Chapter 12 Discovering Psychology Notes Flashcards
These factors make major contributions to physical health- and disease.
Psychological and social factors
- Poverty
- Discrimination
- lack of access to medical and psychological care
Social factors
- stress
- depression
- psychological disorders
Psychological factors
- Smoking
- Substance abuse
- Sedentary lifestyles* Is the leading cause of disability, disease, and death in modern societ.y
Unhealthy behaviors
- How to promote health- enhancing behaviors
- How people respond to being ill
- How people respond to the patient- health practitioner relationship.
Issues that health psychologists investigate
- physicians
- nurses
- social workers
- occupational and physical therapists
Professionals health psychologists work with
- Biological factors
- Psychological factors
- Social factors
According to the biopsychosocial model, health and illness are determined by the complex interaction of these factors.
Genetic predispositions
Biological factors
Health beliefs and attitudes
Psychological factors
Family relationships and cultural influences
Social factors
Developed by Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe, was an early attempt to quantify the amount of stress experienced by people in a wide range of situations.
- Includes 43 life events that are likely to require some level of adaptation.
- Assigned life change units
The social readjustment rating scale
A numerical rating of the relative impact of a life event, ranging from 11 to 100.
Life change units
Events or situations that are negative, severe, and far beyond our normal expectations for everyday life or life events.
Traumatic events
- Witnessing or surviving a violent attack
- Serious accident
- Experiences associated with combat, war, or major disasters
Types of events considered to be traumatic
- 85% have been exposed to traumatic events during their lifetime.- most common being the death of a loved one, sexual assault, and family violence.
Traumatic events - College students
A disorder that involves intrusive thoughts of the traumatic event, emotional numbness, and symptoms of anxiety, such as nervousness, sleep disturbances, and irritability.
- Can result from traumatic events, even minor ones.
- most people recover from traumatic events without experiencing PTSD
PTSD
The total amount of negative events experienced over a lifetime.
Cumulative adversity
Experiencing some stress is better than experiencing no stress at all.
- High cumulative adversity = poor health
- Low cumulative adversity = poor health
- Moderate cumulative adversity = good health and better able to cope with recent misfortunes than people who had experienced either very low or high levels of adversity.
Psychologist Mark Seery and his colleagues - “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” hypothesis study.
The ability to cope with stress and adversity, to adapt to negative or unforeseen circumstances, and to rebound after negative experiences.
- Moderate adversity experience builds this.
Resilience
True or false:
People who are never exposed to stressful, difficult events don’t develop the ability to cope with adversity when it does occur - as it eventually does. Even minor setbacks can be perceived as overwhelming.
True
The frequency of daily hassles, as well as a tendency to react more negatively to daily hassles, are linked to:
- Mental and physical illness
- Unhealthy behaviors
- Decreased well-being
True or false:
Some researchers have found that the number of daily hassles that people experience is a better predictor of physical illness and symptoms than is the number of major life events experienced.
True
Experiencing daily hassles as a child is predictive of poorer health as an adult
Each hassle may be unimportant in itself, but after a day or two filled with minor hassles, the effects add up.
Daily hassles are cumulative
Any major life change can create a ripple effect, generating a host of new daily hassles.
Daily hassles contribute to the stress produced by major life events.
More likely to report daily stress that is associated with friends or family.
Women
More likely to report daily stress that is school or work related.
Men
Stress at work or school tends to affect home life.
Both men and women
Can produce a pressure cooker environment that takes a significant toll on physical health.
Work stress
- People feel exhausted- used up all physical and emotional resources.
- Cynicism - Demonstrating negative or overly detached attitudes toward the job or work environment. Feel unappreciated.
- Failure or inadequacy- may feel incompetent or unproductive and have a sharply reduced sense of accomplishment
3 Key components of burnout
When the demands of the job exceed the worker’s ability to meet them.
Overload
The more control you have over your work and work environment, the less stressful it is.
Lack of control
Supportive co-workers, a sense of teamwork, and a positive work environment can all buffer workplace stress and prevent burnout.
Community (in the workplace)
People who live under difficult or unpleasant conditions often experience this.
- low socioeconomic class
- low social status
- racism and discrimination
- clashing of cultures
Chronic stress
The measure of overall status in a society.
- Income
- Education
- occupation
- Strong association of physical health and the longevity with this.
Socioeconomic status (SES)
- Highest levels of pathological stress, illness, premature death
- associated with poorer physical health
- fewer resources available to them
Less privileged people
- 3/4 African american adolescents treated as incompetent or dangerous or both
- Increases the risk for stress related health problems such as hypertension
Racism and discrimination
Subtle instances of racism.
