chapter 10-health, stress, and coping Flashcards
Health
- State of being free from illness or injury
- State of well-being
physical
mental
emotional
Health is intimately tied to behavior and mental processes!
Health Psychology
Key ideas:
how psychological factors (like stress) affect health and illness
how interventions help maintain health and combat illness
how Stress Affects Health- 3 part process
We all encounter stressors-
Stimuli in our lives that we perceive as challenges or threats, such as traffic, an approaching midterm exam, or a hurricane
Reactions to stressors (including bodily reactions)
By perceiving and then reacting, we are coping with the challenges or threats (successfully or not)
Stressors: Different for Everyone
Cognitive appraisal/Perception: Stressors differ for everyone
Sources of Stress
Major life events
Catastrophes
Daily hassles
Frustration
Pressure
Conflict
Types of Stressors
Microstressors
Major negative events
Catastrophic events
Health psychologists
who study how people’s behaviors influence their health, have classified stressors into several types
Microstressors
daily hassles and minor annoyances (traffic jam, line at the grocery store, etc.)
Major Negative Events
personal, negative events (divorce, death of a loved one, serious illness, etc.)
Catastrophic Events
tend to occur unexpectedly and affect large numbers of people (e.g., hurricane, tsunami, wildfire); affect both physical and mental health
Daily Hassles
May add to stress of major life events
May just be part of daily life
Increases in these-> decreases in health
Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire
Sample items:
Death (family member or friend)
Major injury or illness
Failing a course
Problems with your computer
Assignments in classes all due on same day
Changing major
Cramming for a test
Stayed up late finishing a paper
Fight or Flight Response
sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system
release of adrenaline, norepinephrine, cortisol
affects multiple body systems; suppresses immune system
GAS Can Lead to
Diseases of adaptation-
Chronic inflammation
Damage to heart and blood vessels
High blood pressure, heart disease
Depressed immune function
Colds, flu
Arthritis
Disruptions in gut bacteria
Chronic stress suppresses the immune system:
More vulnerable to infectious diseases, like colds and flu
Progression of HIV infection to AIDS is influenced by stress
Produces greater vulnerability to the virus responsible for mononucleosis, which normally is kept in check by a robust immune system.
Stress related to our social relationships seems to be especially harmful to our ability to stay healthy.
Heart disease is associated with chronic stress
(damage affects the ability of blood vessels to expand when necessary)
Burnout
An increasingly intense pattern of physical and psychological dysfunction in response to a continuous flow of stressors or to chronic stress
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Severe negative reactions to a traumatic event, including anxiety, irritability, jumpiness, inability to concentrate or work productively, dysfunction in many areas of life (thinking, sexual function, relationships, sleep)
Health is the product of
interactions between a range of different factors
Biological
Psychological
Social
These interact with and can influence one another.
Making a change to one factor can produce changes to the other factors.
Factors in Biopsychosocial Model of Health
Biological factors include genetics, physiological functioning, fitness levels, illness, and internal body chemistry, including hormones and neurotransmitters.
Psychological factors include lifestyle, stress, cognitive functioning, beliefs, mental illness, and modes of thinking.
Social factors include culture, family, interpersonal relationships, social support, and your general environment.
Problem-focused coping (external)
controlling or altering the environment that is causing the stress
Emotion-focused coping (internal)
controlling your internal, subjective, emotional reactions to stress
two ways:
cognitive reappraisal (actively, consciously reinterpret)
using psychological defense mechanisms.
3 research-based strategies that reduce negative effects of stress
View stress as “energizing” you to surmount obstacles or deal with stressors
(cognitive reappraisal)
Talk about your stress with others
(seek social support)
Help others
(take your focus off of your own stressors
& enhance your social network)
Health Literacy
individuals’ ability to obtain, process, and understand the basic health information and services they need to manage their health and make appropriate health decisions
How much you know about your own body, how it works, medical conditions and treatments, and how to keep yourself healthy
Assessed in medical practice
Low literacy leads to poor health
Rapid Assessment of Adult Literacy in Medicine (Davis, Crouch, & Long, 1991)
Read aloud medical terms; scored on number of terms read correctly (word reading knowledge/skill)
Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (Parker et al., 1995)
Choose appropriate words for blanks in medical documents (health-related reading comprehension)
general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
a three stage pattern of responses triggered by the effort to adapt to stressors
1- alarm
2- resistance
3- exhaustion
diseases of adaptation
illnesses caused or worsened by stressors
psychoneuroimmunology
the field that examines the interaction of psychological and physiological processes affecting the body ability to defend itself agains disease
health promotion
the process of altering or eliminating behaviors that pose risks to health and, at the same time, fostering healthier behavior patterns
primary prevention
programs designed to reduce the risks, or prevent the onset, of a health problem
secondary prevention
programs designed to slow the progression, reduce the recurrence, or reduce the impact of an existing health problem
The HPA Axis
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
represent the interaction between the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands; it plays an important role the body’s response to stress. The pathway of the axis results in the production of cortisol
assessment step to reducing stress
identify the sources and effects of stress
goal-setting step to reducing stress
list the stressors and stress responses to be addressed, decide which ones can or cant be changed
planning step to reducing stress
list the specific steps to be taken to cope with stress
action step to reducing stress
implement coping plans
evaluation step to reducing stress
determine the changes in stressors and stress responses
adjustment step to reducing stress
alter coping methods to improve results if necessary
Stress Management Techniques
physical, cognitive, behavioral, social-emotional
stages of readiness
1- pre-contemplation= the person does not perceive a health-related problem and has no intention of changing anytime soon
2-contemplation= a problem behavior has been identified, and the person is seriously thinking about changing it
3-preparation= the person has a strong intention to change and has made specific plans to do so
4-action= the person is engaging successfully in behavior change
5-maintenance= the healthy behavior has continued for at least 6 months and the person is using newly learns skills to prevent relapse
cognitive appraisal
a potential stressor usually has a stronger negative impact on people who perceive it as at threat
ruminative thinking
the repeated intrusion of thoughts about stressful events
functional fixedness
the tendency to use objects for only one purpose
cognitive restructuring
psychotherapeutic process of learning to identify and dispute irrational or maladaptive thoughts known as cognitive distortions, such as all-or-nothing thinking
