Behavioural effects of stress

In Phase 3, the Phase 1 task was repeated.

All participants squeezed the handgrip more when the shape associated with the chocolate odor in Phase 2 was presented. However, this effect was larger in the stress group. That is, participants in the stress group made more squeezes to the stimulus associated with the chocolate odor than control participants, suggesting greater desire for the reward. Interestingly, the groups did not differ in their ratings of perceived pleasantness of the chocolate odor at the end of the experiment.

Thus, stressed participants worked harder to obtain the chocolate odor reward (i.e., greater wanting), even though they did not enjoy it more (i.e., equal liking). This dissociation of wanting and liking parallels a common observation after extended exposure to drugs of abuse.

Other Interesting Reading

• Aust & Braunöder (2015, Journal of Comparative Psychology) investigate reliance on global vs. local processing for exemplar and rule-based categorization in humans and pigeons.
• Donkin et al. (online first, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition) address challenges in identifying the strategy participants use in categorization tasks.

Return to PeePs homepage

Date created: 2015

The content I just read:

Comment:

How Stress Affects Our Bodies and Behavior

When we're stressed, what happens in our bodies? What are the physical symptoms? How does our behavior change? Greenville health coach Aaron Benator explains.

What is stress?

The first thing I'd like to do is talk about the definition of stress. Stress is a response to a change in the environment. There are two types of stress:

• Eustress, which is a good change. It can be when we are encouraged to accomplish something and we're motivated and we feel positive.
• Distress, which is what we typically think of. This is going to be an overriding, negative sensation, lack of motivation, a feeling of overwhelm, those kinds of things.

There are also two kinds of stress — acute and chronic. Acute is short-term. And chronic is long-term. Or when we think that something is going to be long-term, that would be chronic stress.

What happens to the body when stressed? 

Three chemicals are made when the body senses something that causes distress is three chemicals — norepinephrine, adrenaline, and cortisol.

Norepinephrine and adrenaline are very similar. The one difference is that norepinephrine is also made in the brain, not just the adrenal glands, kind of as a backup system. It is responsible for alertness and awareness.

Cortisol is responsible for fluid balance and blood pressure and fluid balance is only made in the adrenal glands near the kidneys.

Some symptoms of distress are low energy, when we feel like we just can't do anything, when we feel like we can't accomplish what we might want to accomplish.

Headaches. There can be sleeping changes with excessive levels of distress. This can be insomnia, where we feel like we do not sleep restfully, or we feel like we do not sleep at all. Or it can be excessive sleeping. Stress can also present a loss of libido or impotence and as frequent sickness.

If you're frequently sick or you feel like you get sick more than other people, it might be because there's some chronic distress, that is maybe not at the surface, but somewhere in your experience.

Distress can also cause musculoskeletal issues, like aches and pains, tense muscles, and rapid heartbeat. In the long run, these aches and pains, tense muscles, and rapid heartbeats can cause a lot of serious problems.

There are other symptoms of distress. These are usually seen in the gastrointestinal system. This can be an upset stomach or poor digestion. We can think of something like butterflies in the stomach.

Of course, that can be eustress, when we're nervous that we need to accomplish something, but at the same time, we're feeling kind of good about it. We always remember the butterflies in the stomach from a presentation in elementary school or middle school or high school or college or whatever.

On the other end of this digestive issue is diarrhea or constipation or nausea. So again, we see that wide spectrum.

What happens to our behavior when stressed? 

There can also be emotional changes when someone is suffering through periods of stress. These can be appetite changes, which can go along with changes in weight, either weight gain or weight loss.

Depression can also be a symptom of excessive stress for too long. Anxiety, a sense of nervousness or agitation, or moodiness, irritability, anger. Or the changes of the moods between depression or anxiety and back again, or your ability to anger and back again.

We can also feel overwhelmed when we are under stress, and there's always the issue of loneliness and isolation. There is an argument that when someone is stressed, they want to be alone. It might be a time for recovery.

But of course, there are some long-term issues that might come from long-term loneliness and isolation. We know that loneliness and isolation are associated with a reduced immune function.

More on Stress

Feeling stressed? Check out some of our other articles on stress. 

