Chapter 1

MULTIPLE CHOICE

	1.	Walter Cannon’s term ____ refers to the biological self-regulation process that enables an organism to adapt to life’s demands.
a.	dynamic organism feedback	c.	homeostasis	
b.	physiological stress reactions	d.	fight-or-flight reaction	

ANS:	C	PTS:	1	REF:	What is Stress?	

	2.	Selye did not believe that all stress was negative. In fact, he referred to negative stress as ____ and coined the term ____ to refer to positive stress.
a.	distress, eustress	c.	threat, challenge	
b.	eustress, uplift	d.	distress, wellness	

ANS:	A	PTS:	1	REF:	What is Stress?	

	3.	The idea that chronic stressors can be detrimental to one’s health was formalized by the stress research pioneer Hans Selye, who proposed a three stage model of chronic stress called the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). The three stages of the GAS are ____.
a.	fight-or-flight, alarm, and resistance	
b.	alarm, exhaustion, and relaxation	
c.	fight-or-flight, resistance, and exhaustion	
d.	alarm, resistance, and exhaustion	

ANS:	D	PTS:	1	REF:	What is Stress?	

	4.	Holmes and Rahe created an instrument called the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) to measure life change events. In their model of stress, higher life change event scores for the last six months to a year indicate a person has a greater likelihood of ____.
a.	suicidal behavior	c.	living a shorter lifespan	
b.	developing an illness	d.	pessimism	

ANS:	B	PTS:	1	REF:	What is Stress?	

	5.	In the ____ model of health, the sick person may be seen as a victim but may also be viewed as having contributed to the illness through engaging in unhealthy behaviors.	
a.	biomedical	c.	psychosomatic	
b.	biopsychosocial	d.	behavioral	

ANS:	B	PTS:	1	REF:	What is Health?	

	6.	____ , inspired by Sigmund Freud’s idea that repressed memories and intrapsychic conflict can lead to somatic conversions expressed as physical symptoms, broke rank with the conventional medical thinking of the time and became one of the first medical areas to challenge the mind-body duality aspect of the biomedical model.	
a.	Psychoanalysis	
b.	Illness prevention	
c.	Somatic interpretation of physical agents	
d.	Psychosomatic medicine	

ANS:	D	PTS:	1	REF:	What is Health?	

	7.	Persons with ____ are more motivated to engage in health-promoting behaviors like physical exercise and avoid health-destructive behaviors like tobacco smoking.
a.	strong SOCs	c.	positive SOCs	
b.	weak SOCs	d.	balanced SOCs	

ANS:	A	PTS:	1	REF:	Antonovsky's Salutogenic Model

	8.	Stressors produce ____ changes that can be detrimental to both our physical and psychological health.
a.	cognitive, emotional, physiological, and behavioral	
b.	cognitive, genetic, and psychological	
c.	physiological, pathogenic, and behavioral	
d.	genetic, physiological, behavioral, and cognitive	

ANS:	A	PTS:	1	REF:	The Impact of Stress on Health and Performance

	9.	The autonomic nervous system is responsible for enervating the organ systems of the body, and with a few important exceptions (e.g., organs of the gastrointestinal system), its ____ branch is generally responsible for the arousal response of these organs.
a.	parasympathetic	c.	sympathetic	
b.	sensory	d.	primary physiological	

ANS:	C	PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	10.	Sympathetic nervous system activation in concert with adrenal gland catecholamine secretions such as ____ (known also as adrenalin) and ____ (known also as noradrenalin) prime the body to physically fight off threats to safety or to flee from these threats through such activities as increasing cardiac output and blood pressure that transit additional blood to the brain and large muscles of the body where the blood is most acutely needed.
a.	cortisol, norepinephrine	c.	cortisol, glucocorticoids	
b.	epinephrine, norepinephrine	d.	ephedrine, norephedrine	

ANS:	B	PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	11.	The ____ model suggests that many illnesses may result from an interaction of biology and the environment.
a.	diathesis-stress	c.	bio-eco	
b.	General Adaptation Syndrome	d.	multi-axial stressor	

ANS:	A	PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	12.	Cannon and Selye paved the way for research in fields like psychoendocrinology. What do psychoendocrinologists examine?
a.	The effects of psychological processes on endocrine dysfunction	
b.	The effects of endocrine dysfunction on mental processes	
c.	The relationship between stress levels and endocrine function	
d.	The relationship between psychological processes and endocrine function	

