Exam 13: Health and Disease

Discuss the concept of homeostasis and its relationship to stress. What is the fight-or-flight response, and how is this regulated through the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems? What are the three stages of the General Adaptive Syndrome?

According to the social shaping hypothesis (Taylor and Gonzaga, 2006), early social relationships have three functions. Which of the following is NOT one of these?

McEwen (2002) addressed the paradoxical nature of the stress response, suggesting that the term stress be replaced with the term _____, which refers to the body's ability to achieve stability through change.

When discussing life expectancy from an evolutionary or biological perspective, _____ is the technically correct term for aging.

Nesse (2005) suggests that there are six ways to think about the relationship between health and disease in evolutionary terms. Discuss each.

One way the brain prepares the body for action is through the _____ nervous system, which releases catecholamines such as epinephrine and norepinephrine.

General Adaptation Syndrome involves three stages. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

The _____ response has been critical throughout our evolutionary history, but today, in our different social structure, it may lead to stress-related disorders.

One pathway the brain has for influencing peripheral physiology is the _____, which innervates a variety of organs with the basic consequence of preparing the body for action.

Evidence suggests that people whose jobs are characterized by _____ display more symptoms of a variety of disorders, including heart disease.

People of Northern European descent do not lose the ability to digest lactose, as do most humans; were an adult from Asia to drink milk, he or she would feel ill and have genetic symptoms of bloating and diarrhea resulting from a _____ between his or her genetic makeup and the food source, whereas those from Northern Europe would not.

The immune system is designed to attack whatever is not you; that is why you have _____, which are simply reactions of the immune system attacking what it considers a pathogen.

Allostatic load has been discussed by McEwen (1998) in terms of four particular situations. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

Discuss the seven features of predictive adaptive responses (PARs) as proposed by Gluckman and Hanson (2005).

The basic neuroendocrine responses to stress appear to be similar in males and females; however, testosterone levels are higher in the male brain, whereas oxytocin levels are higher in the female brain. Thus, males produce more _____ responses to stress, but females show more _____ responses.

During times of stress, the _____ nervous system releases norepinephrine and epinephrine into the blood stream, increasing heart and breathing rate, dilating the pupils and redirecting blood flow to the muscles.

In a provocative study, Bach (2002) asked whether the decreased incidence of infectious diseases through vaccines is causally related to the _____ incidence of immunologic diseases.

One pathway the brain uses for preparing the body for action is called the _____; it involves cells in the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands, which help convert stored fats and carbohydrates into energy that can be used immediately.

Canon (1915) developed the concept of _____ to refer to the manner in which a physiological system tended to center on a set point, similar to the way a thermostat regulates the temperature in a building.

What is allostasis? What is allostatic load, and what are the four situations that lead to it? Also discuss social stress and uncontrollable stress. Does fight-or-flight apply to females?