Экзаменационный билет №7

Stress.

Stress involves a perception of threat to physical or psychological well-being and the individual’s reaction to that threat. One of the first researchers to explore the consequences of stress was Hans Selye. In 1936, he reported that animals responded to a variety of stressors, ranging from extreme cold to injection of a small amount of poison, with the same physiological pattern. Selye called this psychological response to stress the general adaptational syndrome and divided it into three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion

The alarm stage began at the first sign of stress, as the animal’s body tried to defend itself by mobilizing the endocrine glands. In particular, the adrenal glands became enlarged and secreted higher levels of hormone adrenaline into the bloodstream. This in turn led to a variety of physiological changes, including a breakdown of some tissue into energy-giving sugars.

After several days of stress, the animal would adapt and its body chemistry would return to normal. This resistance stage was only temporary, however. If the stress continued, the adrenal glands again became enlarged and lost their stores of adrenal hormones. In this final stage – exhaustion – the endocrine glands, the kidneys, and other internal organs were damaged, and the animal ultimately died.

Inspired by these findings, many researchers went on systematically to expose animals to various types of stressful stimuli and to chart their precise physiological responses. But scientists who chose to study human responses to stress were forced to rely on Mother Nature to choose people who would be subjected to the greatest physical and emotional strain.

Экзаменационный билет №8

Stress and illness

A large number of studies have shown that people who have recently experienced a great deal of stress are likely to develop all sorts of psychosomatic and physical diseases. However, it is important to emphasize that while a relationship between stress and illness is quite consistent, it is rather modest in size. Stress is one of a large number of factors involved in disease; many people who are not particularly stressed get sick, and many others go through very stressful periods and remain healthy. This finding leads directly to a fascinating question of individual differences: Why do some people get sick when they are stressed while others do not?

It is a fact of life that people experience stress for different reasons. What you perceive as stressful may not bother your best friend at all, while you may not even notice a situation that drives him wild. External events do not cause stress; our reaction to a stimulation or our personal appraisal of it is what matters.

One reason for these individual differences derives from the coping mechanisms people employ during difficult situations. Some people have personal characteristics that enable them to deal with stressful situations and that ultimately protect them from negative effects on health. For example, some people are able to look on the bright side of things. Another adaptive personal characteristic is flexibility. Flexibility helps in coping with stress by giving alternative ways of responding. Fatalism is another personal characteristic that affects coping. If you just accept a situation, saying there is nothing you can do, you are less likely to feel in control and the stress will be greater.