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Health Psychology > A2 - Psychological approaches to health > Flashcards

A2 - Psychological approaches to health Flashcards

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1
Q

How can illness be inherited?

A
  • disorders and diseases
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2
Q

What is an example of an inheritable disease/ disorder?

A
  • schizophrenia
  • environment = schizophrenogenic mother figure
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3
Q

Define polygenic.

A
  • combination of genes working together
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4
Q

How do diseases develop?

A
  • come from a combination of your genes, you choices and your environment
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5
Q

What do people inherit in their genes relating to illness?

A

-people inherit a predisposition making them more or less likely to become ill

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6
Q

What does illness depend on?

A
  • factors that act as a trigger such as smoking or being exposed to a virus
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7
Q

What is an example of a genetic predisposition?

A
  • physical illness obesity is a physical disease influenced by this
  • twin studies show that BMI is greater in identical twin pairs than non-identical twin pairs indicating a strong genetic influence on genes
  • mental disorders researched with twins and other family members suggested that depression is 37% inherited
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8
Q

What is phenylketonuria (PNU)?

A
  • rare inherited disorder that causes an amino acid called phenylalanine to build up in the body
  • they build up in the blood and brain leading to brain damage
  • 5 days old given newborn blood spot screening to diagnose
  • symptoms = temper tantrums, fairer skins, eczema and sickness
  • treated by changing diet to avoid high protein foods and regular blood tests to measure phenylalaine levels
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9
Q

Define neurotransmitters.

A
  • chemicals that allow communication between neurons, levels can become unbalanced with various effects on behaviour depending on whether the levels are too low or too high
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10
Q

What is the effect of physical health and serotonin?

A
  • increased levels in areas of the brain by short, intense exercise and long-term moderate exercise
  • improving sleep quality, alertness and digestion
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11
Q

What is the effect of mental health and neurotransmitters?

A
  • high levels of dopamine associated with feelings of happiness and optimism
  • depression linked to low levels of serotonin
  • cause can be genetic
  • some people inherit a gene which causes lower amounts of serotonin than others
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12
Q

Evaluate the biological approach to health through support.

A
  • support for genetic predisposition
  • PKU = genetic disorder cause by a mutation in a single gene
  • resilience research = kim-cohen & Gold (2009) suggests that some people inherit genes that make them more resilient, but also have supportive relationships with others
  • so resilience has a genetic basis but it depends on environmental circumstances
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13
Q

Evaluate the biological approach and health through practical application.

A
  • knowledge of neurotransmitter imbalances has lead to practical ways of improving health
  • recommendation for treating mild depression is serotonin levels and improves symptoms without the side effect of drugs
  • therefore, although genes can’t be altered, lifestyles and environmental changes can reduce risk of disease and improve health in people with a genetic predisposition
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14
Q

Evaluate the biological approach and health with a weakness.

A
  • incomplete explanation
  • emphasising the biological influences over simplifies the cause of health (reductionist)
  • for example, genetic predisposition is indirect rather than direct
  • it does not influence behaviour directly but influences lifestyle-related behaviours which in turn affect the likelihood of an individual being healthy or ill
  • therefore, the cause of health are complex and biological influences are not a complete explanation of health
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15
Q

Define healthy behaviours.

A
  • behaviours that promote the good physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of a person and reduce the development of illnesses and disease
  • eating 5 a day
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16
Q

Define unhealthy behaviours.

A
  • any behaviours that cause harm to a persons physical, mental and emotional wellbeing or even illnesses and disease
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17
Q

Explain the role of cues from the behaviorist approach in relation to health.

A
  • a stimulus, event or object that serves to guide behaviour such as retrieval cues that triggers the initiation of an addictive behaviour, unhealthy behaviour or healthy behaviour
18
Q

What is an example of the role of cues on healthy behaviour?

A
  • when you walk into a cinema, you may opt for popcorn and chocolate even though you are not hungry
19
Q

Explain classical conditioning in the behaviorist approach in relation to health.

A
  • an individual learns to associate a healthy/ unhealthy trait or behaviour with a stimulus
  • people wanting control over their weight need to be aware of conditioning which pre-exists for them (food and exercise)
20
Q

What is an example of classical conditioning on healthy behaviours?

A
  • consume nightly meal in the lounge in front of the TV
  • each time you sit there you are likely to associate this activity with eating
21
Q

Explain operant conditioning in the behaviorist approach in relation to health.

A
  • positive and negative reinforcement and punishment
  • rewards for engaging in healthy/ unhealthy behaviour, we are reinforced to maintain that behaviour
  • punished for engaging in certain healthy or unhealthy behaviours, we are less likely to repeat those behaviours
22
Q

What is an example of operant conditioning on healthy behaviours?

A
  • praised for loosing weight after going vegan, more likely to maintain diet due to being reinforced
23
Q

Explain the four areas of operant conditioning?

A

positive = add something
negative = remove something
reinforcement = encourage behaviour
punishment = discourage behaviour

24
Q

Explain the practical application of token economy of the behaviourist approach.