Microaggressions
Stress of adapting to a new culture.
clashing of cultures
One of the earliest contributors to stress research.
- influential theory of emotion
- Identified the fight or flight response
Walter Cannon
- Should I seek positive relations with the dominant society?
- Is my original culture identity of value to me and should i try to maintain it?
Two questions people are faced with when adapting to a new culture
Continue to value their own customs but also seek to become part of dominant society.
Integrated
Associated with higher self esteem and lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress.
- May be the most adaptive acculturation pattern.
- Embraced by integrated individuals
Bicultural
Give up their old culture identity and try to become part of a new society. They adopt the customs and social values of the new environment, and abandon their original cultural traditions.
- moderate level of stress because it involves psychological loss
Assimilated
Maintain their cultural identity and avoid contact with the new culture.
- refuse to learn new language
- live in a neighborhood that is primarily populated by members of their own ethnic group
- sometimes due to the society’s unwillingness to accept the new immigrants
- high levels of stress
Separation
Lack cultural and psychological contact with both their traditional group and the culture of their new society.
- lost important features of their traditional culture but have not replaced them with a new cultural identity
- rare
- Associated with the greatest degree of acculturative stress
- feel as though they do not belong anywhere
Marginalized
- Prompting behaviors that jeopardize physical well-being
- not eating or sleeping properly- interferes with attention, concentration, memory, decision making
- Increases the likelihood of accidents and injuries
Indirect effects of stress
- Altering body functions
- physical symptoms, illness, disease
- cancer or diabetes later in life
Direct effects of stress
Helps ensure survival by swiftly mobilizing internal physical resources to defensively attack of flee an immediate threat.
Short-term fight-or-flight response
Research was done with rats that are exposed to prolonged stressors.
- adrenal glands became enlarged
- stomach ulcers and loss of weight occurred
- shrinkage of the thymus gland and lymph glands (two key components of the immune system)
Hans Sely
Hypothalamus => sympathetic nervous system => adrenal medulla => secretion of catecholamines
- increases respiration
- increases heart rate
- Increases blood pressure
- Increases blood flow to the muscles
- Digestion is inhibited
- Pupils dilate
Pathway 1 : fight-or-flight response - Acute stress
Hypothalamus => pituitary => ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) release => adrenal cortex => secretion of corticosteroids
- Increases release of stored energy
- Reduces inflammation
- Reduces immune system response
Pathway 2: flight-or-fight response - Prolonged stress
The most important of the corticosteroids
Cortisol
- Alarm stage
- Resistance stage
- Exhaustion stage
General adaptation syndrome
Catecholamines are released by the adrenal medulla, intense arousal occurs, and the body mobilizes internal physical resources to meet the demands of the stress-producing event.
1: Alarm stage
As the body tries to adapt to the continuing stressful situation, physiological arousal lessens but remains above normal. Resistance to new stressors is impaired.
- Resistance stage
If the stress-producing event persists, the symptoms of the alarm stage reappear, now only irreversibly. The body’s energy reserves become depleted and adaptation begins to break down, leading to exhaustion, physical disorders, and potentially, death.
- Exhaustion stage
Has the capacity to add DNA to shortened telomeres, rebuilding and extending the length of telomeres.
Telomerase
- The central nervous system and the immune system are directly linked via sympathetic nervous system fibers, which influence the production and functioning of lymphocytes.
- The surfaces of lymphocytes contain receptor sites for neurotransmitters and hormones, including catecholamines and cortisol.- influences lymphocytes directly
- Psychoneuroimmunologists have discovered that lymphocytes themselves produce neurotransmitters and hormones.- influence the nervous and endocrine systems
Psychonueroimmunology points
- Extremely stressful events
- Common stresses
- Chronic stressors that continue for years
- Psychological stress
More likely to cause immune system problems
- Reentry of returning astronauts
- Being forced to stay awake for days
Extremely stressful events
- End or disruption of important interpersonal relationships
Common stresses
- Caring for a family member with alzheimer’s disease
Chronic stressors that continue for years
An inactive substance with no known effects, such as a sugar pill or an injection of sterile water. Often used in biomedical research to help vague the effectiveness of an actual medication or treatment.
Placebo
The brain’s own natural painkillers
Endorphins
Blocks the brain’s endorphin response
Naloxone
Known to contain many opioid receptors.
