Deck 13: Health and Disease

Question 1

McEwen (2002) suggests that the concept of stress is ambiguous; instead, we should think of our bodies as _____ systems that are designed to adapt to change.

A) adaptive
B) allostatic
C) homeostatic
D) sympathetic

Answer 1

allostatic

Question 2

Gluckman and Hanson (2005) suggest that predictive adaptive responses (PARs) have a number of characteristics. Which of the following is NOT one of these?

A) PARs can lead to disease if the predicted environment does not occur.
B) PARs confer a survival advantage in the predicted environment.
C) PARs occur mainly in early fetal development.
D) PARs result in permanent changes in physiology or structure.

Answer 2

PARs occur mainly in early fetal development.

Question 3

During times of stress, the _____ nervous system releases norepinephrine and epinephrine into the blood stream, increasing heart and breathing rate, dilating the pupils and redirecting blood flow to the muscles.

A) parasympathetic
B) peripheral
C) somatic
D) sympathetic

Answer 3

sympathetic

Question 4

Smoking in mothers can lead to obesity in her offspring because

A) of socio-economic status effects.
B) the genes for smoking and obesity are linked.
C) smokers also tend to be overeaters.
D) smoking leads to less nutrition for the fetus.

Question 5

General Adaptation Syndrome involves three stages. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

A) The alarm stage, which is the body's initial reaction to stress.
B) The exhaustion stage, in which bodily resources are depleted.
C) The recovery stage, in which bodily resources are replenished.
D) The resistance stage, representing an adjustment to stress.

Question 6

In terms of infection, it is not only humans that are evolving but also bacteria and viruses; this is a problem of infection and

A) coevolution
B) constraint
C) mismatch
D) tradeoff

Question 7

Nesse (2005) suggests that part of the reason why men do not live as long as women is that those factors that support ____ success in males may actually be at odds with longevity.

A) competitive
B) cognitive
C) defensive
D) reproductive

Question 8

One way the brain prepares the body for action is through the _____ nervous system, which releases catecholamines such as epinephrine and norepinephrine.

A) allostatic
B) autonomic
C) fight-or-flight
D) peripheral

Question 9

Our physiological structures have developed over a long period of evolutionary time; new structures are simply added to old ones, and thus these newer structures are _____ by what was there previously.

A) constrained
B) developed
C) guided
D) supported

Question 10

There is a close connection between the environment and the manner in which the organism develops, and this is used by the organism to predict future conditions and needs; when this prediction is not met and the organism finds itself in a different environment, then _____ may result.

A) defect
B) disease
C) mismatch
D) tradeoff

Question 11

In general terms, the _____ nervous system excites the body, preparing it for action, whereas the _____ nervous system calms the body back down.

A) central, peripheral
B) motor, sensory
C) somatic, autonomic
D) sympathetic, parasympathetic

Question 12

Some _____, such as those that protect against malaria, also allow for other disorders such as sickle cell anemia.

A) defects
B) defenses
C) designs
D) diseases

Question 13

Data from hospitals during the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-1945 have shown that a brief period of intense deprivation in an otherwise well-nourished population can result in a mismatch that leaves these individuals susceptible to future

A) immune disorders.
B) infectious diseases.
C) obesity and diabetes.
D) psychological disorders.

Question 14

There is _____ genetic diversity among humans who live past the age of 70 compared with that among those who are 30.

A) about the same
B) almost no
C) less
D) more

Question 15

Children who experience trauma in the form of abuse, death of a parent, or divorce show larger stress responses to _____ stress later in life.

A) imagined
B) physical
C)social
D) uncontrollable

Question 16

In Canon's theory of homeostasis, _____ was seen as the situation in which physiological systems deviated from the set point.

A) allostasis
B) internal milieu
C) senescence
D) stress

Question 17

The HPA axis, which involves pathways from the brain to the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands, releases stored _____ for immediate use by the body.

A) adrenaline
B) antigens
C) energy
D) hormones

Question 18

Fever clearly serves a purpose, namely to _____, and reducing the fever through available medications may actually lengthen the time one is sick.

A) kill germs
B) produce antigens
C) remove pathogens
D) warm the body

Question 19

No one wants to be sick or experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, or cough; yet, from a health perspective, these are basic _____ mechanisms designed to remove or kill pathogens.

A) defense
B) detection
C) reaction
D) resistance

Question 20

Allostatic load has been discussed by McEwen (1998) in terms of four particular situations. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

A) Allostatic load can be increased by frequent exposure to stressors.
B) Allostatic load can be increased when an individual does not habituate.
C) Nonresponse to stress produces a suppression of other systems.
D) Not all individuals respond the same to changing situations.

Question 21

The _____ response has been critical throughout our evolutionary history, but today, in our different social structure, it may lead to stress-related disorders.

A) allostatic
B) autonomic
C) flight-or-flight
D) tend-and-befriend

Question 22

The faster we come up with responses to pathogens, the faster those pathogens change. This phenomenon is known as the _____ effect.

Question 23

Researchers initially did not see differences in male and female responses to stress because

A) females were not studied.
B) the differences are small.
C) these are modern differences.
D) the technology did not exist.

Question 24

A _____ is a physiological manifestation that serves no purpose; a seizure may be an example of such a process.

Question 25

A variety of studies suggest that early _____ relationships help influence later reactions to stress; for example, rat pups that received positive maternal care showed fewer negative hormonal responses to stress.

A) attachment
B) childhood
C) family
D) parental

Question 26

The basic neuroendocrine responses to stress appear to be similar in males and females; however, testosterone levels are higher in the male brain, whereas oxytocin levels are higher in the female brain. Thus, males produce more _____ responses to stress, but females show more _____ responses.

