PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Blood Sugar, Walter Bradford Cannon, Hans Selye
Document Summary
Lecture 4 - stress: conceptual and historical issues. Stress is a negative emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological, cognitive, and behavioral changes that are directed toward either altering the stressful event or accommodating to its effects. These stressors are things that all animals (human and not) might list as stressful, eg. heat, cold, pain, fatigue, injury, hunger, predators. These stressors are things that generally only humans would consider stressful, eg. grades, job security, money, relationships, traffic. These stressors demand immediate attention and don"t last long. These stressors do not require immediate attention, but last a long time and are a constant source of worry. Increase in pulse rate and blood pressure. Increase in amount of blood pumped to skeletal muscles. Changes are for fight or flight behavior. Helpful in short term, but disrupts normal functioning. After injecting rats with ovarian extract, selye observed: After injecting rats with saline solution, selye observed the exact same things.
