The Body's Response to Stress

We started our next topic today: Physiological Psychology - Stress. There are two different ways in which the body responds to stress which you need to know about:

The acute (short term) response which leads to the production of the hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin - sometimes called the 'fight or flight' response.
The chronic (longer term) response which leads to the production of corticosteroid hormones including cortisol - this is the one that leads to most of the long-term negative effects of stress.

For Thursday's lesson:
Define stress, and explain what is meant by 'appraisal' in this context.
Write a paragraph explaining why stress is an important problem in the modern world, even though it is not always a bad thing.
Construct two flow diagrams, one for the Sympathetic Adreno-Medullary pathway (for acute stress) and one for the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis (for chronic stress).
Include definitions of the following terms:

• Hypothalamus
• Pituitary gland
• ACTH
• Autonomic nervous system
• Sympathetic nervous system
• Adrenal medulla
• Adrenal cortex
• Adrenalin
• Cortisol

Here is the presentation from the lesson.

Abnormality overview

Click here to download a word document which summarises everything you need to know for your Unit 2 AS exam (psychopathology / abnormality section).

CBT and Psychoanalysis

We looked at the final two therapies last Thursday - CBT (from the cognitive approach, with some behavioural ideas thrown in) and psychoanalysis, the therapy that Freud developed and which comes from the psychodynamic approach.

These are both 'talking therapies' and, along with behavioural therapies like systematic desensitisation, are 'psychological therapies' (meaning they are not biological / physical like drugs and ECT).

Unlike behavioural therapy (which aims to correct faulty behaviour with classical and operant conditioning) these both aim to correct problems with 'the mind' - that is, how we think. Make sure you can explain the key difference between them. CBT is based on conscious thoughts that we can think about and change ourselves once we understand their importance - it is based on practical strategies for changing the way we think about the current difficulties we face in our lives. Psychoanalysis assumes that the real causes of our current problems are hidden in our pasts and in our unconscious minds, and that we need the help of a therapist to uncover these.

Here is the presentation on CBT.

Here is the presentation on psychoanalysis.

For Tuesday's lesson you need to complete your notes on these, including strengths and limitations. Organise your notes for the whole abnormality topic, filling in any blanks, and revise for a test on Tuesday. I will post a  helpful document here later this weekend to help you prepare, but for now remember that you need to be able to describe and evaluate three definitions of abnormality (DSN, FFA, DIMH); four models of abnormality (biological, behavioural, cognitive, psychodynamic; and five therapies (ECT, drugs, systematic desensitisation, CBT, psychoanalysis).