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Stress and Health
Biological and Psychological Interactions

Third Edition
  • William R. Lovallo - University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Oklahoma City, University of Oklahoma, USA


March 2015 | 352 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

Stress and Health: Biological and Psychological Interactions is a brief and accessible examination of psychological stress and its psychophysiological relationships with cognition, emotions, brain functions, and the peripheral mechanisms by which the body is regulated. Updated throughout, the Third Edition covers two new and significant areas of emerging research: how our early life experiences alter key stress responsive systems at the level of gene expression; and what large, normal, and small stress responses may mean for our overall health and well-being.

 
Chapter 1: Psychosocial Models of Health and Disease
The Standard Biomedical Model and New Approaches to Medicine

 
A Biobehavioral Model of Disease and Treatment

 
Placebo Effects

 
Psychoneuroimmunology

 
Cultural, Intrapersonal, and Physiological Influences in Coronary Heart Disease

 
Psychosocial Theories of Disease and Treatment

 
The Foundation of Behavioral Medicine

 
 
Chapter 2: History of the Concept of Stress
The Age of Enlightenment and the Emergence of Scientific Thought

 
Descartes and the Mechanical Model of Living Things

 
The Worldview and Premises of Modern Science

 
The Mind-Body problem

 
Claude Bernard and the Modern Biomedical Model

 
Claude Bernard and the Vitalists

 
Walter Cannon

 
Definition of Stress

 
Hans Selye

 
The Concept of Allostasis

 
Additional Considerations on the Stress Concept

 
 
Chapter 3: Homeostatic Regulation: Normal Function and Stress Responses
A Hierarchy of Homeostatic Controls

 
Intrinsic Control Mechanisms

 
Autonomic Controls Over Homeostasis

 
Three Autonomic Divisions

 
Coordinated Actions of the Autonomic Branches

 
Higher Controls Over Homeostasis

 
The Hypothalamus and Emotional Expression

 
Endocrine Responses During Stress

 
Adrenomedullary Response

 
Adrenocortical Response

 
Negative Feedback by Cortisol

 
Cortisol During Stress

 
Beta-endorphin

 
 
Chapter 4: Physical and Psychological Stress
Classes of Stress Responses

 
The Exercise Response

 
Exercise and Adaptation to Stress

 
The Fight-or-Flight Response

 
Different Emotions and Motivations Accompany Exercise and the Fight–Flight Response

 
Why Is Exercise Considered Good If It Is a Stressor?

 
Psychological Stress

 
The Responses to Aversive and Nonaversive Challenges

 
Exposure to Noise and Shock

 
Activation and Distress

 
 
Chapter 5: Central Nervous System Integration of the Psychological Stress Response
Appraisals, Psychological Stress, and Negative Emotions

 
Primary and Secondary Appraisals

 
Outcomes of Coping Efforts and Physiological Responses

 
Central Integration of the Response to Psychological Stress

 
The Limbic System and Associated Parts of the Brain

 
Primary Appraisals: Sensory Intake and Interpretation of the Environment

 
What Is It? And Where Is It?

 
Cognition and Emotion: Generating Emotions Based on Appraisal Processes

 
Prefrontal-Limbic Interactions and Thoughts and Feelings

 
Secondary Appraisals: How Well Did Our Coping Attempt Work?

 
Physiological Correlates of Primary and Secondary Appraisal Processes

 
Internal Sources of Amygdaloid Activity and Internally Generated Emotional Responses

 
Initiation of Behavioral, Autonomic, and Neuroendocrine Responses to Psychological Stressors

 
Feedback to the Cortex and Limbic System: The Central Feedback Subsystem

 
Autonomic and Endocrine Outflow: The Emotional Response Subsystem

 
 
Chapter 6: Stress and the Endocrine System
Overview of Stress Endocrine Regulation

 
Activation of Stress Endocrine Secretion and the Central Corticotropin-Releasing Factor System

 
Cortisol’s Feedback Actions in the Central Nervous System

 
Cortisol Effects on Frontal-Limbic Activity

 
Amygdala Responses to Cortisol and Altered Responsivity of the Central Nervous System

 
Amygdala Sensitization and Potential Implications for Health

 
The Hypothalamic-Sympatho-Adrenomedullary Axis

 
Stress Endocrine Secretion and Regulation of Long-Term Stress Reactivity

 
Hierarchy of Autonomic and Endocrine Controls Over Homeostasis Leading to Long-Term Memory Formation

 
Recap: How Ideas Come to Have Power Over Our Bodies

 
 
Chapter 7: The Immune System Stress and Behavior
Overview of the Immune System

 
Structural Components of the Immune System

 
Immune System Cells

 
Immune System Messengers

 
Innate Resistance

 
Acquired Immunity and Establishment of Immune System Memory

 
The Behavior-Immune Interface

 
Behavior-Immune Interactions and Health Indicators

 
Stress Buffers, Positive Emotions, and Physical Health

 
 