• 3 Ways to Overcome Stress
• 7 Fun Activities to Relieve Stress
• Primary Care vs. Counseling for Stress Management

Psychology of stress: theory and practice

%PDF-1.5 % 10 obj > /Metadata 4 0 R >> endobj 5 0 obj /Author /Title >> endobj 20 obj > endobj 3 0 obj > endobj 40 obj > stream

causes, symptoms, treatment, useful or not

• referrals

  Neurology Neurorehabilitation center epileptological center Rehabilitation and physiotherapy Headache treatment Gynecology Orthopedics Psychiatry Functional diagnostics Pediatrics Ultrasound diagnostics

  Psychology treatment room Otolaryngology Therapy Endocrinology Cardiology Rheumatology Urology Allergology Botulinum therapy Nephrology

• services and prices
• specialists
• clinic
  • About clinic
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Question answer
  • Licenses
  • Requisites
  • Supervisory authorities
  • Privacy Policy
• contacts

Stress is a state of psychological and physical tension in response to external influences. It can be caused by difficult situations, monotonous activities and emotional factors. Stress helps you adapt to a changing environment, but can have negative health consequences.

Is stress good or not?

Short-term one-time stress has a positive effect. In response to a stimulus, the body produces three hormones: cortisone, adrenaline, noradrenaline and activates the cells of the immune system.

Thanks to this, a person for a short time period:

• memory improves;

• increases the level of immunity;

• the rate of tissue regeneration increases;

• intellectual abilities are activated;

• increases the endurance of the nervous system;

• the functioning of the sense organs improves.

If a person is systematically exposed to a stress factor, all his organs and systems work hard. As a result, the body intensively wastes energy, passing through the three stages of the process.

The first stage takes effect at the moment of exposure to the stress factor, and lasts a few minutes. It is followed by a second one lasting from several hours to several days, during which a person is looking for a solution to the problem or a safe way out of the situation.

If the action of the factor continues, the body depletes the adaptive capacity and ceases to minimize the harmful effects of the stressor. It is at the stage of distress that a person experiences overload, psychological disorders, signs of somatic diseases.

Causes of stress

Allocate systemic and mental type of impact of a stress factor. The systemic type is the body's response to an infectious disease, inflammation, injury, light, high or low temperature. Mental type - manifests itself on the emotional and mental sphere, followed by the biological level.

Mental causes of stress include:

• professional activities associated with increased responsibility;

• complex relationships in the family;

• conflicts, phobias, problems in communication, threats of a different nature, intractable problems, dysfunctional social relations in the team;

• unfulfilled needs, low self-esteem, perfectionism;

• change of place of residence or work, monotonous activity, divorce, death of a loved one;

• information overload;

• lack of rest sufficient to restore the psyche;

• psycho-emotional tension caused by risk, time pressure, increased workload, novelty of the situation or its uncertainty.

The consequences of prolonged stress in men and women are the same - depression and somatic diseases. Therefore, it is important to timely note the signs of psychophysical stress, identify its causes and eliminate it.

Signs of stress

Prolonged exposure to a stress factor causes serious stress throughout the body, significantly worsening the general mood and well-being of a person.

Common symptoms of developing stress:

• Muscle tension in the head, neck, shoulders, back.

• Increased anxiety.

• Irritability at the slightest provocation.

• Reduced performance.

• Depression, apathy.

• Sleep disorders.

• Absent-mindedness, deterioration of memory and ability to concentrate, slowing down the pace of thought processes.

• Chronic fatigue, pessimism, desire to distance themselves from society.

• Headache, unexplained chest pain.

• Disorder of appetite, violation of the digestive function.

Often a person acquires an obsessive habit, for example, biting his lips, turning his neck, straightening his hair.

• 
  What you have to say
• 
  How to tell if your therapist doesn t like you
• 
  How to deal with alcoholism and depression
• 
  Jumping to conclusion quotes
• 
  I feel really alone
• 
  Imaging techniques pet cat mri fmri
• 
  Defiance psychology definition
• 
  Thought provoking questions about psychology
• 
  How do mood stabilizers work in the brain
• 
  Feeling stuck and hopeless
• 
  What does derealization mean