Ch. 1 Introduction to Health Psychology Flashcards
Health Psychology
devoted to understanding psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why people become ill, and how they respond when they do get ill. All aspects of health across a lifespand
what is health
a complete state of physcial, mental and social well-being and not merely the absense of disease or infirmity
Health Psychology represents
the educational, scientific and professional contributions of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health.
the prevention and treatment of illness
the identification of the causes and correlates of health and illness
the improvement of the health care system and the formulation of health policy
what influences health
behaviours, habits and patterns
Mind and body were considered a unit in the earliest times
disease arose when evil spirits entered the body
Greeks
identify the role of bodily functioning in health and illness, humours
middle ages explanation
super natural, gods punishment for evil doing
mind is part of the body
health care system makes it look like there is a difference, not always the case
Descartes
mind and body is separate
trephination
hole in brain to release evil spirit used in the earliest times
Freuds early work on conversion hysteria
unconscious conflicts cproduce physcial distrubances that symbolize the repressed psychological conflicts
Psychosomatic medicine (Dunbar and Alexander)
profiles of disorders thought to be psychosomatic in origin (eg. anxiety and stress causing ulcers). Helped shape beleif that bodily disorders are caused by emotional conflicts
behavioural medicine
developed to address this need by focusing on objective and clinically relevant interventions that would demonstrate the connections between body and mind
Current views of the mind and body relationship
physcial health is inextricably woven with the psychologicala nd social environment. Staying well is hevily determined by good health habits and socially determined factors
biomedical model
all illness can be explained on the basis of aberrant somatic bodily processes; psychological and social processes are relevant to disease process. Assumes mind-body dualism, emphasis on illness over health, single causal factor considered
biopsychosocial modal
health and illness are consequences of the interplay of biological, psychological and social factors, macro and micro level. Multiple causal factors considered. Mind and body inseparatable. Emphasis on both health and illness
biopsychosocial advantages
macro and micro level processes interact to produce state of health or illness
mind and body cannot be distinguished
levels are liked hierarchically, change in one, with change the others
social determinants of health
aboriginal status, disability, early life expereinces, education, employment and work condisions, food insecurity, health services, gender, housing, income and income distribution, race, social exclusion, social saftey net, job security
low socio-economic status with high diseases
more likely to suffer
Clinical implications of psychosocial model
Diagnosis should always consider biological, psychological, and social factors in essessing an individual’s health and illness
recommendations for treatment must examine all three sets of factors
significance of the relationship between patient and practitioner
Why is the field of health psychology needed
Change of illness patterns: created a need for understanding and affecting lifestyle factors.
Improves lifespan
Epidemiology
study of the frequency, distribution, and causes of infectious and noninfectious diseases in a population. Can predict what diseases may be the most prominent in a couple decades
morbidity
refers to the number of cases a disease that exists at some given point of time
mortality
refers to numbers of death due to a particular cause
prevalence
right now how many cases there arei
Incidence
causes there are through a particular period of time
Changing perspectives on health and healthcare
definition of health has continued to evolve.
Lalonde report of four factors that we should be focusing on,
human biology, environment, lifestyle and health care organization
public health promotion perspectives
shaped how we view factors that continue to canadians health
Health Psychologists
can intervene with treatment after people have been diagnosed and need a support system that follows through for lifestyle
Caregivers
recognized that psychological and social factors are important in health and illness
Demonstrated contributions to health
Health psychologists have developed and tested a variety of short-term behavioural interventions to address a wild variety of health related problems
