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.