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Stress Response (GAS Model) Cheat Sheet
A printable reference covering alarm, resistance, exhaustion, cortisol, adrenaline, and coping in the GAS stress response model for grades 9-12.
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The General Adaptation Syndrome, or GAS, explains how the body responds to stress over time. This cheat sheet helps students connect psychological stress to physical reactions in the nervous and endocrine systems. It is useful for understanding health, behavior, motivation, and coping in everyday situations. Students need this model to explain why short-term stress can help performance but long-term stress can harm health. The GAS model has three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. During alarm, the body activates the sympathetic nervous system and releases stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. During resistance, the body tries to adapt and keep functioning while stress continues. During exhaustion, prolonged stress can drain resources and increase the risk of illness, burnout, and poor decision making.
Key Facts
- General Adaptation Syndrome = alarm stage + resistance stage + exhaustion stage.
- Alarm stage: the sympathetic nervous system activates the fight-or-flight response to prepare the body for immediate action.
- In the alarm stage, adrenaline increases heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and blood glucose for quick energy.
- Resistance stage: cortisol helps the body maintain energy and stay alert while the stressor continues.
- Exhaustion stage: prolonged stress can weaken immune function, reduce concentration, and increase physical and emotional strain.
- Short-term stress can improve focus and performance, but chronic stress is linked to health problems when recovery is limited.
- Stress response pathway: stressor -> brain appraisal -> sympathetic nervous system and HPA axis activation -> hormone release -> body response.
- Effective coping can reduce the stress response by changing the stressor, changing the appraisal, or increasing recovery time.
Vocabulary
- Stress
- Stress is the physical and psychological response to a demand, threat, or challenge.
- Stressor
- A stressor is any event, situation, or thought that triggers a stress response.
- General Adaptation Syndrome
- General Adaptation Syndrome is Hans Selye's three-stage model of how the body responds to ongoing stress.
- Alarm Stage
- The alarm stage is the first GAS stage, when the body quickly prepares for fight or flight.
- Resistance Stage
- The resistance stage is the second GAS stage, when the body tries to adapt to a continuing stressor.
- Exhaustion Stage
- The exhaustion stage is the third GAS stage, when long-term stress depletes the body's resources and raises health risks.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Confusing stress with only negative events is wrong because stress can come from positive challenges, such as performing, competing, or starting something new.
- Mixing up alarm and resistance is wrong because alarm is the immediate fight-or-flight reaction, while resistance is the longer effort to cope with continuing stress.
- Assuming cortisol is always harmful is wrong because cortisol helps provide energy in the short term, but high levels over time can become damaging.
- Skipping the role of appraisal is wrong because the brain's interpretation of a situation affects whether it is experienced as stressful.
- Treating exhaustion as simple tiredness is wrong because the exhaustion stage can involve weakened immunity, emotional burnout, and reduced ability to function.
Practice Questions
- 1 A student gives a speech and notices a racing heart, sweaty hands, and faster breathing. Which GAS stage is most likely happening, and which hormone is strongly involved?
- 2 A person studies for 3 weeks while sleeping only 5 hours per night and begins getting sick often. Which GAS stage best explains this pattern?
- 3 List the three stages of General Adaptation Syndrome in order and give one body change or behavior linked to each stage.
- 4 Explain why two students can experience the same exam differently, with one feeling motivated and the other feeling overwhelmed.