Chapter 1: Introduction to Health Psychology

Question 1

Describe the course overview.

Answer 1

Health psych is a interdisciplinary field that harnesses emerging research in regards to connecting individual, community, societal health, and well being

• Gone are the days where viewing health and health related behaviours are upon the individual
• Understanding the outcomes and health related behaviour is important to answer modern health concerns

Question 2

What must be examined in health psychology?

Answer 2

• Cultural and social dynamics
• Political and economic influences
• Challenge individualisti explanations of ill-health
• Macro- vs. micro-levels

Question 3

What does the etymology of health emphasize?

Answer 3

Wholeness and naturalness as harmony and balance with nature

- Healing systems

Question 4

What do you notice about the root definitions of health?

Answer 4

Bigger than just physical

• Spiritual
• Bigger meaning that individual selves
• Value

Question 5

What is health? - World Health Organization

Answer 5

“Health is a state of complete physical, social and spiritual wellbeing, not simply the absence of illness”

Question 6

What should we take away from the Pursuit of Happiness?

Answer 6

That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it.

Question 7

Define Health - Textbook

Answer 7

Health is a state of well-being with satisfaction of physical, cultural, psychosocial, economic and spiritual needs, not simply the absence of illness”

Question 8

Draw the Bronfenbrenner’s Model

Answer 8

Ecological model of health and well-being

- measures health in the environment and eco-systems

Question 9

Define Health Psychology

Answer 9

An interdisciplinary field concerned with the application of psychological knowledge and techniques to health, illness, health promotion and health care

• Encompasses holist models of health such as the ecological model which connects individual health to larger socio-economic, cultural and political realities
• A multi-disciplinary field incorporating psychological, cultural, developmental, and social factors to understanding health = makes it generalizable

Question 10

Draw out the Onion Model

Answer 10

• Illustrates the main determinants of health = that there is more than what is going on inside out head at the individual level

Question 11

Define agency/autonomy

Answer 11

Freedom to choose

Question 12

Define Spirituality

Answer 12

Feeling that not all that is significant is of the physical world

Question 13

Define Quality of Life

Answer 13

Good and happy life

- Subjective

Question 14

What is the Self-Determination Theory?

Answer 14

Suggests the 3 basic human needs:

• Competence
• Relatedness
• Autonomy

Question 15

Define the bio-medical model

• Pros

- Cons

Answer 15

A branch of medical science that applies biological and other natural-science principles to clinical practise

• Pros: major scientific advances and diagnostic testing/prevention/treatment
• Cons: dualistic (sep. mind/body, disease oriented, fails to meet need of individual

Question 16

What is individualism?

Answer 16

The belief that health is the result of making ‘healthy choices’ and thus a person is responsible for their own health
- Presumes that we have free choice and self determination

Question 17

What is the problem with the individualistic model?

Answer 17

• Socio-economic situation

- Influential factors

Question 18

Draw Maslow’s Hierarchy

- Cons?

Answer 18

Describes basic human needs

Meant to be universal but has many cons

• Health is attained if you achieve all of these needs, starting at the bottom and moving upward as the more basic needs are satisfied
• Doesn’t explain cases when people jump to higher levels
• Missing important elements – agency, autonomy (the freedom to choose), and spirituality
• Born with a disability = you can never reach the top, therefore you will never be healthy?
• Does not account for a variety of people
• Out of order for some (everyone is unique)
• Quantifies – how do you know how much you need to move onto the next level?

Question 19

Challenges of the Hierarchy of needs?

Answer 19

Humans are diverse and so their needs aren’t fixed
-Missing elements (ex. Spiritual)

Missing spiritual and non/physical needs

A Eurocentric stance on human nature as selfish individualism.
Focuses on western society

Ignores Indigenous ways of understanding the world (e.g. Ubuntu; Tsawalk; Two row Wampum etc.)
- Individual survival > group survival

Question 20

Define Subjective Well Being

Answer 20

Different valuations people make regarding their lives, bodies, minds and lives

• Ways in which we understand and conceptualize our health/well-being
• We value each aspect of our own life differently than others– different measures of satisfaction of health

Question 21

Talk about The Spice Trade

Answer 21

• 3000 BC
• Controlled by Islamic Nations
• Were most expensive and in-demand products
• They excluded Europe to they tried to gain access from other side (did not think NA existed yet)
• Columbus “discovered” NA (cannot discover what was already found)

Question 22

What happened when Europeans colonized North America?

Answer 22

Biological and germ warfare, which was used to target the health of Indigenous peoples of the Americas
- Indigenous people have never encountered these pathogens before = Led to a mass genocide (150y); The decimation of roughly 95% of the 70 – 100 million Indigenous peoples of the Americas = the greatest genocide the world has ever known

The commencement of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which lasted for 5 centuries (Slavery existed before this)
-Treated like animals and property, and breeded slaves

-20 million people were taken from Africa during the era of the transatlantic slave trade, and another 40 million perished in the miserable conditions at sea

Question 23

What is the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Answer 23

1) Africa –> NA (Slaves)
2) NA –> Europe (plantation crops)
3) Europe –> Africa (Manufactured goods)
* Building North American empire = Move slaves to produce crops and products, and then manufactured good are created

Question 24

What is a connection to make with colonization and health?

Answer 24

Colonization is a determinant of health

• Wealth
• Economy
• NA empire grew off of free labour
• “While stepping on other people we grew”

Question 25

What is the take-away from the Epidemiological Transition video?

Answer 25

• Economic equality determines health
• Drastic difference between countries
• Possibility for everyone to make it to the wealthy corner