studies that deliberately exposed healthy volunteers to a cold virus, which group was more likely to develop a cold?
People reporting the fewest recent stressors
People with chronic stressors lasting over a month
✓
People who exercised every day
People with the most social contacts
Correct Answer
People with chronic stressors lasting over a month
Sheldon Cohen and colleagues found that ongoing stressors lasting more than a month, especially work or relationship problems, raised the chance of catching a cold. People reporting the fewest recent stressors were less likely to get sick. People who exercised daily would be expected to resist stress better, not worse. People with the most social contacts were less likely to develop colds in related research.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 15
Cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman described a behavior pattern of competitiveness, impatience, time urgency, and intense drive that they linked to heart disease. What is it called?
Type B
Type C
Type A
✓
Type D
Correct Answer
Type A
Friedman and Rosenman labeled the hard-driving, impatient, competitive pattern Type A and reported higher rates of heart disease among people who showed it. Type B describes a relaxed, easygoing pattern. Type C and Type D are later labels proposed by other researchers for different personality patterns and do not match this description.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 16
Later research on the hard-driving, impatient behavior pattern found that which component is most closely tied to heart disease?
Competitiveness
Time urgency
Achievement striving
Hostility
✓
Correct Answer
Hostility
When the overall pattern failed to predict heart disease consistently, researchers found that hostility and anger were the components most strongly linked to cardiovascular problems. Competitiveness alone was not a consistent predictor. Time urgency was a weaker factor. Achievement striving was not found to be harmful in itself.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 17
After a poor midterm grade, a student builds a weekly study schedule and joins a review session to master the material. This is an example of which coping strategy?
Problem-focused coping
✓
Emotion-focused coping
Learned helplessness
Defensive avoidance
Correct Answer
Problem-focused coping
Problem-focused coping tries to change or manage the stressor itself, here by fixing the cause of the poor grade. Emotion-focused coping aims to reduce the negative feelings a stressor produces without changing it. Learned helplessness is giving up after believing outcomes cannot be controlled. Defensive avoidance is ignoring or putting off dealing with a problem.
Category: Coping and Control
Question 18
Dogs that had been given shocks they could not escape later made no attempt to escape shocks even when escape was easy. What did Martin Seligman call this?
Extinction
Learned helplessness
✓
Spontaneous recovery
Habituation
Correct Answer
Learned helplessness
Learned helplessness is the passive giving up that follows the belief that one has no control over negative events, and it has been linked to depression in humans. Extinction is the weakening of a learned response when reinforcement stops. Spontaneous recovery is the return of an extinguished response after a pause. Habituation is a decreased response to a repeated harmless stimulus.
Category: Coping and Control
Question 19
A woman with frequent tension headaches watches a screen that displays the tension in her forehead muscles and gradually learns to lower it. Which technique is she using?
Systematic desensitization
Hypnosis
Biofeedback
✓
Free association
Correct Answer
Biofeedback
Biofeedback uses electronic equipment to show people their own body signals, such as muscle tension or skin temperature, so they can gain some voluntary control over them. Systematic desensitization pairs relaxation with gradual exposure to a feared stimulus. Hypnosis uses suggestion in a state of focused attention. Free association is a psychoanalytic technique of saying whatever comes to mind.
Category: Coping and Control
Question 20
A musician becomes so absorbed in a challenging piece that matches her skill that she loses track of time. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called this state what?
Positive affect
Eustress
Affective forecasting
Flow
✓
Correct Answer
Flow
Flow is a state of complete absorption in an activity that is challenging but matched to one's skills, marked by concentration, a sense of control, and time seeming to pass quickly. Positive affect refers to pleasant emotions such as joy and enthusiasm in general. Eustress is beneficial, motivating stress. Affective forecasting is predicting how one will feel in the future.
Category: Happiness and Well-Being