Chapter 14 Flashcards
Smoking
Tobacco use → One the most widely studied health behaviors.
Associated with: Lung, mouth, throat cancer, heart disease, pulmonary diseases.
Life expectancy: 7-14 years shorter.
Why do people smoke?
Media exposure.
Exposure to movies featuring smoking
associated with smoking in adolescence.
Increase in prevalant smoking in movies –> increase in smoking adolescent smoking rate. Opposite pattern is observed when smoking in movies decrease.
Efforts to prevent smoking
Banning smoking in public places: reduce the risk of second-hand exposure.
Increasing taxes on tobacco: raises funds for healthcare and anti-smoking campaigns.
Text/pictorial warnings on packaging: pictures are mor effective, 40% of the Canadians quit smoking afterwords.
Social contagion
Spreading of a behavior as a result of social
interactions.
Usually subtle, unintentional. Can apply to various health-related behaviors.
Poverty
Positive correlation btw health and wealth.
Increased stress associated with poverty, discrimination, and other social stressors.
Higher rates of depression, anxiety, and
other health problems.
Prejudice and discrimination associated with…
Increased blood pressure, heart rate –> cardiovascular diseases.
Greater influence of unhealthy behaviors.
Prolonged stress response, increased levels of stress hormones.
Family and social environment influences
Long-term isolation can be as dangerous as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure.
Proven long-term health benefits of marriage, but increased marital/relationship issues associated with higher rates of depression and physical illness.
Social resilience
Ability to keep positive relationships and to endure, recover from social isolation and life stressors.
Stress
Psychological and physiological reaction that occurs when perceived demands exceed existing resources to meet those demands.
Stressor: The event/ stimulus
Stress response: The experience in response to the event.
Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Stress
(Lazarus & Folkman, 1984)
Appraisal → Cognitive act of assessing and evaluating the potential threat and demands of an event.
- Primary appraisal –> Perception of potential threat → “Is this a threat?”
No: no stress
Yes: Physiological stress reaction, emotional reaction - Secondary appraisal –> “How do I cope with this threat?”
Adequate coping: no more stress
Inadequate coping: More stress
General Adaptation Syndrome
Theory of stress responses involving alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
Brain and disease
Stress impairs the body’s ability to respond to vaccinations –> complicates long-term vaccinations.
Stress levels affect cancer progression.
Norepinephrine supports cancer cell growth. Cortisol magnifies norepinephrine’s influence on cancer cell growth.
Personality and Heart Disease
Type ‘A’ Personality
* Describes people who tend to be impatient and worry about time, are easily
angered, competitive, and highly motivated.
- More likely to have heart attacks
Type ‘B’ Personality
* Describes people who are more ‘laid-back’ and characterized as being patient,
easygoing, and relaxed.
Coping
Processes used to manage demands, stress, and conflict.
Problem focused coping –> 1. Define the problem, 2. Work toward a solution.
Emotion-focused coping –> Finding ways to reduce negative effects of emotions.
Positive psychology
Uses scientific methods to study human strengths and potential.
Focus on positive emotions.
Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions
Positive emotions help people broaden their thought processes and build new intellectual, social, and physical resources.
***Positive emotions can affect how we perceive and think about the world.
***Positive emotions increase the rate at which our heartrate returns to normal
following a fearful stimulus
Positive and negative emotions
Positive emotions: positive emotions help people broaden their thought processes and build new intellectual, social, and physical resources.
Negative emotions: narrow attentional focus
Optimism
Tendency to have a favorable, constructive view on situations and to expect positive outcomes.
Correlated with better physical health, lower rates of coronary heart disease.
Pessimism
Tendency to have a negative perception of life and expect negative outcomes.
Correlated with increased mortality rate.
Pessimistic Explanatory Style
Tendency to interpret and explain negative events as internally based and as a constant, stable quality.
Negative Affectivity
Tendency to respond to problems with a pattern of anxiety, hostility, anger, guilt, or nervousness.
Resilience
Ability to effectively recover from illness or adversity.
Factors contributing to resilience:
*Financial and social resources
* Opportunities for rest and relaxation
* Generally positive experiences, circumstances.
But, a person’s personality and emotional characteristics (e.g. optimism) will also contribute to their resilience.
Post traumatic growth
Capacity to grow and experience long-term positive effects in response to
negative events.
Often associated with feelings of vulnerability, followed by increased feelings of inner-strength, appreciation, spirituality…
Growth occurs during coping.
Coping strategies
Meditation–> procedure that involves a shift in consciousness to a state in which an individual in highly focused, aware, and in control of mental processes.
***Focused attention meditation, open monitoring meditation.
Yoga –> directed breathing while moving body into specific poses.
Exercise –> can cause increases in dopamine, epinephrine, and BDNF.
Meditation
Farb et al. (2007)
When trained meditators focus on thoughts and bodily reactions to a word in an fMRI → Increase in areas related to perception of bodily senses, and larger decrease in activity in the medial prefrontal cortex.
Helps us separate ourselves from our own self-narratives.
Stress and performance
Easy tasks: Moderate/high arousal helps.
Difficult tasks: Low arousal helps
Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning
A range of emotional intensity in which a person is most likely to perform at
their best.
