Deck 12: Emotions, Stress, and Health

Question 1

Studies carried out by Silvan Tompkins on the emotional responses of human infants indicated that infants

A) who are presented with identical stimuli will show completely unique responses.
B) will quickly learn to use emotions as a way of getting reinforcers.
C) seem "prewired" to respond emotionally to certain stimuli.
D) ignore intense stimuli unless they have learned to be fearful.

Answer 1

seem "prewired" to respond emotionally to certain stimuli.

Question 2

A four-month-old baby is participating in an experiment in which he is repeatedly shown the photograph of a man frowning. After repeated exposures to this photograph, he loses interest. If the baby is like other infants who respond in similar situations, when a new photograph showing the same man with a frightened expression is presented he will

A) cry.
B) search for his mother.
C) look away.
D) show renewed interest.

Answer 2

show renewed interest.

Question 3

When a grandfather smiles at his young granddaughter, she responds by moving toward him. If he looks angry, she is likely to ________, suggesting that ________.

A) also move toward him; she does not know the difference between these expressions
B) also move toward him; her behavior is unaffected by emotional expressions
C) move away; she can recognize and understand the meaning of these expressions
D) move away; her behavior is unaffected by emotional expressions

Answer 3

move away; she can recognize and understand the meaning of these expressions

Question 4

When Paul Ekman came up with his list of basic emotional expressions, he did NOT include

A) fear.
B) embarrassment.
C) surprise.
D) anger.

Question 5

A study reported in your textbook demonstrated the contrast between what people in the United States and Japan consider proper behavioral displays for pain. Participants in both cultures completed the Appropriate Pain Behavior Questionnaire (APBQ). Results revealed that

A) Japanese participants provided lower scores on the APBQ: they indicated less approval for open emotional expressions of pain.
B) Japanese participants provided higher scores on the APBQ: they indicated more approval for open emotional expressions of pain.
C) both the Japanese and American participants had similar scores on the ABPQ: both indicated less approval for open emotional expressions of pain.
D) both the Japanese and American participants had similar scores on the ABPQ: both indicated more approval for men's emotional displays than women's displays.

Question 6

In a study described in the textbook, the researchers attributed Japanese participants' views on what are considered proper behavioral displays of pain to traditional

A) stoicism.
B) penance.
C) practices.
D) skills.

Question 7

The operation of the autonomic nervous system during emotional responses is complex. With ________ stimulation the sympathetic division is more active; with ________ stimulation the parasympathetic division is more active.

A) mild, pleasant; mild, unpleasant
B) strong, pleasant; strong, unpleasant
C) mild, unpleasant; mild, pleasant
D) strong, unpleasant; strong, pleasant

Question 8

In the context of emotion, the physiological changes that accompany the release of the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine from the adrenal glands

A) "turn off" the action of the sympathetic nervous system.
B) reduce any emotional response to stimulation.
C) prepare the body for potential danger.
D) calm the body after an emergency has passed.

Question 9

The reason why a person continues to be aroused for some time after an emergency has passed is because

A) the person is not certain whether the source of threat may return.
B) the emergency reaction system never actually shuts down.
C) epinephrine and norepinephrine may still be circulating in the bloodstream.
D) the parasympathetic system does not operate consistently in the same fashion each and every time.

Question 10

Does a particular emotional experience produce a distinct pattern of activity in the autonomic nervous system? Cross-cultural researchers would argue that

A) the answer is no.
B) the answer is yes.
C) no answer can be given because this question is unanswerable.
D) this is a question for the physiologist, not the cross-cultural psychologist.

Question 11

The approach to emotions taken by the early psychologist William James seemed to run counter to common sense. According to James,

A) emotions are experienced after the body reacts.
B) people feel emotions when what happens is expected.
C) people will respond only when they are not emotional.
D) behavioral responses follow emotional responses.

Question 12

Mrs. James feels sad. She asks her husband William for his advice on how she can reduce her feelings of melancholy. If William James is the famous psychologist and co-developer of the James-Lange theory of emotion, he should probably suggest that his wife

A) start smiling and giggling.
B) tell him about her problems.
C) visit a hospital that treats AIDS patients.
D) try estrogen therapy.

Question 13

Walter Cannon and other critics of the James-Lange theory of emotion based their attacks on all of the following EXCEPT that

A) autonomic nervous system responses happen too slowly to be involved in emotional responses.
B) animals continue to respond emotionally after their viscera are separated from the central nervous system.
C) visceral activity is irrelevant for emotional experience.
D) there is independence of bodily and psychological responses when an emotion is experienced.