ANS:	D	PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	13.	Following an adaptive fight-or-flight reaction, the homeostatic mechanisms return the body back to normal ____.
a.	baseline	c.	homeostatic rest	
b.	homeostasis	d.	pre-reactive functioning	

ANS:	A	PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	14.	During the fight-or-flight response, hormones such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol are secreted from the hormonal system to stimulate the release of ____.
a.	awareness-altering hormones	
b.	energy for action	
c.	neurotransmitters to stimulate cognitive activity	
d.	oxygen to the muscles	

ANS:	B	PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	15.	Based on various physical stressors, Hans Selye determined through autopsies that the rats in his experiments experienced common physiological patterns of change over time, such as reductions in the size of the thymus and lymph glands, enlarged adrenal cortexes, and ulcerated stomachs. He described these physiological changes as stress reactions. They were characterized as ____ because they represented common patterns to a host of different stressors.
a.	generic responses	c.	physiological responses	
b.	alarm responses	d.	non-specific responses	

ANS:	D	PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	16.	Most modern biological models of stress build on the work of Cannon and Selye by focusing on the measurement of stress reactions through ____ (i.e., epinephrine and norepinephrine) and cortisol excretions.
a.	noradrenaline	c.	catecholamine	
b.	adrenaline	d.	dopamine	

ANS:	C	PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	17.	The less our perceived amount of ____ in relation to a stressor, the more stressful we perceive the event to be.
a.	understanding	c.	orientation	
b.	control	d.	coping	

ANS:	B	PTS:	1	REF:	The Psychology of Stress

	18.	According to Lazarus, events can be appraised during primary appraisal in three possible ways. They can be seen as ____, ____, or ____.
a.	benign-stressful, distressful, indifferent	
b.	irrelevant, distressful, positive-stressful	
c.	distressful, eustressful, neutral-stressful	
d.	irrelevant, benign-positive, stressful	

ANS:	D	PTS:	1	REF:	The Psychology of Stress

	19.	____ appraisals are past or present oriented and result from appraisals of loss or damage that is happening or has already happened. The losses can be tangible such as loss of a loved one or a job, or psychological, such as loss of self-esteem.
a.	Primary-loss	c.	Harm-loss	
b.	Secondary	d.	Threat	

ANS:	C	PTS:	1	REF:	The Psychology of Stress

	20.	If we want to live the good life, we also want to build on our ____ and our sense of well-being.
a.	sense of coherence	c.	management skills	
b.	mindfulness	d.	good feelings 	

ANS:	D	PTS:	1	REF:	The Promise of Positive Psychology

SHORT ANSWER

	1.	What is the Hassles and Uplifts Scale?

ANS:	
Lazarus and his colleagues created a scale for hassles and another one for uplifts. Lazarus later developed the Hassles and Uplifts Scale which combines measures for both constructs. Examples of hassles on The Hassles Scale include misplacing things, noise, filling out forms, too many interruptions, and having to wait whereas uplifts on The Uplifts Scale include engaging in a hobby, laughing, having fun, eating out, and completing a task. The Lazarus group gave their scales to a middle-aged adult sample and reported that the sample’s top three most frequent hassles in rank order were concerns about weight, health of a family member, and rising prices of common goods and uplifts were relating well with your spouse or lover, relating well with friends, and completing a task.

PTS:	1	REF:	What is Stress?	

	2.	Holmes and Rahe created an instrument called the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS). Describe this scale and what it measures.

ANS:	
Holmes and Rahe created an instrument called the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) to measure life change events. On the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, life change events range from a low of 10 points for events like "minor violations of the law" to a high of 100 points for "death of a spouse." In their model of stress, higher life change event scores for the last 6 months to a year indicate a person has a greater likelihood of developing an illness. This idea spurred debate over whether stress is determined by objective life events or subjective appraisals of these events.

PTS:	1	REF:	What is Stress?	

	3.	What is behavioral medicine?

ANS:	
Behavioral medicine is the field of study that applies elements of the behavioral sciences to illness prevention and treatment. In practical terms, it uses a multidisciplinary approach including professionals from the medical field (e.g., preventive medicine specialists), registered dieticians, exercise physiologists, psychologists, health educators, or other professionals to assist those who wish to maximize their health goals through behavioral approaches to illness prevention. It also focuses on treatments of existing illnesses or health disorders with behavioral approaches using stand-alone interventions when appropriate or, more commonly, treatments that are designed to assist traditional medical approaches.

