Back to the full dot-point answer
VICPsychologyQuick questions
Unit 3: How does experience affect behaviour and mental processes?
Quick questions on Stress, GAS and the Transactional Model: VCE Psychology Unit 3
7short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the fight-flight-freeze response (acute stress)?Show answer
When the body faces an acute (sudden, short-term) stressor, the sympathetic nervous system triggers the fight-flight-freeze response. Adrenaline is released, heart rate and breathing increase, pupils dilate, and energy is mobilised so the body can either confront the threat (fight), escape it (flight), or become momentarily immobile (freeze). The freeze response is a brief state of heightened alertness and muscular tension that can precede fight or flight. This response is adaptive in the short term but harmful if prolonged.
What is the role of cortisol (chronic stress)?Show answer
For longer-lasting chronic stress, the body releases cortisol, a stress hormone, from the adrenal glands. Cortisol provides sustained energy by raising blood glucose, but at high levels for long periods it suppresses the immune system, leaving the body more vulnerable to illness. This explains why chronically stressed people get sick more often.
What is selye's General Adaptation Syndrome (a biological model)?Show answer
Hans Selye proposed the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), a biological model describing the body's non-specific physiological response to any prolonged stressor across three stages.
What are strengths of GAS?Show answer
It identifies a predictable biological pattern, and it is supported by experimental evidence (Selye's research on rats).
What are limitations of GAS?Show answer
It was based on animal (rat) studies, so generalising to humans is questionable. It does not account for psychological factors such as how a person interprets the stressor, treating the response as purely biological and the same for everyone.
What are strengths?Show answer
It accounts for individual differences, since the same event can be stressful for one person and not another, and it explains why stress is subjective.
What are limitations?Show answer
Appraisal can occur unconsciously, making it hard to measure or test scientifically, and the two appraisal stages can be difficult to separate and may overlap.
Have a question we have not covered?
This dot-point answer is short enough that we have not extracted many short questions yet. Read the full dot-point answer or ask Mo, our study assistant, in the chat for follow ups.