Psychology

PSYCHOLOGY
Student:
Professor:
Course title:
Date:
Top of Form
PSYCHOLOGY
The human brain has the capacity to imagine, create and discover .It has been the force behind complex operations and inventions. It is amazing how despite this dynamic ability, it is affected by ‘small’ happenings in a human’s life that create pressure. This pressure offsets normal functioning of the human body. It has been referred to as stress.
Stress is the response of an organism to a stimulus or an environmental condition. It is how an organism’s body reacts to a challenge. In humans, stress refers to a positive or negative condition that has an impact on the individual’s emotional, physical and mental well-being. It begins as pressure and when one feels that they cannot cope, it turns to stress. When stressed, the body gives a response as though you were in danger; the fight-or-flight response. It increases the rate of breathing, speeds up the heart rate and develops a bust of energy (Reuters, 2013). Different people have different reactions to stress; a stressful situation to a person can be a motivation to another.
Stress can be useful or harmful. Stress that keeps you alert and makes you avoid danger is good. For example, finishing your work on time to beat a deadline. Stress can be harmful when a person faces challenges continuously without relief. Tension builds and the person becomes overworked. It is also harmful if a person turns to drugs or alcohol to relieve it (Reuters, 2013). These substances, unfortunately, keep the body stressed and more problems can arise.
Stress has effects on memory and cognitive ability. It interferes with a person’s ability to encode memory and retrieve information (Reuters, 2013). When stressed, the body produces stress hormones and releases them into the bloodstream. Over secretion of these hormones affects memory negatively in most cases. It causes chronic and acute brain changes that can cause brain damage.
The Cognitive Continuum Theory examines the link between stress and cognitive ability. The theory argues that the stressors affect cognition and determine the consequences of judgment. The decision to change or stay in a particular situation becomes the determinant of effective judgment, leadership and problem solving (Seaward, 2012).
Stress can be caused by many things. A job interview, a test or a run can make you feel stress. This is the short-term kind and it is normal. Other problems like family conflict or problems at work cause long-term or chronic stress. Chronic stress is dangerous and may lead to health complications affecting the overall wellbeing of the body.
There are some personal problems that can cause stress. Health problems, especially chronic illnesses like diabetes or heart disease cause stress because the illness is continuous and the patient does not have relief from that condition (Seaward,2012) .Emotional problems like guilt, low self-esteem and ...