PTS:	1	REF:	What is Health?	

	4.	Explain the concept of wellness. What are four elements of wellness that are believed to lead to the highest level of life satisfaction?

ANS:	
Wellness encompasses a global approach to health that not only includes stress management and emotional self-regulation, but also focuses on healthy living, including exercise and proper nutrition as well as activities that promote personal growth. These may include promoting physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. When working together as a harmonic whole, these four elements of wellness are believed to lead to the highest level of life satisfaction.

PTS:	1	REF:	What is Health?	

	5.	What are generalized resistance resources (GRRs) and what function do they perform in Antonovsky’s Salutogenic Model?

ANS:	
Antonovsky considers stressors to be omnipresent. Thus, his model suggests that adaptation to our stress-filled environments involves finding inputs from resources that enable us to resist entropy or make order out of chaos (i.e., negative entropy resources). Such resources can be classified as our personal reserves (e.g., our sense of optimism), our social environment (e.g., our social relationships), and our physical environment (e.g., our physical resources like money and possessions). He called these inputs generalized resistance resources (GRRs), which serve to reduce the pressure on us to move toward the negative end of the pole, the entropic direction, when encountering stressors.	

PTS:	1	REF:	Antonovsky's Salutogenic Model

	6.	What is Antonovsky’s sense of coherence (SOC)?	

ANS:	
Generalized resistance resources (GRRs) are important in shaping our world view, or what Antonovsky referred to as our sense of coherence (SOC). Our SOC becomes a relatively stable component of our personality structure by late early adulthood. It is comprised of three integrated factors that are influenced by our life experiences referred to as comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness.	

PTS:	1	REF:	Antonovsky's Salutogenic Model

	7.	In what ways does a strong sense of coherence (SOC) benefit our health?

ANS:	
As discussed by Krotokov, a strong SOC affects our physiological systems, our motivation to engage in health- promoting behaviors, and our appraisal and coping processes. A brain with a strong SOC is more likely to send appropriate signals to the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems to resist entropic forces in the face of demands or to recover more fully when stressed. In addition, persons with strong SOCs are more motivated to engage in health-promoting behaviors like physical exercise and avoid health-destructive behaviors like tobacco smoking.

PTS:	1	REF:	Antonovsky's Salutogenic Model

	8.	What are some of the physiological reactions to stressors?

ANS:	
Physiological reactions to stressors typically involve not only the central nervous system, but also the immune system, the autonomic nervous system, and the endocrine system. These reactions may include heart rate increases, blood pressure elevation, muscle tension, dry throat and mouth, trembling, teeth grinding, cold hands and feet, headaches, weakness, fatigue, and frequent illnesses. Changes due to stressors typically have negative effects on our relationships and on our work performance. Behavioral changes such as frequent arguing, poor work performance, overeating or under-eating, and others usually set up vicious cycles that amplify stress reactions.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Impact of Stress on Health and Performance

	9.	Do negative stressors have an impact on life expectancy? Explain.

ANS:	
Eventually, negative stressors can have an impact on life expectancy itself. Unhealthy behaviors and lifestyles, many related to stress, are believed to account for many premature deaths. For instance, in the United States smoking tobacco causes approximately 80% of the lung cancer deaths for women and 90% for men. This is the bad news. The good news, however, at least in many parts of the world, is that people today who live healthy lifestyles can generally expect to live a long life.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Impact of Stress and Lifestyle on Longevity

	10.	What does living a healthy lifestyle have to do with managing stress?

ANS:	
Stress and health is a two-way street. As you will see in subsequent chapters, when under stress, we are more prone to engage in adverse health behaviors such as smoking, drinking or eating too much and paradoxically may experience disruptions in our ability to initiate or maintain health protective behaviors such as healthy eating, engaging in regular physical activity, and using relaxation strategies. The result is that we experience diminished health and well-being, which can in turn create a new set of stressors. It becomes a vicious cycle with stress contributing to poor health and poor health contributing to stress. The most effective way to manage stress is to manage lifestyle and complement it with specific stress busting strategies.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Impact of Stress and Lifestyle on Longevity

	11.	During the fight-or-flight response, how do the adrenal glands prepare us to better handle a dangerous situation?

ANS:	
During the fight-or-flight response, the adrenal glands release glucocorticoids such as cortisol that help us rapidly facilitate the conversion of food stores such as proteins and fats in the body to glucose for ready energy. In a primitive state of nature, this has adaptive value in that it helps protect us from danger by making energy stores immediately available and ready where and when needed most.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	12.	What happens to the gastrointestinal (GI) system when activated by the fight-or-flight response?

