Deck 4: Understanding Stress

Question 1

A person's initial assessment of an event as challenging or stressful is called ______ appraisal, whereas their assessment of how to respond to the event is called ______ appraisal.

A) reactive; transactional
B) primary; secondary
C) transactional; reactive
D) secondary; primary

Answer 1

primary; secondary

Question 2

People who viewed extensive media coverage of the 2012 Boston Marathon bombing were ______ times more likely to experience high stress than were people who viewed little media coverage of the event.

A) 2
B) 4
C) 7
D) 9

Answer 2

9

Question 3

The amount of time that doctors and nurses spend providing direct patient care is ______ correlated with the level of stress that they experience.

A) negatively
B) not
C) positively
D) variably

Answer 3

positively

Question 4

______ most men, women tend to favor a ______ response to a stressful event.

A) Like; fight-or-flight
B) Like; tend-and-befriend
C) Unlike; fight-or-flight
D) Unlike; tend-and-befriend

Question 5

The familiar heart rate and blood pressure measures that open every doctor visit are assessments of the health of the ______ system.

A) cardiovascular
B) endocrine
C) immune
D) nervous

Question 6

Which statement does NOT accurately state a limitation of the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)?

A) The SRRS lacks sociocultural generality.
B) The scale includes only relatively minor events.
C) The SRRS includes a mix of positive, negative, and ambiguous events.
D) SRRS scores do not correlate with negative health outcomes.

Question 7

Ellen receives a large tip from a customer. Ellen has experienced a(n) ______.

A) uplift
B) hassle
C) major life event
D) cataclysm

Question 8

In the 1990s, Alanis Morissette sang that "a traffic jam when you're already late" is ironic. Although it actually may not be ironic, this situation is indeed a(n) ______.

A) major life event
B) cataclysm
C) uplift
D) hassle

Question 9

According to research cited in the text (Ptacek, Smith, & Zanas, 1992), relationships account for one-______ of the stressful events that college students experience.

A) fifth
B) quarter
C) third
D) half

Question 10

Which choice BEST expresses the proportion of Americans who report elevated fear as a result of the increasing regularity of mass shootings over the past decade?

A) a few
B) a sizeable minority
C) most
D) nearly all

Question 11

Which sequence correctly orders the stages of the general adaptation syndrome, from first to last?

A) alarm $\rightarrow$ exhaustion $\rightarrow$ resistance
B) alarm $\rightarrow$ resistance $\rightarrow$ exhaustion
C) resistance $\rightarrow$ alarm $\rightarrow$ exhaustion
D) resistance $\rightarrow$ exhaustion $\rightarrow$ alarm

Question 12

Adrenaline is to cortisol as ______ is to ______.

A) hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis; sympathetic adrenomedullary (SAM) system
B) adrenal gland; pancreas
C) adrenal gland; thymus
D) sympathetic adrenomedullary (SAM) system; hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis

Question 13

Rhonette is African American. She states that the results of the 2016 presidential election is a significant source of stress for her. She is not alone; nearly ______ of African Americans feel similarly.

A) 45%
B) 55%
C) 70%
D) 90%

Question 14

Abdul has just discovered his term paper is due tomorrow when he thought it was due next week. According to Hans Selye, Abdul will MOST likely experience the ______ stage of the general adaptation syndrome.

A) alarm
B) resistance
C) exhaustion
D) appraisal

Question 15

Holmes and Rahe's Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) measures ______.

A) the severity of PTSD
B) major life events
C) appraisal strategies
D) locus of control

Question 16

______ is NOT an effect of sympathetic nervous system activity.

A) Increased heart rate
B) Increased digestion
C) Pupil dilation
D) Blood flow to the muscles

Question 17

The number of daily hassles a person experiences is MOST likely ______ associated with the risk of brief ailments such as headaches and colds.

A) positively
B) negatively
C) not
D) perfectly

Question 18

Brendan must give an oral presentation in 10 min, at the start of his class. In response to this "threat" ______.

A) Brendan's parasympathetic nervous system becomes active
B) norepinephrine is secreted
C) Brendan's pupils constrict
D) the activity of Brendan's digestive system increases

Question 19

T cell is to B cell as ______ is to ______.

A) thymus; bone marrow
B) digesting foreign cells; destroying damaged cells
C) destroying damaged cells; digesting foreign cells
D) bone marrow; thymus

Question 20

Stress may impair the production of disease-fighting white blood cells called ______.

A) leukocytes
B) lymphocytes
C) blastocysts
D) hemocytes

Question 21

The parasympathetic nervous system slows digestion.

Question 22

Over ______ of the people living near a nuclear power plant in Japan experienced at least some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder during a major 2011 earthquake.

A) one-half
B) two-thirds
C) three-quarters
D) four-fifths

Question 23

Stressor is to stress as stimulus is to response.

Question 24

Both B cells and T cells are white blood cells.

Question 25

Dr. Navarre investigates the link between coping strategies and immune system functioning during stressful situations. Dr. Navarre is BEST described as a ______.

A) psychoneuroimmunologist
B) medical psychologist
C) psychophysiologist
D) neuropsychologist

Question 26

Only negative events cause stress.

Question 27

Define psychoneuroimmunology. Explain how this field reflects the biopsychosocial rather than the biomedical model of health. Making explicit reference to the model of stress and disease developed in the text, suggest at least two ways that psychoneuroimmunologists could pay increased research attention to the social component of the biopsychosocial model of health.

Question 28

Merely checking the notifications on one's phone frequently is likely to increase one's stress.

Question 29

Which correlation coefficient might a researcher find between cortisol levels and scores on a measure of working memory capacity?

A) -.35
B) .05
C) .25
D) .55

Question 30

Chau is a recent immigrant from Vietnam. Now living in small shrimping community in southwestern Louisiana, she is struggling to learn English and feels confused and alone. Chau is especially vulnerable to ______ stress.

A) reactive
B) acculturative
C) secondary
D) post-traumatic

Question 31

Sigmund Freud famously said that "love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness." How does contemporary research on the sources of stress lend credence to Freud' statement?

Question 32

Resistance is the first stage in the general adaptation syndrome.

Question 33

Lorena suffers from major depressive disorder. All else being equal, Lorena's chances of experiencing a cardiac event are increased by ______. She ______ reduce this risk if she exercises extensively.

A) 15%; can
B) 15%; cannot
C) 30%; can
D) 30%; cannot

Question 34

Depression increases the risk of a heart attack as much as obesity does.

Question 35

People are MOST vulnerable to illness in the alarm stage of the general adaptation syndrome.