PSYCH 3830 Lecture 6: Trauma and Stress
Document Summary
Stress response to stressor: biological and psychological, negative vs positive, distress losing someone close to you, eustress planning a wedding, stress and the dsm. Stress can be a contributing factor to many of the psychological disorders: depression, eating disorder, anxiety. Some main criteria for the disorder: factors affecting the experience of stress, nature of the stressors, relevance, how important is the stressor to your life, ex: going through divorce; losing job; flunking out of school. Very relevant: length, how long have you been experiencing stress, number, how many stressors are present in your life, predictability, unpredictable events more stressful. Characteristics of the person: personality, optimistic vs pessimistic, o may look at it as opportunity for growth (going back to school; moving to a new place) Fight or flight response: emotional and physical response to a stressor that involves either attacking or avoiding the threat, most people hide or run, short term highly adaptive, chronically aroused physical and emotional damage.