A
  • a form of behaviour modification designed to increase desirable behaviour and decrease undesirable behaviours with the use of tokens
  • receive tokens immediately after displaying desired behaviour
  • tokens collected and later exchanged for objects or privileges
  • someone in rehabilitation centre for alcoholism may receive tokens for staying sober
25
Q

What is the research support for token economy?

A
  • Erikisson et al (1975) found that incorporating token economy into a drug ward for 52 drug addicts for 17 days was effective in lowering drug intoxications on the ward compared to those who were not a part of the programme
26
Q

What is the research support for token economy?

A
  • Erikisson et al (1975) found that incorporating token economy into a drug ward for 52 drug addicts for 17 days was effective in lowering drug intoxications on the ward compared to those who were not a part of the programme
27
Q

Explain the research support for the behaviourist approach and health.

A
  • Strohacker et al 2014 reviewed studies into the use of incentives to encourage exercise behaviours
  • incentives included cash or vouchers
  • both positive and negative reinforcement increased exercise behaviours, compared to non-incentivised controls (true for all ages)
  • this suggests that reinforcement is an effective way of encouraging healthy behaviour m
28
Q

Explain why the behaviourist approach has limited use for explaining health behaviours.

A
  • application of operant conditioning to healthy behaviours is limited
  • this is because rewards for healthy behavioural changes may take a long time to appear
  • e.g. dieting, the reward for this is weight loss at some point in the future
  • a weak form of reinforcement which is overwhelmed by completing short-term rewards for unhealthy behaviours
  • therefore, operant conditioning may be less effective way of encouraging healthy behaviours than other approaches (e.g. cognitive)
29
Q

What are the key words surrounding the social learning approach?

A
  • imitation
  • modelling
  • vicarious reinforcement
  • mediation processes
  • identification
  • role models
30
Q

Define social learning approach in relation to health.

A
  • effects of parental and peer role models on healthy and unhealthy behaviours
  • role models in health education
31
Q

What are the assumptions of the social learning approach?

A
  • behaviours learnt from environment
  • behaviours learned from observing others and the reinforcement or punishment they receive
32
Q

Describe the relationship between parents/ peer role models in health.

A
  • people are more likely to imitate people they identify with (identification)
  • the person they identify with is called a role model and the process of imitating a role model is called modelling
  • a person become a role model if they are seen to posses similar characteristics to the observer (family member/ peer group) and are more attractive and have high status
33
Q

Describe the relationship between gambling & vicarious reinforcement and behaviours.

A
  • experience of seeing others being rewarded for their gambling, pleasure and enjoyment as well as the occasional financial returns
  • does not have to be a direct observation of peoples behaviour = newspapers, magazines, media report positively on big lottery winners or broadcasts the glamour and excitement of horse-racing for example
  • may be enough to trigger a desire for the same reinforcement in someone who hasn’t gambled before
34
Q

What are the three role models in health education?

A
  • peers = ‘peer leader’ create and reinforce healthy lifestyle values and model positive health-related behaviours for others to imitate. crucial advantage of using peers credibility which teachers and parents usually do not have with younger age groups
  • healthcare professionals = nurses in particular are usually expected to model the health behaviours that are targets of health education. have direct contact with people who would benefit most from education about healthy lifestyles help train future nurses
    celebrities = use of media to transmit the behaviour to be modelled, 2021 news footage of celebs having their COVID vaccinations, imitated because they have status
35
Q

Define the cognitive approach in relation to health behaviours.

A
  • decisions to engage in behaviours to provide relief from stress, anxiety, boredom or to mitigate impacts of others health problems, resolving cognitive dissonance for behaviour change, professional biases in diagnoses and treatments
36
Q

How does cognitive approach relief from stress, anxiety and boredom?

A
  • example = emotional overeating is a common response to these
  • smokers find it relaxing and anxiety, reducing partly due to the biochemical effects of nicotine, therefore is a type of self-medication becomes habitual, ‘something to do’ to alleviate negative feelings
37
Q

How does the cognitive approach mitigate from other problems?

A
  • some health-related decisions can be health-protective, we engage in certain behaviours to reduce the impact of other health issues
  • being physically active
  • eating a diet with a lot of fruit and veg
  • taking prescribed medication
38
Q

Define cognitive dissonance.

A
  • refers to a disagreement with yourself
  • experienced when making decisions, such as choosing between two equally attractive options, which ever you choose you are going to think ‘maybe should have selected another one’
39
Q

What is a common example of cognitive dissonance?

A
  • choosing to promote a behaviour such as regular exercise that a person does not themselves practise = this type of cognitive dissonance is called hypocrisy
  • telling a lie despite the person thinking of themselves as honest
  • eating meat while also thinking of themselves as an animal lover who dislikes the thought of killing animals, some researchers call this the meat paradox
40
Q

What are the four ways to reduce cognitive dissonance?

A
  • rejecting or avoiding conflicting information
  • persuading and justifying
  • reconciling differences
  • professional biases in diagnosis and treatment

Health Psychology (3 decks)

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