A) homeostatic, allostatic
B) hormonal, non-hormonal
C) physical, social
D) sympathetic, parasympathetic

Question 27

The immune system is designed to attack whatever is not you; that is why you have _____, which are simply reactions of the immune system attacking what it considers a pathogen.

A) allergies
B) antibodies
C) defenses
D) vaccines

Question 28

A _____ serves an initial purpose; a cough, for example, is designed to expel foreign material from the respiratory tract.

Question 29

In a provocative study, Bach (2002) asked whether the decreased incidence of infectious diseases through vaccines is causally related to the _____ incidence of immunologic diseases.

Question 30

We have _____, including the situation in which the very process that is protective also causes problems. For example, our autoimmune system is designed to destroy pathogens. However, asthma and a variety of other disorders result when the autoimmune system overreacts.

Question 31

When discussing life expectancy from an evolutionary or biological perspective, _____ is the technically correct term for aging.

Question 32

Evidence suggests that people whose jobs are characterized by _____ display more symptoms of a variety of disorders, including heart disease.

A) high demand and high control
B) high demand but low control
C) low demand and low control
D) low demand but high control

Question 33

People of Northern European descent do not lose the ability to digest lactose, as do most humans; were an adult from Asia to drink milk, he or she would feel ill and have genetic symptoms of bloating and diarrhea resulting from a _____ between his or her genetic makeup and the food source, whereas those from Northern Europe would not.

Question 34

Neel (1962) suggested that certain genes may be advantageous in times of famine, in that they reduce energy expenditure; this idea became known as the _____ hypothesis.

Question 35

Taylor (2002) proposes that females have evolved a tend-and-befriend response to stress that includes four parts. Which of the following is NOT part of this response?

A) Females respond more emotionally to stressful situations.
B) Females respond to maximize survival of both themselves and offspring.
C) Females respond to stress by nurturing and protecting offspring.
D) Females respond to stress by seeking social contact with their social group.

Question 36

Barker (1967) proposed that a mother's nutrition during early pregnancy could influence both fetal and infant growth and, in turn, create a situation in which obesity and diabetes would result later in life; this idea is known as the _____ hypothesis.

Question 37

_____ behaviors are the normal response to infection, just as fear is a normal response to a threat; these behavioral changes are believed to enable ill individuals to cope better with the infection.

A) Allostatic
B) Defensive
C) Homeostatic
D) Sickness

Question 38

Like many other protective mechanisms, such as reacting to a stick as if it were a snake, sickness-related mechanisms err on the side of being overprotective. For example, the immune system response is sometimes greater than necessary for the challenge. Nesse (2005) refers to this as the _____ principle.

Question 39

Gluckman and Hanson (2005) suggest that organisms make _____ based on expectations about the environments their offspring will live in; that is, current environmental conditions produce changes in an organism's development that will help the organism match future environmental factors.

Question 40

According to the social shaping hypothesis (Taylor and Gonzaga, 2006), early social relationships have three functions. Which of the following is NOT one of these?

A) Social relationships calibrate how systems involved in stress responses will develop.
B) Social relationships regulate the stress response of day-to-day experiences.
C) Social relationships serve as a source of information about the environment.
D) Social relationships teach stress-coping skills and stress-avoiding behaviors.

Question 41

The overall stress reaction has been referred to as the _____ response; this involves the sympathetic nervous system releasing norepinephrine and epinephrine into the blood stream, increasing heart rate, dilating pupils, increasing breathing rate, and reducing blood flow to organs not involved in action.

Question 42

Discuss the concept of homeostasis and its relationship to stress. What is the fight-or-flight response, and how is this regulated through the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems? What are the three stages of the General Adaptive Syndrome?

Question 43

Explain the thrifty genotype hypothesis and the thrifty phenotype hypothesis. Discuss the evidence supporting them.

Question 44

McEwen (2002) addressed the paradoxical nature of the stress response, suggesting that the term stress be replaced with the term _____, which refers to the body's ability to achieve stability through change.

Question 45

One pathway the brain has for influencing peripheral physiology is the _____, which innervates a variety of organs with the basic consequence of preparing the body for action.

Question 46

Nesse (2005) suggests that there are six ways to think about the relationship between health and disease in evolutionary terms. Discuss each.

Question 47

Canon (1915) developed the concept of _____ to refer to the manner in which a physiological system tended to center on a set point, similar to the way a thermostat regulates the temperature in a building.

Question 48

One pathway the brain uses for preparing the body for action is called the _____; it involves cells in the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands, which help convert stored fats and carbohydrates into energy that can be used immediately.

Question 49

Taylor (2002) suggests that the flight-or-flight response better describes a human male's response to stress; for females, a better descriptor would be _____, indicating that females have evolved behaviors to maximize the survival of both themselves and their offspring.

Question 50

Selye used the term "stress" as a way of organizing physiological responses to a variety of challenges, including heat, cold, pain, noise, hard work, and so on; one of his early findings was that the body reacts similarly to a variety of different stressors, and he called this response _____.

Question 51

What is allostasis? What is allostatic load, and what are the four situations that lead to it? Also discuss social stress and uncontrollable stress. Does fight-or-flight apply to females?

Question 52

Discuss the seven features of predictive adaptive responses (PARs) as proposed by Gluckman and Hanson (2005).

Question 53

The cumulative wear and tear on the body as a result of responding to stressful conditions is called _____.

Question 54

According to Gluckman and Hanson (2005), _____ in humans is one example of a health condition that results from PARs, in that humans evolved in a nutritional and energy environment that was different from the one we live in today.