In Lazarus's model, secondary appraisal is the judgment of what coping options are available and how well they are likely to work.
Correct Answer
True
True. After primary appraisal labels an event as a threat or a challenge, secondary appraisal weighs the available resources and options, and stress is greater when few effective options seem available.
Category: Defining Stress
Question 2
Selye found that the body's stress response follows a similar pattern no matter what type of stressor causes it.
Correct Answer
True
True. Selye described the general adaptation syndrome as nonspecific: cold, injury, or other threats all produced the same basic sequence of physiological responses in his research animals.
Category: Stress Physiology
Question 3
The HPA axis responds to a stressor more quickly than the sympathetic nervous system does.
Correct Answer
False
False. The sympathetic nervous system produces the immediate surge of arousal, while the hormonal chain of the HPA axis works more slowly and sustains the stress response over time.
Category: Stress Physiology
Question 4
Prolonged high levels of cortisol tend to weaken immune functioning.
Correct Answer
True
True. Brief increases in cortisol can help the body cope, but chronically elevated cortisol suppresses the immune system and is often seen in depression.
Category: Stress Physiology
Question 5
Positive life events such as marriage receive no points on the Social Readjustment Rating Scale because they are pleasant.
Correct Answer
False
False. Desirable events also require readjustment, so the scale assigns them points. Marriage carries 50 life change units.
Category: Sources of Stress
Question 6
Research found that the frequency of daily hassles predicted health outcomes better than scores for major life changes did.
Correct Answer
True
True. Studies comparing the two found that the buildup of minor everyday irritations predicted physical and psychological health more strongly than totals of major life events.
Category: Sources of Stress
Question 7
Long-term unemployment is an example of an acute stressor.
Correct Answer
False
False. Long-term unemployment persists over time, so it is a chronic stressor. Acute stressors are brief events, such as a car accident or breaking a leg.
Category: Sources of Stress
Question 8
Post-traumatic stress disorder can include intrusive memories, jumpiness, and avoidance of reminders of a traumatic event.
Correct Answer
True
True. PTSD is a chronic stress reaction to trauma, such as combat, assault, or disaster, and its symptoms include intrusive memories, heightened startle, emotional detachment, angry outbursts, and avoidance.
Category: Sources of Stress
Question 9
The symptoms of psychophysiological disorders are imagined rather than physically real.
Correct Answer
False
False. Psychophysiological disorders involve genuine physical symptoms and tissue effects, such as high blood pressure or asthma attacks, that stress and emotions cause or make worse.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 10
Ader and Cohen showed that immune suppression in rats could be classically conditioned to the taste of flavored water.
Correct Answer
True
True. After flavored water was paired with an immune-suppressing drug, the taste alone later suppressed the rats' immune responses, showing that learning and the immune system are connected.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 11
Older adults caring for a spouse with Alzheimer's disease showed a weaker antibody response to a flu vaccine than people who were not caregivers.
Correct Answer
True
True. Research by Janice Kiecolt-Glaser and colleagues found that the chronic stress of caregiving impaired the immune response to vaccination.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 12
Psychological stress has been found to speed the healing of skin wounds.
Correct Answer
False
False. Stressed participants produced lower levels of the immune proteins needed for repair, and their wounds healed more slowly.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 13
Hypertension is often called a silent killer because it frequently produces no noticeable symptoms.
Correct Answer
True
True. High blood pressure can go unnoticed for years while it raises the risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and kidney failure.
Category: Stress and Illness
Question 14
Emotion-focused coping tends to work better than problem-focused coping for stressors that cannot be changed, such as the death of a loved one.
Correct Answer
True
True. When a stressor cannot be controlled, efforts aimed at managing the resulting emotions, such as finding meaning or seeking comfort, are more useful than trying to solve the problem.
Category: Coping and Control
Question 15
Greater perceived control over the demands of one's life is associated with worse physical and mental health.
Correct Answer
False
False. Higher perceived control is linked to better physical and mental health, greater well-being, and less reactivity to daily stressors.
Category: Coping and Control
Question 16
In long-term studies, people with few social ties died at lower rates than people with many social ties.
Correct Answer
False
False. Socially isolated people had higher death rates, even after accounting for health habits such as smoking and physical activity. Strong social support is linked to better health and survival.
Category: Coping and Control
Question 17
Herbert Benson's relaxation response is a meditation-based technique that increases sympathetic nervous system arousal.
Correct Answer
False
False. The relaxation response lowers sympathetic arousal and has been used to help treat high blood pressure.
Category: Coping and Control
Question 18
Positive psychology focuses mainly on diagnosing and treating mental disorders.
Correct Answer
False
False. Positive psychology, promoted by Martin Seligman, studies human strengths, happiness, and what makes life fulfilling rather than focusing on disorders.
Category: Happiness and Well-Being
Question 19
Optimists tend to view stressors as temporary and as caused by outside circumstances.
Correct Answer
True
True. Optimism is a general expectation that things will turn out well, and optimists tend to explain setbacks as temporary and external, a style linked to better health.
Category: Happiness and Well-Being
Question 20
Lottery winners typically stay far happier than they were before winning for the rest of their lives.
Correct Answer
False
False. Winners feel an initial surge of happiness, but over time they tend to return to about their earlier baseline level, as people adapt emotionally to most life events.
Category: Happiness and Well-Being