ANS:	
The digestive process stops so that GI system blood that had been collecting energy can be quickly routed to the brain and muscles. Digesting food is not very adaptive when one is about to be eaten.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	13.	What are some of the shortcomings of Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome model?

ANS:	
Though Selye’s model has intuitive appeal, it has its limitations. First, as a biological model, it does not address psychological processes such as cognitive appraisals of stressors and how they can uniquely affect one’s perceptions and coping skills. Second, Selye claimed that there was universality to stressors and their effects. In other words, all stressors should have similar effects, but this is not accurate.		

PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	14.	Explain the concept of an allostatic load and how it relates to the stages of Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome.

ANS:	
With time and repetition, such as when an organism is subjected to chronic stressors, the systems at play begin to pay an increasing cost. This cost is known today as the allostatic load. The continual wear and tear and drawing of resources from the different systems of the body, including the immune system, can eventually propel the organism from the first (alarm) stage into Selye’s second stage, which he called the resistance stage. Over a more extended time as the organism endures repeated exposure to stressors, the systems become so depleted that injury may result. Thus, the body experiences the final stage called the exhaustion stage where organ systems fail and possible death may ensue.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	15.	Describe the changes that occur in the Cardiovascular System when activated by the fight-or-flight response.

ANS:	
In reaction to the fight-or-flight response, the heart increases its rate of contraction. Blood pressure also spikes to circulate blood carrying oxygen and energy to the brain and large muscles of the body in preparation for action.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	16.	What changes occur in the dermal system during the fight-or-flight response?	

ANS:	
The dermal system is one of several primary physiological systems that is activated during a fight-or-flight response. During a fight-or-flight response, the skin perspires to cool down the body and prevent overheating during action.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	17.	There are seven primary physiological systems in which changes occur during the fight-or-flight response. Name these seven systems.

ANS:	
During the fight-or-flight response, our bodies go through many changes. These changes can be broken down into seven physiological systems. These systems are: the cardiovascular system, the muscular system, the gastrointestinal (GI) system, the respiratory system, the dermal system, the hormonal system, and the sensory systems.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Physiology of Stress

	18.	What is the second step or process in Lazarus’s Appraisal and Coping Model?

ANS:	
The secondary appraisal process involves assessing how well we can deal or cope with a given situation. Coping refers to the effective use of resources and strategies to deal with internal or external demands. Part of the coping assessment process involves estimating the degree of control we have over the stressor. As you might assume, the less control we perceive we have over the stressor, the more stressful we perceive the event to be.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Psychology of Stress

	19.	What is the third and final process of appraisal in Lazarus’s Appraisal and Coping Model and what function does it serve?

ANS:	
Lazarus and Folkman proposed a three-process cognitive model of stress and coping consisting of what they labeled primary appraisal, secondary appraisal, and reappraisal. Reappraisal occurs when a person may change the meaning of the event to reduce stress reactions. For instance, the cave-dweller (from the example of the cave-dweller and saber-tooth tiger) may evaluate the situation with the tiger as less dangerous than previously thought after throwing the rock at the tiger and seeing it flee. This reappraisal process helps the cave-dweller manage subsequent stress reactions and return to homeostasis.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Psychology of Stress

	20.	What are threat and challenge appraisals? How are they similar? How are they different?

ANS:	
Threat appraisals are future oriented. When the future suggests the possibility of harm or loss, the person will experience threat. With these appraisals, the person can anticipate future coping needs and prepare for the threat. In anticipating the future, when the coping abilities are self-assessed as meeting the demands of the situation, then the potential harm-loss appraisal will be seen as a challenge rather than a threat. Challenge appraisals see the potential for gain or growth.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Psychology of Stress

ESSAY

	1.	Lazarus and his associates developed scales designed to measure perceived everyday life difficulties or hassles rather than purely objective life events. Later Lazarus narrowed his focus from general perception to a process called appraisal using the cognitive mediational approach. Explain Lazarus’s process of appraisal and its relationship to how we experience emotions.

