Journey Across the Lifespan (Key Terms)
Journey Across the Lifespan Study
Guide Material, (317 Key Terms) with
Correct Definitions 2026-2027 Update
Anxiety - Answer: The response to a stressful situation
Apathy - Answer: A lack of interest in one's surroundings
Emotions - Answer: Expressed feeling tones that influence a person's
behavior
Empowerment - Answer: A form of self-responsibility that demands that
people take charge of their own decision making
Equilibrium - Answer: A balance or state of homeostasis
Fight-or-flight response - Answer: A state of readiness to attack or flee
caused by a perceived threat
General adaptation syndrome (GAS) - Answer: A response to stress that
was described by Hans style
Health - Answer: A state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
Journey Across the Lifespan (Key Terms)
Health promotion - Answer: Health care directed toward increasing one's
optimum level of wellness
Health restoration - Answer: That which begins once the disease process
is stabiltzed
Holistic - Answer: Including not only physical aspects of health but also
psychological, social, cognitive, and environmental influences
Life expectancy - Answer: The average number of years a person is likely
to have
Malnutrition - Answer: Poor dietary practice that results from the lack of
essential nutrients or from failure to eat available foods
Nutrition - Answer: A science that studies the body's need for foods, how
foods are digested, and how food choices relate to health and disease
Regression - Answer: A return to an earlier stage of development during
stressful periods
Stress - Answer: Anything that upsets psychological or physiological
balance
Journey Across the Lifespan (Key Terms)
Substance abuse - Answer: Commonly refers to the abuse of drugs such
as alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine
Wellness - Answer: A relative state of health
Acculturation - Answer: When values and beliefs are exchanged as a
result of continuous direct interactions between cultures
Beliefs - Answer: Truths held by a culture
Cultural awareness - Answer: Understanding of culture, race and ethnicity
of diverse minority groups
Cultural competence - Answer: The ongoing and continuous selfevaluation and development of cultural skills, which can only be acquired by
interacting with or learning about diverse cultural groups
Cultural sensitivity - Answer: Recognizes that diversity exists and one
needs to respect a person's uniqueness
Culture - Answer: All of the learned patterns of behavior
Diffusion - Answer: Borrowing cultural traits from another culture
borrowing cultural traits from another cultur