| acute stress paradigm | A laboratory procedure whereby an individual goes through moderately stressful procedures (such as counting backwards rapidly by 7s), so that stress-related changes in emotions and physiological and/or neuroendocrine processes may be assessed.
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| aftereffects of stress | Performance and attentional decrements that occur after a stressful event has subsided; believed to be produced by the residual physiological, emotional, and cognitive draining in response to stressful events.
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| allostatic load | The accumulating adverse effects of stress, in conjunction with preexisting risks, on biological stress regulatory systems.
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| chronic strain | A stressful experience that is a usual but continually stressful aspect of life.
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| cognitive costs | An approach to the study of stress that emphasizes how stressful events tax perceptual and cognitive resources, draw off attention, or deplete cognitive resources for other tasks.
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| daily hassles | Minor daily stressful events; believed to have a cumulative effect in increasing the likelihood of illness.
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| fight-or-flight response | A response to threat in which the body is rapidly aroused and motivated via the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system to attack or flee a threatening stimulus; the response was first described by Walter Cannon in 1932.
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| general adaptation syndrome | Developed by Hans Selye, a profile of how organisms respond to stress; the general adaptation syndrome is characterized by three phases: a nonspecific mobilization phase, which promotes sympathetic nervous system activity; a resistance phase, during which the organism makes efforts to cope with the threat; and an exhaustion phase, which occurs if the organism fails to overcome the threat and depletes its physiological resources.
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| perceived stress | The perception that an event is stressful independent of its objective characteristics.
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| person-environment fit | The degree to which the needs and resources of a person and the needs and resources of an environment complement each other.
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| post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | A syndrome that results after exposure to a stressor of extreme magnitude, marked by emotional numbing, the reliving of aspects of the trauma, intense responses to other stressful events, and other symptoms, such as hyperalertness, sleep disturbance, guilt, or impaired memory or concentration.
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| primary appraisal | The perception of a new or changing environment as beneficial, neutral, or negative in its consequences; believed to be a first step in stress and coping.
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| reactivity | The predisposition to react physiologically to stress; believed to be genetically based in part; high reactivity is believed to be a risk factor for a range of stress-related diseases.
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| role conflict | Conflict that occurs when two or more social or occupational roles that an individual occupies produce conflicting standards for behavior.
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| secondary appraisal | The assessment of one's coping abilities and resources and judgment as to whether they will be sufficient to meet the harm, threat, or challenge of a new or changing event.
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| stress | Appraising events as harmful, threatening, or challenging and assessing one's capacity to respond to those events; events that are perceived to tax or exceed one's resources are seen as stressful.
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| stressful life events | Events that force an individual to make changes in his or her life.
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| stressors | Events perceived to be stressful.
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