ANS:	
Appraisal denotes that more than simply perceiving the situation, we make a judgment about the relative significance of the event. During the appraisal process, we evaluate the event as a threat or a challenge. In other words, we evaluate it as either negative (a threat) or positive (a challenge). This process is an ongoing transaction (a two-way process) between us and the situation with cognitive appraisals filtering our perceptions.

Self-perceptions and judgments are also involved through us evaluating our ability to cope or deal effectively with the threat or challenge. Appraisal patterns are linked to particular emotional responses because each appraisal pattern has its own core relational meaning. That is, depending on the meaning we give to the appraisal, there will be a different emotional response. For example, the core relational theme of a demeaning offense against me and mine underpins the emotion of anger, the theme of facing uncertain, existential threat relates to the emotion of anxiety, and the theme of making reasonable progress toward realization of a goal leads us to experience the emotion of happiness.

PTS:	1	REF:	What is Stress?	

	2.	What is health psychology? In what context did it arise?

ANS:	
Health psychology arose as one of several new synergies of the new understandings and concepts of health resulting from the shift from a biomedical model of health to a biopsychosocial model. Health psychology is a specialty area of psychology that is focused on using the scientific and professional knowledge base of the discipline of psychology to promote and maintain health as well as to treat illnesses.

PTS:	1	REF:	What is Health?	

	3.	Explain the traditional biomedical model of health and the biopsychosocial model of health. How do they differ?

ANS:	
Traditional models of health such as the biomedical model focus primarily on biological factors that contribute to health whereas newer models of health such as the biopsychosocial model view health as a product of biological, psychological, and social influences. The biomedical model assumes that health and illness are dichotomous states. A person is either healthy or not healthy. This assumption contrasts with the biopsychosocial perspective that regards health states as being on a continuum from the very ill to the super well. A well-trained marathoner who is healthy in all respects is at a different state of health than the sedentary smoker who is not ill.

The biomedical model also divides the mind and body into separate entities in accordance with Rene Decartes’ mind-body dualism philosophy whereas the biopsychosocial model views the mind and body as an interactive whole. Psychosomatic medicine, inspired by Sigmund Freud’s idea that repressed memories and intrapsychic conflict can lead to somatic conversions expressed as physical symptoms broke rank with the conventional medical thinking of the time and became one of the first medical areas to challenge the mind-body duality aspect of the biomedical model.

PTS:	1	REF:	What is Health?	

	4.	How would you define the current or emerging definition of the term “health,” such as that of the World Health Organization (WHO)?

ANS:	
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The goal then according to the more comprehensive approaches to health is to engage in behaviors and practices that achieve optimal levels of health within a continuum of health.  In stress management terms, the goal is to work toward staying in an optimal zone of functioning and life satisfaction through the use of health promoting strategies.

PTS:	1	REF:	What is Health?	

	5.	What is Aaron Antonovsky’s model of health? How does it compare to other models? What is its primary focus?

ANS:	
Aaron Antonovsky, a medical sociologist, developed an alternative model to the biomedical pathogenic disease model of health that he coined the salutogenic model.  His salutogenic model uses the health continuum approach advocated by proponents of the biopsychosocial model rather than the diseased-healthy dichotomous model advocated by proponents of the biomedical model.

The salutogenic model’s emphasis is on what people do right to facilitate health rather than on risk and pathogenic factors. It asks the following question: What are the underlying origins of health (i.e., salutogenesis) rather than what are the underlying origins of disease? Further underlying his model is the assumption that we are all subject to the laws of entropy, the second law of thermodynamics— that is, all ordered systems including life forms eventually become disordered and chaotic (e.g., an ice cube melting,  an organism dying, wood rotting).

PTS:	1	REF:	Antonovsky's Salutogenic Model

	6.	Our sense of coherence (SOC), according to Antonovsky, is comprised of three integrated factors that are influenced by our life experiences referred to as comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. Discuss these three factors.

ANS:	
Comprehensibility indicates the degree to which we can make cognitive sense of the stimuli we perceive. The more consistent and predictable our experiences have been, the more we can make sense of them and understand how to adapt to future similar stimuli. We can mentally make order out of chaos. Manageability refers to our ability to access internal and external coping resources and use them when we need them. The more success we have had in our experiential history of coping with demands, the stronger our sense of manageability. Finally, meaningfulness alludes to our ability to emotionally make sense of demands and to perceive these demands as worthwhile investments of our energy, as challenges rather than burdens. 

