PSY 139 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Antigen, Antibody, Cardiac Muscle

• School: Hofstra University
• Department: Psychology (PSY)
• Course: PSY 139
• Professor: Serper

Document Summary

Chapter 5: stress and physical and mental health. The field of health psychology is concerned with the effects of stress and other psychological factors in the development and maintenance of physical problems. Heath psychology is a subspecialty within behavioral medicine. Within behavioral medicine there is also a focus on the effects of stress on the body, including the immune, endocrine, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular systems. Exposure to extreme and traumatic stress may overwhelm the coping resources of otherwise apparently healthy people, leading to mental disorders such as posttruamatic stress disorder (ptsd). This chapter discusses the role that stress plays in the development of physical and mental disorders. Stress can also occur in more than one form-- not just as a simple catastrophe but also as a continuous force that exceeds the person"s capability of managing it: stress and the dsm. The relationship between stress and psychopathology is considered so important that the role of stress is recognized in diagnostic formulations.