Psychological and physical well-being and the overall quality of life are under a constant threat of stress and thus, psychological and medical sciences have long been concerned with studying stress response. Cox (1979) claimed that because of the poor understanding and defining it, the concept of stress tends to be rather elusive. The term, “stress”, commonly describes any physchological or physical alteration that deranges the organism’s homeostasis (or balance). This essay reviews some of the biological factors involved in stress and it has been organized in the following way. The paper begins by briefly introducing the concept of stress. It will then go on to discus and describe the automatic response (fight or flight reaction), …show more content…
The trouble begins when multiple life incidents hit us all at once and this is because during periods of dramatic changes, individuals are more vulnerable to stress (Jones & Bright, 2001). Therefore, stress has got the ability to activate pretty every system within the body, however, through a rather rudimentary mechanism which lies within the cellular level (Shreedhar et al., 2010).
Humans experience similar dramatic physiological stress responses as other species. That is to say, the physique response to a stressor prepares the body for rapid physical action (fight or flight). More rarely, as Rudinger (1988) argue, sitting paralysed by fear may constitute another response to stress. The fight or flee stress response involve extremely rapid, virtually immediate, changes within the muscular systems and organs (Pinel, 2006).
When the sense organs (of hearing or sight) receive the “alarm signal” they instantly pass it to the brain. Then the brain sends messages to the muscles and organs and therefore, muscles contract, often very abruptly. If the state of alertness is prolonged, muscle activity and tension remain high in order to prepare the body of reacting quickly to any subsequent stimuli. In a fight or flight situation, heart rate changes. Furthermore, there are a series of chain reactions. The first thing that happens is that the heart starts to beat faster in order to pump a copious supply of blood to the essential
In Prospero 's case in Masque of the Red Death Prince Prospero, was faced with the threat of survival, surviving the Red Death, a plague sweeping his kingdom killing all it comes into contact with. To produce the fight-or-flight response, the hypothalamus activates two systems: the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system. The sympathetic nervous system uses nerve pathways to initiate reactions in the body, and the adrenal-cortical system uses the bloodstream. The combined effects of these two systems are the fight-or-flight response.When the hypothalamus tells the sympathetic nervous system to kick into gear, the overall effect is that the body speeds up, tenses up and becomes generally very alert. If there 's a burglar at the door, you 're going to have to take action fast. The sympathetic nervous system sends out impulses to glands and smooth muscles and tells the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine and norepinephrine into the bloodstream. These "stress hormones" cause several changes in the body, including an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.At the same time, the hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing factor into the pituitary gland, activating the adrenal-cortical system. The pituitary gland secretes the hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone). ACTH moves through the bloodstream and ultimately arrives at the adrenal cortex, where it activates the release of approximately thirty different
The system behind fight response or the flight is the SNS. When someone gets shocked by an incident, SNS increases heart rate, a situation that necessitates for energy provision. Blood flow increases directing blood to flow to the digestive system in order to provide more energy to the lungs, heart, and muscles. PNS, on the other hand, stimulates digestion by increasing the flow of blood to the digestive tract. Through increased peristalsis and stimulation of salivary gland secretion, food digestion increases with the increase of nutrients absorption (Kiba,
Chapter 6 covers the fundamentals of stress disorders. After reading this chapter discussing the fight and flight response, psychological stress disorders and physical stress disorders, I have a better concept of this subject itself. Our fight and flight response is trigger by our hypothalamus, which sends off neurons and chemical for our mind and bodies to react. As discussed in class, the autonomic nervous system control the involuntary activities like heartbeat and breathing. The sympathetic nervous system is aroused when we face danger (THE FIGHT). For example, the sympathetic nervous system makes our heart beat faster when we are scared. The parasympathetic nervous system (THE FLIGHT) help make us calm, like regulating our heartbeats.
