Chapter 14 Flashcards
Health psychology
A subfield of psychology that emphasizes psychology’s role in establishing and maintaining health and preventing and treating illness.
Behavioral medicine
An interdisciplinary field that focuses on developing and integrating behavioral and biomedical knowledge to promote health and reduce illness; overlaps with and is sometimes indistinguishable from health psychology.
Health behaviors
Practices that have an impact on physical well-being.
The Stages of Change Model
Theoretical model describing a five-step process by which individuals give up bad habits and adopt healthier lifestyles.
Precontemplation
occurs when individuals are not yet genuinely thinking about change.
Contemplation
people acknowledge the problem but may not be ready to commit to change
Preparation/Determination
people are getting ready to take action.
Action/willpower
people commit to making a real behavioral change and enate an effective plan.
Maintenance
people successfully avoid temptation and consistently pursue healthy habits.
Relapse
A return to former unhealthy patterns.
General adaptation syndrome (GAS)
Selye’s term for the common effects of stressful demands on the body, consisting of three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
Alarm
temporary state of shock during which resistance to illness and stress fall below normal limits.
Resistance
glands throughout the body manufacture different hormones that protect the individual.
Exhaustion
wear and tear take a toll and the individual might collapse in exhaustion, and vulnerability to disease increases.
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis)
The complex set of interactions among the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands that regulate various body processes and control reactions to stressful events.
Psychoneuroimmunology
A new field of scientific inquiry that explores connections among psychological factors (such as attitudes and emotions), the nervous system, and the immune system.
Type A behavior pattern
A cluster of characteristics—including being excessively competitive, hard-driven, impatient, and hostile—that is related to a higher incidence of heart disease.
Type B behavior pattern
A cluster of characteristics—including being relaxed and easygoing—that is related to a lower incidence of heart disease.
Type D behavior pattern
A cluster of characteristics—including being generally distressed, having negative emotions, and being socially inhibited—that is related to adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
Stress and cancer
Stress has been related to cancer risk. It sets in motion biological changes involving the autonomic, endocrine, and immune systems. If the immune system is not compromised, it appears to help provide resistance to cancer and slow its progression.
Health disparities
refer to often preventable differences in physical functioning (including disease, injury, and violence) and psychological functioning (including depression and anxiety) that are experienced by socially disadvantaged groups.
Cognitive appraisal
Individuals’ interpretation of the events in their life as harmful, threatening, or challenging and their determination of whether they have the resources to cope effectively with the events.
Primary:
individuals interpret whether an event involves harm or loss that has already occurred, a threat of some future danger, or a challenge to be overcome.
Secondary:
people evaluate their resources and determine how effective they can be marshaled to cope with the event.
Coping
Managing taxing circumstances, expending effort to solve life’s problems, and seeking to master or reduce stress.
Problem-focused coping
The coping strategy of squarely facing one’s troubles and trying to solve them.
Emotion-focused coping
The coping strategy that involves responding to the stress that one is feeling—trying to manage one’s emotional reaction—rather than focusing on the root problem itself.
Positive reappraisal
Reinterpreting a potentially stressful experience as positive, valuable, or even beneficial
Optimism
refers to looking on the bright side and having positive expectations for the future.
Hardiness
A personality trait characterized by a sense of commitment rather than alienation and of control rather than powerlessness; a perception of problems as challenges rather than threats.
Stress management programs
A regimen that teaches individuals how to appraise stressful events, how to develop skills for coping with stress, and how to put these skills into use in everyday life.
Alice F. Chang, Ph.D.
Alice F. Chang, PhD, is a scientist-practitioner and founder of the Academy for Cancer Wellness, a nonprofit organization benefiting individuals diagnosed with cancer, and their relatives and friends. She was born in Ithaca, New York. In 1973, she earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Most notably, she was the first ethnic minority woman to serve on the American Psychological Association (APA) Board of Directors.
