Additional Questions for Second Written Exam P439/749 Biopsychology of Stress

1. What are 4 or 5 symptoms of unipolar depression?

2. What kinds of drugs are used to treat depression? What are their effects on neurotransmitter function?

3. What is one problem with the timing of drug effects on depression?

4. What surgical procedure is sometimes used to treat severe depression?

5. What is dexamethasone? In what way do depressed people frequently respond to dexamethasone?

6. What is the relationship between stress and depression?

7. What is one means by which repeated episodes of depression may become chronic?

8. What is one piece of evidence suggesting that high levels of glucocorticoids can cause depression?

9. What is learned helplessness? How was it tested in rats? In humans?

10. What happened when Jay Weiss presented the learned helplessness procedure every day for 2 weeks?

11. How may acute vs. repeated stressors affect norepinephrine neurons?

12. What are some traits and behaviors that are characteristic of male baboon with low glucocortoid levels?

13. Are panic attacks more closely related to excessive activity in the sympathetic nervous system or increased glucocorticoid levels?

14. Who first “discovered” the Type A behavior pattern? On the basis of what evidence?

15. What are the major health consequences of being a Type A person?

16. Describe the lot of a subordinate baboon. What are some physiological characteristics of subordinate baboons?

17. How are marmosets different in the behavioral and physiological characteristics of subordination?

18. What is one moderating factor in humans, which allows some “subordinate” people to avoid the problems of subordinate baboons?

19. How important is socioeconomic status (SES) in determining health? How may its effects be mediated?

20. What was the influence of agriculture on human society?

21. How important is access to health care in the effects of SES on health?

22. What are some of the sources of a “sense of coherence” that Aaron Antonovsky has described?

23. What are some factors that lead to successful aging?

24. How do some parents cope with catastrophic illness in their children?

25. What is one personality factor that à less learned helplessness?

26. How were nursing home residents given more control over their lives? What effect did that have? What happened at the end of the semester when the students stopped visiting?

27. Is social affiliation always a good thing? How about sense of control?

28. What are some rules for effective coping?