Chapter 14: Health Psychology 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 psychical well being
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
Preperation/determination
People are getting ready to take action. It is key that people are optimistic toward the fact that they can see the change through
Action/willpower
People commit toward making a real behavioral change and enact an effective plan
Maintenance
People successfully avoid temptation and consistently pursue healthy behaviors
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 stage
A temporary state of shock during which resistance to illness and stress falls below normal levels. During these initial effects of stress, the body releases hormones that in a short time negatively effects the immune system, making injury and illness more likely
Resistance stage
Glands throughout the body release hormones that protect the individual. Endocrine and sympathetic nervous system are not as high as during the alarm stage, although they are still elevated. The body can fight off infection to a remarkable degree, and hormones reducing inflammation are running at high levels in the body
Exhaustion stage
If the body’s efforts to fight off stress fail, and the stress persists, the person moves into this stage. At this point the wear and tear takes its toll, the person might collapse in exhaustion and vulnerability to illness persists. Serious, potentially fatal damage to the body can occur, including heart attack and death
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis)
The complex set of integrations among the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal gland that regulate various body processes and control reactions to stressful events
Psychoneuroimmunology
A new field of scientific inquiry that explores connection 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 easy going- 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
Health disparities
Refer to often preventable differences in physical functioning (including disease, injury, violence) and psychological functioning (including depression and anxiety) that are experiences by socially disadvantaged groups
Cognitive appraisal
Individual’s interpretation of the events in their life as harmful, threatening, or challenging and their determination of whether they have resources to cope effectively with events
Coping
Managing taxing circumstances, expending effort to solve life’s problems, and seeking to master or reduce stress
Primary cognitive appraisal
Individuals interpret whether an event involves harm or loss that has already occurred, a threat of some future danger, or a challenge to overcome
Secondary cognitive appraisal
People evaluate their resources and determine how effectively they can be marshaled to cope with the event
Problem-focused coping
The coping strategy of squarely focusing one’s troubles and trying to solve them
Emotion-focused coping
The coping strategy that involves responding to stress that one is feeling- trying to manage one’s emotional reaction- rather than focusing on the root of the problem itself
Positive reappraisal
Reinterpreting a potentially stressful experience as positive, valuable, or even beneficial
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
A regimen that teaches individuals how to appraise stressful events, how to devlop skills for coping with stress, and how to put these skills into use in everyday life
