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Fight or flight response — AQA GCSE Psychology Definition

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Psychology
Key terms
Fight or flight response

GCSE Psychology · key term

Fight or flight response

Definition

An automatic bodily response to a perceived threat that prepares a person to confront the danger or escape from it.

Used by AQA

How each exam board covers it

AQA GCSE Psychology · 8182

Paper 2

The sympathetic division prepares the body for action during a threatening or stressful situation. This is the fight or flight response: the body becomes ready either to confront a threat or to escape from it.
Revise: Nervous System Structure and Function

AQA Psychology past papers

Related key terms

Autonomic nervous system
Central nervous system
James–Lange theory of emotion
Nervous system
Parasympathetic nervous system

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Peripheral nervous system

Physiological arousal

Somatic nervous system

Sympathetic nervous system