Here’s a knowledge organizer I’ve created of the most essential terms for stress and health psychology in an introductory psychology course. These knowledge organizers are designed to help you identify the most important factual knowledge you need to have in order to engage in the more challenging activities of discussing, … Read More
Control, Choice, Blame, & Stress
In this video I discuss the downsides of perceived control and choice and how we assign blame when things don’t go our way. I describe Sherman James’s idea of John Henryism, review the concept of locus of control, and consider how thinking of stress as a cause of illness may … Read More
The Stress Response & HPA Axis
In this video I describe the stress response in more detail, including possible gender differences in reaction to threats. Shelley Taylor proposed the tend–and–befriend response to refer to a female tendency to focus on relationships, empathy, and group cohesion in response to threats. Next I describe how the stress response … Read More
What is Stress?
In this video I discuss how we define stress. I begin with Walter Cannon’s “fight or flight” response and the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Next I discuss the distinction between stressors and the stress response. I consider Holmes and Rahe’s Social Readjustment Rating Scale for comparing the severity … Read More
What is Stress?
You’re undoubtedly familiar with the concept of stress, but like many psychological variables we’ve seen, you may find it difficult to come up with a precise definition. What exactly is stress and how can we go about measuring it Walter Cannon coined the term “fight or flight response” to consider … Read More