Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

Author Robert Sapolsky Publisher: New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company. Publish Date: 2004 Status:⏳ Rating:

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Nebulas

• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers Chapter 1. Why Don’t Zebras Get Ulcers?
• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers Chapter 11. Stress and a Good Night’s Sleep
• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers 13. Why Is Psychological Stress Stressful?
• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers Chapter 14. Stress and Depression
• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers Chapter 15. Personality, Temperament, and Their Stress-Related Consequences
• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers Chapter 17. The View from the Bottom
• Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers Chapter 18. Managing Stress

Notes

• A lack of predictability as to when a stressor will occur has been shown to increase chronic stress
• Receiving a reward at an unpredictable time interval creates a stronger stress response than when it is received predictably
• Organisms will habituate to stressors that are experienced predictably
• Unpredictability can cause a higher stress response than if conditions were more stressful overall but still consistent
• Predictable information may lower our stress-response while we are experiencing the stressor by letting us know what coping stratagies are best to use
• An organism will feel less stressed if they believe they have control over a situation
• Occupational stress generally has to do with a lack of control over the work process
• Organisms feel less stressed when they can control the rewards they can get than when those rewards are given to them for nothing
• Organisms feel a loss of control when faced with an novel and unpredictable situation
• Those undergoing significant stress are more likely to develop depression
• Genes that predispose someone to depression are only expressed when they are repeatedly exposed to stressors
• People with depression generally have higher levels of glucocorticoids due to an overactive stress-response
• Glucocorticoids can alter the features of neurotransmitter systems and make them less effective
• Elevated levels of cortisol can shrink the hippocampus
• The frontal cortex is equally vulnerable to shrinkage from cortisol as the hippocampus
• Rats previously exposed to repeated uncontrollable stressors were shown to be unable to learn how to avoid shocks
• People who develop learned helplessness lack the motivation to apply coping strategies in adverse situations
• Organisms who develop learned helplessness are less capable of perceiving the effectiveness of their coping strategies
• Hierarchically subordinate animals tend to be over-stressed due to uncontrollable and unpredictable mistreatment from superiors
• Hierarchically subordinate animals have higher resting levels of glucocorticoids and an ineffecient stress-response
• The frequency of harrasment by superiors and the lack of opportunities for social support have been shown to be the best predictors of elevated glucocorticoid levels among low ranking members of hierarchical groups
• A low hierarchical rank can have different implications within different species or animal cultures
• The stability of a hierarchy has a major influence on the stress levels in a group
• Stress is only increased in the low ranking members of a hierarchy for those that experience harrasment
• Hierarchical stress is harder to track in humans due the the fact that they can excel in at least one hierarchy they’re apart of
• The impact that a hierarchical rank can have on someone can change depending on their goals
• Poverty can bring many physical stressors
• Poverty can bring many psychological stressors
• The poor are less able to plan for the future and can only respond to present stressors
• The poor have less outlets to help deal with stress
• The poor lack social support
• The poor have been shown to have higher levels of cortisol
• Stress-related disease among the poor usually has more to do with feeling poor than actually being poor
• Income inequality is a strong predictor of poor health because it is about being made to feel poor
• Income inequality does not predict poor health as much in more egalitarian countries
• One’s immediate community has a bigger impact on feeling poor than society as a whole
• Urbanization, mobility, and the media can make us feel poor by people outside our immediate community
• If you adjust for absolute income, income inequality still predicts poor health
• Societies with more income equality, both the poor and the wealthy are healthier than their counterparts in a less equal society with the same average income
• There is a steep rise in health from very poor to lower middle class, but it flattens out in the upper SES range
• The low social capital that comes with income inequality can lead to more stress and poor health
• Dramatic income inequality gets rid of the possibility for there to be lots of social capital in a society, leading to more stress and poor health
• More social capital in a society can improve the health of the society
• The higher crime rate that comes with income inequality results in more physical and psychological stress among society
• More income inequality means that the wealthy will spend more money on their own private goods, leading to more stress among the public
• In the late 1980s, Eastern Bloc countries had lower life expectancy than in every Western European country due to the stress from income inequality, low social cohesion and high crime
• Areas in America with income inequality as low as in Canada still have more stress and poor health because of less available social capital
• To really address the poor health of the poor, we would have to uproot the stressors involved in low rank rather than give people more money
• Unlike monkey’s, humans who rank low in the hierarchy almost always have a disproportionate share of disease
• Agriculture made society more stressful due to more vulnerability to loss of resources and the unequal stockpiling of them
• Strong social support groups may sometimes only be about homogeneity, conformity, and xenophobia