Question 14

You awaken from your daydream to hear your instructor say that an emotion-arousing stimulus has two simultaneous effects, causing bodily arousal via the sympathetic nervous system and a subjective experience via the cortex. No doubt the instructor is talking about the ________ theory of emotion.

A) James-Lange
B) Lazarus-Schachter
C) Cannon-Bard
D) Gamma-amino

Question 15

In an experiment described in the textbook, male participants who had just crossed either a safe or dangerous bridge were interviewed by a female researcher and asked to write stories about an ambiguous picture that included a woman. The researchers found that the men who had crossed the dangerous bridge wrote ________ stories with sexual imagery and were ________ likely to call the female interviewer.

A) more; more
B) less; less
C) more; less
D) less; more

Question 16

One problem with the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion is that when one experiences strong arousal without any obvious cause, such arousal tends to be

A) ignored.
B) interpreted as neutral.
C) interpreted as positive.
D) interpreted as negative.

Question 17

An individual will sometimes experience a strong feeling of liking attached to certain stimuli but not know consciously why. This individual's experience is most closely related to the findings of ________ in his research on emotions.

A) Stanley Schachter
B) Richard Lazarus
C) Walter Cannon
D) Robert Zajonc

Question 18

With respect to the role of cognitive appraisal in emotional experience, it is probably most reasonable to conclude that

A) the research evidence shows that cognitive appraisal is not a valid phenomenon.
B) cognitive appraisal is an important process, but not the only one.
C) people first respond instinctively, then search for cognitive explanations.
D) cognitive appraisal is of least value in explaining responses to ambiguous or novel situations.

Question 19

Research suggests that negative moods

A) produce more detailed and effortful thinking.
B) detract from concentration.
C) produce poorer memory.
D) detract from mental agility.

Question 20

Research has shown that

A) genetics has an important impact on individual differences in subjective well-being.
B) life experience has little if any impact on individual differences in subjective well-being.
C) social relationships have little lasting influence on subjective well-being.
D) judgments of subjective well-being are based on positive emotions alone.

Question 21

A criminal is in a police lineup. He is breathing quickly, his heart is racing, and his blood pressure is sky-high. In addition, his stomach feels bad. The symptoms of stress that he is experiencing are produced by the

A) autonomic nervous system.
B) thalamus.
C) stress moderators.
D) immune system.

Question 22

In an emergency, the autonomic nervous system is responsible for producing all of the following effects EXCEPT that of

A) signaling the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine and norepinephrine.
B) stimulating the release of sugar from the liver into the blood.
C) stimulating the thyroid to make more energy available to the body.
D) having the spleen release more red corpuscles to aid in clotting.

Question 23

Also known as the "stress hormone," ________ stimulates the adrenal cortex and signals various organs to release about thirty other hormones, each of which plays a role in the body's response to stress.

A) adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH)
B) thyrotropic hormone (TTH)
C) epinephrine
D) norepinephrine

Question 24

A recent analysis by health psychologist Shelley Taylor suggests that physiological responses to stress may have different consequences for females than for males. Specifically, she suggests that females

A) experience fight but not flight.
B) are more likely to experience flight than fight.
C) experience a tend-and-befriend response instead of fight-or-flight.
D) experience both the fight-or-flight response as well as a tend-and-befriend response.

Question 25

Hans Selye discovered that when the body is chronically stressed, the increased production of "stress hormones" can lead to

A) a generalized feeling of well-being.
B) a compromising of the immune system.
C) increased efficiency of the general adaptation syndrome.
D) a reduced likelihood of future disease.

Question 26

Research has shown that how a person interprets stressful events

A) can affect the body's physiological responses.
B) has very little to do with the amount of stress that is experienced.
C) is not as important as the physiological effects of stress.
D) is determined by the person's genetic inheritance.

Question 27

Research on the relationship between major changes in life situations and stress suggests that

A) both pleasant and unpleasant life changes may be sources of stress.
B) only negative life changes contribute to stress.
C) changes in life situations appear not to be related to stress.
D) positive life changes are actually more stressful than negative life changes.

Question 28

Suppose you were a participant in the redevelopment of the Social Readjustment Rating Scale. You would have been asked to

A) list all of the stressful events that had occurred in your life.
B) describe how you would react in a number of ambiguous social situations.
C) rate a series of individuals on the basis of how well-adjusted they appeared to be.
D) estimate the amount of readjustment required for a variety of life changes.

