Stress Portrait of a Killer Worksheet

Stress: Portrait of a Killer Worksheet 1. How are baboons stressed (in comparison to the typical ways animals are stressed)? They are being stressed by social and psychological tumult invented by their own species. 2. What does Sapolsky measure in the blood of baboons? From each baboon blood sample, Sapolsky measured levels of hormones central to the stress response. 3. What does it mean that human beings can’t find their “off switch?” By not turning off the “off switch” we wallow in a corrosive bath of hormones. Humans will hyperventilate; heart rate will increase, muscles tense, and all these stress responses are more damaging than the stressor itself. 4. In baboons, how are stress hormones, heart rate, and blood pressure related to one’s position in the social hierarchy? A baboon’s rank determines the level of stress hormone in his system. For example, a dominant male baboon can expect to have low stress hormones but a submissive baboon’s stress hormones would be much higher. He also found that low rankers had increased heart rates and higher blood pressure. 5. What does Sapolsky say about the physical and neurological consequences of stress? A stressed, unhealthy baboon in a typical troop with high blood pressure, elevated levels of stress hormones, an immune system that doesn’t work as well, and your reproductive system is more vulnerable to being knocked out of whack. The brain chemistry is one that has some similarity to clinically depressed humans and all that stuff are not predictors of a hale and hearty old age. 6. Why are workers in the British Civil Service good to study when considering stress? They are good to study when considering stress because every job is ranked in a precise hierarchy, which will help make a link between rank and stress. 7. What did the Civil Service study discover about hierarchy and health? The lower they were in the hierarchy the higher the risk of heart disease and other diseases. Your position in the hierarchy intimately relates to your risk of disease and length of life. 8. Historically, what was the first physical problem tied to stress? Also, what recent discovery about ulcer causing bacteria supports this connection? The first physical problem tied to stress is ulcers. A recent discovery established that when stressed the body begins to shut down all non-essential systems, including the immune system. When you shut down the immune system bacteria can run amok. So stress can cause ulcer by disrupting our body’s ability to heal itself. 9. What has Carol Shively discovered about stress in observing the macaque monkeys? Shively discovered stress increases blood pressure, which would damage arteries walls making them repositories for plaque. She also discovered social and psychological stress restricts blood flow, jeopardizing our health and can lead to heart attacks. 10. What area of the brain is highly affected by stress, and what mental ability is this area responsible for? The area of the brain that is highly affected by stress is hippocampus, which is responsible for memory. 11. What neurotransmitter is connected with pleasure, and how does social hierarchy affect this neurotransmitter? Dopamine. The lower you are on the social hierarchy the more dull your brain is because there is less receptor binding going on in the area, which means there is less dopamine and you are less happy. 12. What are the consequences of dopamine depletion? What symptom of depression is this connected with? Everything around you is less pleasurable when you have dopamine depletion. How readily you fall into depletion, and how vulnerable you are to psychiatric disorders. 13. How is stress and life expectancy tied to where you live? If one lives in a location where less is demanded from them, they will have a higher life expectancy as a result of being less stressed out. The freedom will take some of the pressures away from someone who lives in a potentially a more populated area where they would be lower in the social hierarchy. 14. What is the connection between stress and where you put on weight? If someone is stressed, they have a higher level of cortisol, which causes them to become hungry. When one has a large appetite they tend to go for quick sugar junk foods that cause fat in the stomach area. 15. As a culture do we value a less stressed or a more stressed lifestyle? Explain As a culture we value a more stressed lifestyle. Everyone feels so much pressure to be the best and everything is based around deadlines, and competition as oppose to ones will do something and cohesion. 16. What was the “Dutch Hunger Winter, “and how were people who were born during this time or soon after affected by it later as adults? The Dutch Hunger Winter was a time at the end of World War II. It was an early winter that brought devastating famine to the Netherlands. People born soon after this time suffered from stress consequences related to the mothers natural need to survive during pregnancy and the lack of food their was to support both the mother and their soon to be child. 17. Tell about how mothers with a child who has special needs are affected by the stress they experience... Mothers with a child who has special needs ages at an exponential rate in comparison to those bare a child without special. Due to stress, every one year a mother takes care of her special needs child it ages her by three years. 18. In the kikorock baboon tribe, when many died of tuberculosis, which types of baboons were more likely to survive? Less likely? The aggressive more dominant baboons were more likely to die because when they found this tainted food source, they were the first to eat from it. The more passive or “good guy” baboons were more likely to survive because they did not hoard this new food source, resulting in less of the amount the food being eaten. 19. How is control in the work environment related to stress? A person is more stressed in a workplace where they have less control of their actions with the type of work they do.