9. Health, Stress and Coping Flashcards
What is Health Psychology?
understanding of psychological influences on:
how people stay healthy
why they become ill
how they respond when the get ill
what is health according to the World Health Organisation?
complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease of ‘infirmity’
what are many of the leading causes of death in the world?
they are all preventable
chronic diseases; heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes
what is the health belief model?
suggests that health behaviours are predicted by 4 factors?
what are the 4 factors of the health belief model?
perceived susceptibility to a health threat
perceived seriousness/severity of a health threat
benefit and barriers of undertaking particular health behaviours
cues to action
what is the protection motivation theory of health?
health belief model + self-efficacy
what ar the theories of reasoned action?
a socio cognitive view
an individual’s attitudes toward a health behaviour and subjective norms influence their intention to perform the behaviour
what is the theory of planned behaviour?
Theory of reasoned action + self-efficacy
what are the attitudes towards a health behaviour
an individual’s belief that the behaviour leads to certain outcomes and certain evaluations of these outcomes
what are subjective norms?
the person’s belief that the specific individuals or group think he/she should or should not perform the behaviour and his/her motivation to comply with the specific referents.
what is stress?
a challenge to a person’s capacity to adapt to inner and outer demands
what does a stressful experience produce?
psychological and emotional arousa
what do stressful experiences elicit?
cognitive and behavioural efforts to cope with stress
what is stress as a transactional provess
stress is a transaction between the individual and environment rather than a property of either alone. It involves assessments of demands and resources called cognitive appraisals (Lazarus)
What is Lazarus’ model?
primary appraisal –> secondary appraisal
what is the primary appraisal
deciding the significance or meaning of the event
what is the secondary appraisal
evaluate our ability to cope and decide how to respond
what are the 3 types of stress?
harm or loss
threat (anticipation of loss)
challenges (opportunities that might involve disruption and uncertainty)
what is the stress that we experience made up of?
depends on the cognitive appraisals we make in our transactions in our environment.
if the fit between demands and resources is close, we experience little to no stress
if we appraise a discrepancy between demands and resources, we perceive stress to carrying degrees (depending on the ‘size’ of the discrepancy)
what are the three highest source of stress?
death of a spouse
divorce
marital separation
what is stress as a psychobiological process?
involves both the nervous system and endocrine syste
which part of the peripheral nervous system does stress affect?
the autonomic nervous system
what is the autonomic nervous system responsible for?
concerned with regulation of smooth muscle (e.g. blood vessels, wall of gut), cardiac muscle and glands
what are the two automatically separate systems of the ANS?
the sympathetic division and parasympathetic
what is the sympathetic division?
most involved in activities associated with the expenditure of energy from reserves stored in the body (fight or flight)
what is the parasympathetic division?
supports activities that are involved with increases in the body’s supply of stored energy (rest and digest)
what are the glands that provide for the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system?
hypothalamus and pituitary glands
what is an adrenal gland
critical for our stress response
what is neural communication?
activation of sympathetic nervous system, happens really fast. it is the communication between neurons.
what are neurons?
basic functional cell of the nervous system
why is the sympathetic nervous system activity seen in a stress response quick?
because the type of communication that triggers it is neural communication or synaptic transmission.
what is the process of neural communication or synaptic transmission?
sends out little chemicals into gap (synapse) between neurons, that trigger activity in another neuron (quick and direct)
what is endocrine communication?
communication via the blood stream.
endocrine cell sends out molecule like a neuron however molecule has to travel through bloodstream until reaches target organ
takes longer process, triggered as a stress response
what is the hypothalamus’ role?
providing a fight or flight repsonse
what other gland does the hypothalamus control?
pituitary gland by releasing a hormone signal to the anterior gland and then to the pituitary gland
what does the pituitary gland do
releases hormones to tell other glands what to do
what is the process included in the production of hormone by the anterior pituitary?
Process called HPA axis
release of CRF from hypothalamus to the anterior pituitary gland
then ACTH from the pituitary gland to act on the adrenal gland (tells adrenal gland to excrete the stress hormone
what is the HPA axis?
hypothalamic - pituitary - adrenal
from hypothalamus to pituitary gland to adrenal gland
Stress Axis
CRF
corticotropin releasing facto
the hormone that hypothalamus releases to the anterior pituitary gland (hey you go signal(
ACTH
adrenocorticotropic hormone
the hormone that is released by the pituitary that acts on adrenal
what is the stress hormone?
glucocorticoids (cortisol)
what is general adaptation syndrome?
the process of:
alarm - resistance - exhaustion
what is the alarm stage of general adaptation syndrome?
release of adrenaline and other hormones (fight or flight response)
what is the resistance stage of general adaptation syndrome?
respiration and heart rate return to normal, glucose levels and some stress-related hormones remain high
what is the exhaustion stage of general adaptation syndrome?
after prolonged stress, the body’s defences break down, increases vulnerability to infection/disease
what are the principle components of the stress response?
mobilisation of energy t the cost of energy storage
increased cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary tone
suppression of digestion
suppression of growth
suppression of immunity and of inflammatory response
anahesia
neural responses including altered cognition and sensory thresholds
common pathological consequences of prolonged stress
fatigue, muscle wasting, steroid diabetes
hypertension (high blood pressure)
ulcers
psychogenic dwarfism, bone decalcification
suppression of ovulation, impotency, loss of libido
impaired disease resistance
apathy
accelerated neural degeneration during aging