Question 29

In a study described in the textbook, procrastinators and nonprocrastinators who were enrolled in a health psychology class and had been assigned a paper due late in the semester were compared. Researchers found that the procrastinators

A) had more symptoms of physical illness early in the semester.
B) had fewer symptoms of physical illness early in the semester.
C) had fewer symptoms of physical illness late in the semester.
D) received better grades on their papers.

Question 30

Posttraumatic stress disorder usually includes combinations of all of the following symptoms EXCEPT

A) emotional numbing in relation to everyday events.
B) persistent reexperiences of the traumatic events.
C) complete inability to remember or to respond to the event in any way.
D) feelings of alienation from others.

Question 31

Most people have both positive and negative experiences in their lives. When researchers have looked at the relationship between happy events (uplifts) and irritating events (hassles), they have found that the inflammatory factors indicative of cardiovascular disease

A) are only affected by uplifts.
B) are only affected by undesirable life events.
C) are affected positively by daily hassles and negatively by uplifts.
D) respond in a positive way to uplifts by decreasing these factors and in a negative way to hassles by increasing these factors.

Question 32

When a man's wife approaches him about the many problems in their marriage, he is puzzled and wonders privately whether his wife's concerns should cause him stress. According to Richard Lazarus, the man is engaged in

A) emotional appraisal.
B) primary cognitive appraisal.
C) secondary cognitive appraisal.
D) denial.

Question 33

Days before a student has to make a presentation in class, she works out a plan for relieving the anxiety associated with giving the presentation. The student's actions best illustrate

A) primary appraisal.
B) the residual stress pattern.
C) anticipatory coping.
D) Type A behavior.

Question 34

A man's wife of 25 years has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has been given no more than three months to live. As a way to help the husband reduce his stress, you should recommend that he

A) try to distance himself from his wife.
B) adopt a problem-directed coping style to reduce his stress.
C) adopt an emotion-focused coping style as a way to reduce his stress.
D) use the fight-or-flight response.

Question 35

If one's stressors are controllable, coping techniques that are ________ will be most useful; if one's stressors are uncontrollable, it is useful to try coping techniques that are ________.

A) emotion-focused; problem-directed
B) cognitive; somatically-focused
C) problem-directed; emotion-focused
D) somatically-focused; cognitive

Question 36

If you want to effectively deal with stress, the general rule to keep in mind is that

A) it is better always to take direct action.
B) you should learn and consistently use a single coping strategy in all situations.
C) the more coping strategies you have and use, the better.
D) having self-confidence can only make the task of coping more difficult.

Question 37

In helping a student deal with her fear of speaking in public, her counselor asks her to be aware of the origins of her fear, then identify new behaviors that negate her fear, and finally evaluate how these new behaviors are working for her. This three-phrase process describes

A) anticipatory coping.
B) stress inoculation.
C) stress inducement.
D) the stress moderator variables.

Question 38

A friend is trying to deal with her stressors. She read about a three-phase process of stress inoculation proposed by cognitive-behavior therapist Donald Meichenbaum and is seriously applying it. The first thing she will try to do is to

A) identify new behaviors that will negate her self-defeating behaviors.
B) appraise the consequences of any adaptive behaviors she emits.
C) redefine her problems in terms of causes and results.
D) avoid putting herself down.

Question 39

A man believes that the course of his chronic illness cannot be directly influenced by the attitude he takes toward his illness and that only the advances of medical science can help him. Based on the research on the effects of perceived control, it is most likely that he will

A) demonstrate superior psychological adjustment to his illness.
B) increase his chances for a poor psychological adjustment.
C) die from his illness.
D) show both physical and psychological benefits from this realistic approach.

Question 40

One study examined the impact of informational and emotional support for men and women who were undergoing facial surgery. Results revealed that people who had

A) more social support anticipated their surgery with more anxiety, required more anesthesia during surgery and had longer hospital stays.
B) more social support anticipated their surgery with less anxiety, required less anesthesia, and had briefer hospital stays.
C) less social support anticipated their surgery with more enthusiasm, required more anesthesia, and had briefer hospital stays.
D) less social support anticipated their surgery with more sadness, required less anesthesia, and had briefer hospital stays.

Question 41

Researchers try to identify which types of social supports provide the most benefit for individuals experiencing specific events. They have found that both informational and emotional supports are effective for different people in different situations. Generally, what appears to matter in terms of support is

A) the match between what an individual wants and what the individual gets.
B) that the individual accepts and benefits from whatever support is offered.
C) almost always informational support; emotional support is not critical to recovery.
D) almost always emotional support; informational support is not critical to recovery.