- During placebo tests, this area of the brain showed activity in both the people who took the placebo and the people who had actual opiates.
Anterior cingulate cortex
- Cognitive expectations
- learned associations
- Emotional responses
Can have a profound effect on the perception of pain
- hereditary
- nutrition
- health-related habits
- access to medical care
- level of exposure to bacteria and viruses and other infections and disease
Factors that affect physical health
- Personal control
- Explanatory style
- Chronic negative emotions
- Positive emotions
- Type A behavior and hostility
Psychological factors
- Having a sense of personal control enhances positive emotions
- self confidence, feelings of self efficacy, autonomy, and self-relience
- Lack of control produces all the hallmarks of the stress response.- catecholamines and corticosteroids increase
- Immune system function decreases
- More valued in western cultures than eastern cultures
- Situations that you perceive as being beyond your control are highly stressful
Personal control
Some people give up in the face of failure and setbacks.
Learned helplessness
How people characteristically explain their failures and defeats makes the difference. - According to:
Martin Seligman
- Optimistic
- Pessimistic
Explanatory styles
Inclined to believe that no amount of personal effort will improve their situation.
- Associated with poorer physical health
- Associated with higher levels of stress
Pessimists
- Significantly higher levels of lymphocytes, T cells, and helper T cells.
- More inclined to persevere in their efforts to overcome obstacles and challenges.
- Shown to help people cope with pain
- More likely to cope effectively with stressful situations
Optimists
Frequently experience bad moods and negative emotions like anger, irritability, worry, or sadness.
- linked to poor health
- experience more stress
- More likely to develop a chronic disease like arthritis or heart disease, higher death rates from heart disease-i.e., hostility, relationship tensions, boredom
- Associated with unhealthy cardiovascular and hormone responses
- In America: associated with stress
- In Japan: associated with power and a sense of control
Chronic negative emotions
Not just the absence of negative emotions.
- Increased resistance to infection
- Decreased illness
- fewer reports of illness symptoms
- less pain
- longevity - lower death rates from heart disease
- Higher levels of physical health
- Bring calming and health protective efforts to the cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems
- Associated with health promoting behaviors, such as regular exercise, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking.
- Tend to have more friends and stronger social networks
Positive emotions
Originated about 35 years ago, when two cardiologists, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman noticed that many of their patients shared certain traits.
Type A behavior pattern
- An exaggerated sense of time urgency, trying often to do more and more in less and less time.
- A general sense of hostility, frequently displaying anger and irritation.
- Intense ambition and competitiveness
Three characteristics of Type A behavioral pattern
These people are more likely to develop heart disease, even when other risk factors are taken into account.
- Prone to believe that the disagreeable behavior of others is intentionally directed against them
- suspicious, mistrustful, cynical, pessimistic
- react more intensely to a stressor
- greater increases in blood pressure and heart rate
- create more stress in their own lives
- more frequent, and more severe, negative life events and daily hassles
Hostile
People who are more laid back and are more relaxed.
Type B behavior pattern
The tendency to feel anger, annoyance, resentment, and contempt, and to hold cynical and negative beliefs about human nature in general.
Hostility
Refers to the resources provided by other people.
- tendency to be socially isolated
- Parent’s love
- Animal companions
Social factors - social support
- Greater resistance to upper respiratory infections
- Lower incidence of stone and cardiovascular disease among women in high-risk groups
- Lower incidence of dementia and cognitive loss in old age
People who live in a diverse social network
- The social support of friends and relatives can modify our appraisal of a stressor’s significance, including the degree to which we perceive it as threatening and harmful.
- The presence of supportive others seems to decrease the intensity of physical reactions to a stressor.
- Social support can influence our health by making us less likely to experience negative emotions.
How social support benefits health
Relationships can also be a source of stress
- Marital arguments
- Judgmental people
- offering unwanted or unappreciated social support
Social support that can be stressful
- Tend to rely heavily on a spouse or partner
- Smaller network of intimate others
- Particularly vulnerable to social isolation
- Tend to only be upset about things that happen to their immediate family
Men
- Tend to reach out to one another for support and comfort
- More likely to serve as providers of support, which can be a very stressful role.
- Stress contagion effect
- Have a larger and more intimate social network
- Upset about negative events that happen to their relatives or friends.
Women
- Emotional
- Tangible
- Informational
Categories of Social support
Expressions of concern, empathy, and positive regard.
Emotional support
Involves direct assistance, such as providing transportation, lending money, or helping with meals, child care, or household tasks.