Chapter 8: Helplessness Coping and Health
Death Due to Uncontrollable Stress

 
Helplessness and Exposure to Uncontrollable Stress

 
Studies of Ulceration in Rats

 
“Learned Helplessness” and the Consequences of Lack of Control

 
Lazarus’s Model of Psychological Stress and Helplessness

 
Central Neurotransmitters and Severe Stress

 
Uncontrollable Shock, Norepinephrine, and Depression

 
Serotonin Mechanisms

 
Emotions and Health

 
 
Chapter 9: Genes, Stress, and Behavior
Early Life Experience, Epigenetic Programming of Gene Expression, and Stress Reactivity

 
A Rat Model of Early Experience, Development, and Responses to Stress

 
Maternal Separation and Neglect

 
Nurturing by Rat Mothers is Increased by Brief Separation

 
Genotype, Genetic Vulnerability to Early Life Adversity, and Psychobehavioral Outcomes in Humans

 
 
Chapter 10: Individual Differences in Reactivity to Stress
A Proposed Classification of Individual Differences in Reactivity

 
Persons May Differ in Stress Reactivity Because of Inborn Factors or Experience

 
Individual Differences in Stress Responses May be Conditioned by Functional Alterations at Three Levels in the System

 
Individual Differences in Evaluative and Emotional Processes—Level I

 
Individual Differences in Hypothalamic and Brainstem Responses to Stress—Level II

 
Individual Differences in Peripheral Responses to Stress—Level III

 
 
Chapter 11: Health Implications of Exaggerated and Blunted Stress Reactivity
Reactivity Tests in Medicine

 
Health Outcomes Related to Exaggerated Cardiovascular and Endocrine Reactivity

 
Individual Differences in Level I Reactivity and Health Implications

 
Individual Differences in Level II Reactivity: Cardiovascular Reactivity as a Mediator of Disease Risk

 
Individual Differences in Level III Reactivity and Disease

 
Blunted Stress Reactivity and Health

 
Early Life Adversity and Blunted Stress Reactivity

 
Early Life Adversity, Psychological Characteristics, Cognition, and Behavioral Regulation

 
Early Life Adversity and Low Versus High Stress Reactivity: Unanswered Questions

 
Blunted Stress Reactivity, Social Adversity, and Health

 
Discussion

 
Exaggerated Reactivity and Disease

 
Blunted Reactivity and Disease

 
Family Dysfunction, Socioeconomic Status, Neighborhood Characteristics, and Health Outcomes

 
 
Chapter 12: Behavior, Stress, and Health
The Historical Dilemma of Mind-Body Dualism

 
Matter and Behavior

 
Behavioral Medicine in Relation to Traditional Medicine

 
Systems Organization and Stress

 
Psychological Stress and Its Consequences

 
Stress and Behavioral Medicine

 
Stress, Stress Reduction, and Improved health

 

A recommended reading for the student that has a keen interest in occupational health psychology and stress in particular. The mutual influence between biological and psychological components is key for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and its prevention.

Dr Teresa C. D'Oliveira
School of Psychology, University of East London
May 23, 2016

very interesting chapters covering the most important topics related to stress.
Technical language very well explained making the book very accessible

Dr Florbela Soares Teixeira
Education , Coventry University
June 2, 2016

excellent coverage of bioloical topics in stress

Dr Susan Wilbraham
Psychology , University of Cumbria
February 15, 2016

Very informative book clearly explaining the finner detail of the effects of stress. We incorporated some of this finner detail into the professional regulatory unit of the course

Miss Kelly McGrath
Animal Management and veterinary nursing, Sparsholt College Hampshire
October 28, 2015

was not appropriate to level of knowledge

Miss Kathryn Bould
Dental Institute, King's College London
July 2, 2015

A very informative text but a bit too physiological for our purposes. But I sure will recommend it to students interested in the physiological aspects of stress (and health).

Mr Peter Karlsson
Sch of Health & Social Sciences - HOS, Halmstad University
May 3, 2015

This is a really detailed and research-evidenced journey through the psychobiology of stress, and is one of the texts at the forefront of reporting on psychoneuroimmunology at an accessible level. It explicates what is know, identifies what may be inferred and demonstrates that some research may be interesting but inconclusive. By resisting the broad, but unsupported, sweep of the relationships between stress and physiology, and between "types" and stress reactions, this text explores individual differences and how they interact with stress to affect health outcomes. An invaluable text from foundation year to doctoral level, for all those interested in the psychological and physiological aspects of stress.

Mrs Hazel Chapman
Faculty of Health and Social Care, Chester University
March 31, 2015

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 5

Chapter 10


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