Question 42

Research has demonstrated that people can experience ________ from deeply ________ events.

A) positive outcomes and personal growth; negative
B) negative outcomes and blocked personal growth; positive
C) positive outcomes and retarded personal growth; positive
D) negative outcomes and personal growth; negative

Question 43

In a study on a group of adolescents diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, researchers collected information regarding those patients' perception of benefits of their illnesses. They found that

A) adolescents who found the most benefits were more able to cope with stressful events and keep up with their treatments.
B) adolescents who found the least benefits were more able to cope with stressful events and keep up with their treatments.
C) there were essentially no "benefits" that adolescents were able to find with being diagnosed with diabetes.
D) the ability to find benefits with one's diagnosis had no measurable impact on the adolescents' ability to cope with stressful events and to keep up with their treatments.

Question 44

In a study of 7- to 10-year-old children who survived Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, researchers found that the children who experienced the

A) most posttraumatic growth were the ones whose thoughts turned frequently back to the original traumatic events.
B) most posttraumatic growth were the ones whose thoughts rarely turned back to the original traumatic events.
C) most posttraumatic stress were the ones whose thoughts turned frequently back to the original traumatic events.
D) least posttraumatic stress were the ones whose thoughts rarely turned back to the original traumatic events.

Question 45

The general goal of health psychology is to

A) encourage individuals throughout the world to get regular medical checkups.
B) use psychological knowledge to promote wellness and positive health behaviors.
C) use the principles of medicine to treat the physical body as separate from the psyche.
D) eliminate the presence of Western scientific thinking in the medical community.

Question 46

In the context of health psychology, all of the following are best described as lifestyle factors that can be modified to decrease death rates EXCEPT

A) eating foods high in fat and cholesterol.
B) smoking.
C) driving without seat belts.
D) improving public health standards.

Question 47

If you were presenting a talk on AIDS and HIV infection, you should be sure to mention that

A) the HIV virus is not airborne and requires direct access to the bloodstream.
B) relatively few people are actually at risk for AIDS.
C) the time between infection with the virus and appearance of symptoms is approximately thirty days.
D) most college students are likely to be HIV positive.

Question 48

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests that

A) for substantial health benefits, adults should do at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise.
B) too much attention has been given to the possible benefits of regular exercise.
C) mental health should not be included in the category of health status.
D) it is unrealistic to attempt to increase the span of healthy life.

Question 49

Imagine for a moment that you are a famous physician and have just made a brilliant diagnosis. According to researchers in health psychology, one of your biggest problems is likely to be

A) a difference of opinion between you and your patient concerning the diagnosis.
B) the patient's perception of your prescribed treatment regimen as unrealistic.
C) getting your patient to adhere to a treatment regimen.
D) the occurrence of symptoms in other family members.

Question 50

Applying the suggestion of health psychologist James Pennebaker, it would be best if people

A) try actively to suppress their negative thoughts and feelings.
B) convert to a religion that advocates silence.
C) tell others about their personal traumas and shameful experiences.
D) chose psychological treatments instead of medical treatments.

Question 51

Based on the research of Christina Maslach, it would seem that health-care workers may be prime candidates for job burnout. Individuals in this profession are LEAST likely to reduce the effects of this problem if their jobs are changed so that they

A) work as part of a team rather than handling all of their cases individually.
B) have a chance to withdraw temporarily from high-stress situations.
C) are allowed to spend more time in continuous contact with their clients.
D) get some positive feedback for their efforts.

Question 52

The textbook suggests a list of "year-round resolutions" as guidelines to better mental health. This advice includes all the following EXCEPT to

A) have several close friends to share feelings, joys, and worries.
B) give yourself and others only constructive criticism.
C) acknowledge setbacks but move on.
D) focus only on the present, forgetting the past and ignoring the future.

Question 53

Integration of the neural with the hormonal aspects of emotional arousal is controlled by __________ and the __________.

Question 54

Charles Darwin believed that emotions were a product of evolution and were universal. Show how the research of Paul Ekman supported this conclusion and how culture constrains emotional expression. Then, summarize three major theoretical approaches to emotions.

Question 55

If you are like most people, you have experienced stress in your life. What is going on in your body when you are in the midst of the fight-or-flight response? How did Hans Selye describe the body's reaction to stress? Looking at stress from a more psychological perspective, what have psychologists learned about the importance of cognitive appraisal and the various types of coping responses?