Tangible support
When people offer suggestions, advice, or possible resources.
Informational support
- Are a good listener and show concern and interest
- Ask questions that encourage the person under stress to express his or her feelings and emotions.
- Express understanding about why the person is upset
- Express affection for the person, whether with a warm hug or simply a pat on the arm
- Are willing to invest time and attention in helping
- Can help the person with practical tasks, such as housework, transportation, or responsibilities at work or school.
Things that make you most likely to be perceived as helpful
- Giving advice that the person under stress has no requested
- Telling the person “I know exactly how you feel.” It is a mistake to think that you have experienced distress identical to what the other person is experiencing.
- Talking about yourself or your own problems
- Minimizing the importance of the person’s problem.
- Joking or acting overly cheerful
- Offering your philosophical or religious interpretation of the stressful event.
- Making a big deal out of the support and help that you do provide, which may make the recipient feel even more anxious or vulnerable.
Behaviors that are perceived as unhelpful
The recipient isn’t aware of your help.
Invisible help
Becoming upset about negative life events that happen to other people who they care about.
Stress contagion effect
Adapt to the situation and stress is reduced.
Effective coping
Thoughts and behaviors that intensify or prolong distress, or that produce self-defeating outcomes.
Maladaptive coping
- Involves realistically evaluating the situation and determining what can be done to minimize the impact of the stressor.
- Involves developing emotional tolerance for negative life events, maintaining self-esteem, and keeping emotions in balance.
- Preservering important relationships
Adaptive coping
Involves efforts to rationally analyze the situation, identify potential solutions, and then implement them.
Planful problem solving (problem-focused sub category)
- Problem-focused coping
- Emotion-focused coping
Types of coping
When people tackle a problem head on.
- Direct and assertive but not hostile or angry
Confrontive coping (problem-focused sub category)
When you shift your attention away from the stressor and toward other activities.
- escape or avoid the stressor and neutralize distressing emotions.
Escape-avoidance (emotion-focused sub category)
- Excessive sleeping
- Use of drugs or alcohol
Maladaptive forms of escape
- Exercising
- Immersing yourself in studies, hobbies, or work.
Adaptive forms of escape
Associated with poor adjustment and feelings of depression and anxiety.
Escape-avoidance
The coping strategy that involves turning to friends, relatives, or other people for emotional, tangible, or informational support.
Seeking social support (emotion-focused sub category)
When you acknowledge the stressor, but attempt to minimize or eliminate it’s emotional impact.
Distancing (emotion-focused sub category)
A refusal to acknowledge that the problem even exists.
Denial (emotion-focused sub category)
We try not to minimize the negative emotional aspects of the situation but also to create positive meaning by focusing on personal growth.
Positive reapprasial (emotion-focused sub category)
Includes seeking comfort or reassurance in prayer or form a religious community, or believing that your personal experience is spiritually meaningful.
Positive religious coping (emotion-focused sub category)
Become angry, question their religious beliefs, or believe that they are being punished.
Negative religious coping (emotion-focused sub category)
- Planful problem solving
- Confrontive coping
Problem-focused coping stratagies
- Escape-avoidance
- Seeking social support
- Distancing
- Denial
- Positive reapprasial
- Positive religious coping
- Negative religious coping
Emotion-focused coping stratagies
- No single best coping strategy
- Fine tune our coping strategies to meet the demands of a particular stressor
- flexible
- Often people use multiple coping strategies
- 1st emotion-coping, then problem-focused coping
use of coping
- Avoid the use of stimulants
- Exercise regularly
- Get enough sleep
- Practice a relaxation or meditation technique
4 suggestions to minimize the effects of stress
Focusing mental attention, heightening awareness, and quieting internal chatter.
Meditation
- Death of a spouse -100
- Divorce - 73
- Marital separation -65
- Death of a close family member - 63
- Major personal injury or illness - 53
- Marriage - 50
- Fired at work - 47
- Retirement - 45
- Pregnancy - 40
- Change in financial state - 38
- Mortgage or loan for major purchase- 31
- Foreclosure on mortgage or loan- 30
- Change in work responsibilities - 29
- Outstanding personal achievement - 28
- Begin or end school - 26
- Trouble with boss - 23
- Change in work hours or conditions- 20
- Change in residence - 20
- Change in social activities - 18
- Change in sleeping habits - 16
- Vacation - 13
- Christmas - 12
- Minor violations of the law - 11
Life events (words)/ life change units (#s) on the Social readjustment scale (fig 12.1)
