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.