You can probably think of a time when you experienced the fight-or-flight response. In the face of something frightening, your heart beat quickened, you begin breathing faster, and your entire body become tense and ready to take
“[Fight or Flight] response is hard-wired into our brains and represents a genetic wisdom designed to protect us from bodily harm. This response actually corresponds to an area of our brain called the hypothalamus, which—when stimulated—initiates a sequence of nerve cell firing and chemical release that prepares our body for running or
Physiological responses, is a specific changes in how the body is functioning cased by nervous system when facing a specific emotion ; physiological responses is easy to measure because scientists have developed special tools to measure them; heart rate, sweating, blood pressure, or realising adrenaline in bold , is one of many measurement attributes used to measure physiological responses , research proved that people have similar internal responses to the same emotion, regardless of their age, race, or gender , for example human body release adrenaline when people are under stress; this hormone helps prepare to smoothing called the "fight or flight" reaction ,which mean the body preparing to either run away or fight; research shows that
The ‘general adaptation syndrome’ (GAS) model, theorized by Hans Selye (1936, 1950), showcases how the biological approach explains the behaviour of stress. Selye noticed that animals exhibit the same response to unpleasant stimuli, known as a ‘stressor’, and proposed 3 stages of stress response that could lead to illness. The first of the stages is the ‘alarm reaction’ which consists of the shock phase and the countershock phase (Gale, 2001). During the shock phase, where the stressor is recognised, the body experiences biological changes such as lowered body temperature and blood pressure. However during the countershock phase the hypothalamus increases the production of hormones such as adrenaline from the adrenal glands. This causes the sensation of an ‘adrenaline rush’ by increasing blood pressure and body temperature to induce a ‘fight or flight’ response, enabling the individual to surpass their usual
This is a primitive response designed to protect from danger. When danger is perceived, the sympathetic nervous system responds immediately to prepare a person to stay and fight or take flight. Blood rushes away from nonessential systems such as the digestive and excretory systems and is redirected to the extremities. The heart beats faster to
Throughout life stress is a common problem whether it’s at work, school or home. The many negative effects of stress in fact affect individuals differently varying from health issues to work performance. Therefore, all individuals have different views of stress and various ways of handling it or otherwise managing their stress. Stress is when any living thing feels endangered and its homeostasis is at risk (Varvogli & Darviri, 2011, p. 74). Ways of dealing with stress are efforts of cognitive, behavioral, and psychological nature that allows a person to manage stress. Although there are different causes of stress, there are also many techniques for relieving it. The following articles are intended for the reader to
Have you ever heard of the “Fight or Flight Response” and had no clue what it was? Well I can inform you on what it is and the effects that it has on the nervous system. The “fight or flight” response is a reaction that occurs in response to an attack or threat to survival which causes you to fight for your life or flight for your life. It’s when the adrenal glands release epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) in response to a possible threat.
In particular, the body responds with the "battle or flight reaction" activated by the sudden arrival of the cortisol and adrenaline hormones. These hormones keep the body and psyche wound, ready and prepared for response to the danger. This response served as a helpful, defensive reaction when confronted with primitive dangers, for example, a saber tooth tiger.
Stress can be broadly defined as any external and internal events that affects an organism’s well being. In attempt to maintain homeostasis, the body will respond to the psychological stress by modifying physiological processes (Nargund, 2015). Psychological stress is a number of emotional events that interrupts homeostasis. The disruption of homeostasis can affect many biological systems, such as metabolism, vascular function, tissue repair, nervous system and reproductive system. Both emotional and physical stress can have a negative impact on human reproductive function (Cousineau, 2007; Jakobovits et al, 2002). Therefore, it is very important to know how to cope with stress when experiencing life events that are very stressful. My presentation
First we would have to assume that you want the response to if you were afraid of the dog. In that case your fight or flight response would be triggered which starts in your limbic system where it is than transmitted to your hypothalamus which activates that response. The sympathetic nervous system would respond by releasing epinephrine, dilate your pupils and respiratory passages, dilate your coronary arteries and speed up your heart, cause your hair to stand on end, cause a dry mouth, increase blood flow to your skeletal muscles, promote glycogen breakdown and glucose mobilization, and inhibit digestive and urinary function. This allows our bodies to act quickly and to the most efficient degree with the energy that is produced in this response.
Stress can get bad enough to where it starts to affect your body system. Things like depression, heart attacks, diseases, rashes and a low immune system can all occur to people dealing with stress bad enough. The number of common signs and symptoms is outrageous and is depressing to see that there are so many people dealing with this and how it’s such a common thing in this world. On stress.org, they talk about the different body systems and how they’re affected. The nervous, musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastro and reproductive systems are all affected in some way and in many ways to say the least. If your stress ever gets so bad, I consider seeing a doctor or specialist seeing how dangerous this can get.
Stress affects the body in many different ways. Many doctors estimate that stress is involved in more than half of all illnesses (Sapolsky, 21). Stress may cause or prolong an illness or increase its severity. Epinephrine and norepinephrine are hormones that are released during a stress reaction that affect organs throughout the body. As a result from the hormones being secreted, the heart begins to beat more rapidly, muscle tension increases, blood pressure raises, and heavy breathing may occur. This reaction is known as the fight-or-flight response. The fight-or-flight response energizes the body to either confront or flee from a threat. Heredity, learning, and injuries all play a role in determining where or when a stress related illness may occur in a particular individual (Sapolsky, 22).