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Lecture Notes

And so when we talk about stressors, we're just talking about a demand that's placed on the body that disturbs the body's homeostasis, or stable state. That demand could be a particular event like speaking in public; it could be a situation like being in big groups of people; it could be anything, literally anything in your life that disturbs your body's homeostasis. And it's important to note that it's our reaction to that stressor, not the stressor itself, that determines the stress response that we'll talk about later in this chapter. And so some examples of potential stressors, again, having to speak in public, deadlines, crowds, having a baby, getting married, searching for a job. What I want you to notice in this list is that they're not all negative events. Even events that we would consider to be very positive—so, for example, getting married—can be also very stressful for people, depending on how you react to those events. And so physical activity and exercise is also considered a stressor because it disturbs the homeostasis of your body, and clearly we believe that physical activity and exercise are positive things. So we'll talk some more about stressors and how they affect your body, and how your reaction affects your body, here in the next few slides.