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General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Triphasic pattern of nonspecific physiological responses to injury comprising of an initial alarm phase, followed by a stage of resistance/adaptation, leading eventually to a stage of exhaustion and death.

Introduction

Triphasic pattern of nonspecific physiological responses to injury comprising of an initial alarm phase, followed by a stage of resistance/adaptation, leading eventually to a stage of exhaustion and death.

Hans Seyle’s research documented the stages of prolonged exposure to stress: Seyle created the term general adaptation syndrome to refer to the three distinct phases of physiological change that occur in response to long-term stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion | Association. (2020) 10.2 Stress: The Unseen Killer – Introduction to Psychology. Retrieved December 11, 2020, from https://open.lib.umn.edu/intropsyc/chapter/10-2-stress-the-unseen-killer/

History:

According to many stress researchers, as well as historians, modern biological formulations of stress can be traced back to a brief and rather speculative article written by the Austrian-born Hungarian scientist Hans Selye (1907–82) in 1936. The article set out what appeared to be a characteristic triphasic pattern of nonspecific physiological responses to injury: the “general adaptation syndrome” comprised an initial alarm phase that was followed by a stage of resistance or adaptation, leading eventually to a stage of exhaustion and death.

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