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environmental stress theory

the concept that autonomic and cognitive factors combine to form an individual’s appraisal of stressors in the environment as threatening or nonthreatening. Stressors perceived as threatening may lead to stress reactions involving physiological, emotional, and behavioral elements, which in turn may elicit strategies designed to cope with and potentially adapt to the threat.

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Psychology term of the day

July 27th 2024

ramus

ramus

n. (pl. rami)

1. a branch of a blood vessel or a nerve.

2. any of the large branches of a spinal nerve after it emerges from the spinal column, notably the anteriorly directed ventral ramus and the posteriorly directed dorsal ramus. These distribute motor and sensory nerve fibers to other, smaller nerves.

3. any of the short nerve branches that arise from the ventral ramus and communicate with sympathetic ganglia (see rami communicantes).