The Physiology of Stress

Stress – The Stress Response

In this course, Dr Shanti Shanker (Bournemouth University) explores the stress response. In the first lecture, we think about the physiology of the stress response and whether it is generalised or stimulus specific. In the second lecture, we think about the biological underpinnings of stress. In the third lecture, we think about the role that stress can play in causing and perpetuating illness and health problems. Next, we think about sources of stress, including life events and daily hassles. In the fifth lecture, we think about the importance of individual differences in the stress response and experiences of stress. In the sixth and final lecture, we think about some key coping strategies which can be implemented to help manage and cope with stress.

The Physiology of Stress

In this lecture, we think about the physiology of stress, focusing in particular on: (i) the potentially functional role of mild stress in preparing for a task, compared to the detrimental effects of severe and/or chronic stress; (ii) Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome (GAS) as an early model of the stress response; (iii) general adaptation syndrome’s three stages of stress response as alarm, resistance and exhaustion; (iv) Mason’s research, which argued that different stressors have different stress responses, compared to Selye’s view that the stress response was generalised.