GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME

Hans Selye – Three Stages of Stress Syndrome

• 1.       ALARM STAGE – this is the immediate physiological response. Tackles about flight or fight. In the flight-or-fight response, if a person is expose to a stressful situation or they call it danger, a physiological response (sympathetic nervous system) activates the adrenal glands and cardiovascular system, allowing a person to rapidly adjust to the need to flight or flee a situation.
• 2.       RESISTANCE – if the stress continues, the body adapts to the levels of stress and attempts to return to homoeostasis.
• 3.       EXHAUSTION – with prolonged exposure and adaptation, the body eventually become depleted. There are no more reserves to draw upon, and serious illness may now develop (e.g. hypertension, mental disorders, cancer). Selye teaches us that without intervention, even death is a possibility at this stage.

Diathesis- stress model views behaviour as the result of genetic and biological factors, a genetic predisposition results in a mental disorder when precipitated by environmental factors.