Antonovsky views meaningfulness as the most important component of the three, followed by comprehensibility, and then manageability. Without meaningfulness, the other two can only lead to short-term benefits. Meaningfulness provides the fuel and motivation to consistently invest our energy in making sense of chaos and transforming our coping resources, our GRRs, into benefits.

PTS:	1	REF:	Antonovsky's Salutogenic Model

	7.	In the workplace, what is the desired level of excitement for best performing our work tasks? Have you found this to be true in your own experience?

ANS:	
According to the Yerkes-Dodson Law we know that optimal task performance occurs at the mid-level of excitement or what has been referred to as diffuse physiological arousal.  At low levels, for example when we are bored, performance levels are also low. At high levels, for example when we are experiencing extreme stress, our performance levels suffer. Therefore, we need sufficient diffuse physiological arousal to rise to the challenge, but not so much as to become overwhelmed by it.

The goal of stress management then is to maintain stress reactions within this optimal zone rather than adopting unrealistic goals such as totally eliminating stressors or stress reactions. People are most satisfied when they are neither under-stimulated nor over-stimulated for extended periods of time. It’s like the Goldilocks theory of not wanting her bowl of porridge to be “too hot” or “too cold” but “just right.” We are most satisfied with the “just right” level of stimulation and diffuse physiological reaction.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Impact of Stress on Health and Performance

	8.	Self-efficacy can be broken down into two component parts, outcome expectations and efficacy expectations. Define these components using an example from your own life.

ANS:	
The term outcome expectation refers to our belief that a particular action will lead to a particular outcome. For example, an overweight person who wants to lose weight and has high outcome expectations may believe that reducing the amount of food eaten will lead to weight loss. The term efficacy expectation refers to the belief that the person can successfully execute the actions that lead to the desired outcome—that he or she can reduce the amount of food eaten. 

The overweight person with high outcome expectancy and high efficacy expectations believes that he or she can successfully reduce the amount of food eaten and that this will lead to success in losing weight. This person has a higher probability of success in a weight loss program than another overweight person with low self-efficacy. High self-efficacy also relates to secondary appraisal in that the person believes he or she has the coping resources to deal with the challenge (e.g., weight loss) and thus will be less stressed by it.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Psychology of Stress

	9.	Different people have different reactions and stress levels to the same outward events, circumstances or situations. Why does this happen?

ANS:	
What some find stressful, others find exciting, and yet others may be unaffected. For example, driving over a high bridge is stressful to some people, some are excited by the sensation of the high view, and yet others do not seem to be affected in the least. What’s the difference between these three groups? Cognitive theorists would say it is their interpretation of the event. Those who are stressed probably at some level, perhaps even unconsciously, are thinking that the height on the bridge they are experiencing is dangerous and could result in a fall, injury, or even death. Those who are excited are probably at some level thinking that it is a thrill to be able to see the vista from a bird’s perspective. 

What about the indifferent group? They are likely thinking that the drive over the bridge is nothing special and might even be thinking about how they need to feed the cat when they get home. So each group applies a different type of cognitive filter to the stimulus and, as a result, interprets that stimulus differently. Such differences help to explain why stress reactions to the same event vary from person to person.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Psychology of Stress

	10.	Define positive psychology and describe its origin. What does it focus on? How does it differ from the rest of psychology?

ANS:	
There is burgeoning activity in an area of psychology with deep historical traditions (e.g., humanistic psychology) that has been somewhat dormant until more recently. This focus, called positive psychology is a field of study that examines what goes right with us rather than what goes wrong. Martin P. Seligman, speaking in 1998 as the president of the American Psychological Association, urged psychologists to get back to their roots of focusing on psychological strengths rather than psychological problems. He called this focus positive psychology. In many ways Seligman’s call for psychology mirrors that of Antonovky’s for health. By studying the positive side of stress, we can learn its upside and apply it to our health and well-being.

Positive psychology can be understood as a field with three related areas of study that include positive trait characteristics (e.g., virtues, strengths, talents, and values), positive subjective experiences (e.g., fulfillment, happiness, gratification, and satisfaction), and positive institutions (e.g., families, communities, schools, and organizations) (Peterson, 2006). It encompasses a wide range of themes but has a major focus on the study of the good life. Such a focus examines the elements that constitute a fulfilling life, a life well-lived.

PTS:	1	REF:	The Promise of Positive Psychology