Chapter 14, Week 4 Flashcards
Health psychology
is devoted to under- standing psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why they become ill and how they respond when they do get ill
i.e. they study why people fail to exercise even tho they know the health benefits of doing so
trephination
practice of drilling holes in the skull to allow the evil spirits to escape
–> derived from early theorists believing that illness is caused by evil spirits
Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome
GAS
alarm, resistance and exhaustion.
Psychoneuroimmunology
examines the influence of psychosocial factors on the functioning of the immune system.
i.e. Stress can affect physical health in two ways: directly, by weakening the immune system, and indi- rectly, by leading to behaviours that weaken the body’s defences or lead to exposure to pathogens.
Cartesian dualism,
Descartes
which contends that the mind and the body are completely separate entitie
biomedical model
reductionistic view of illness, reducing disease to biological causes at the level of individual cells
–> ignores the psychological and social factors that affect illness
leading cause of death - modifiable behaviour
smoking
cellular theory
increased focus on the body as the source of illness
Psychosomatic medicine
the idea that changes in physiology mediate the relationship between unconscious conflicts and illness
- -> from freud
- ->
Wellbeing
is defined as the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy
An individual’s health and well- being is multidimensional, with environmental, social, biological, lifestyle, spiritual, vocational, societal and socioeconomic factors all interacting
Theories of health behaviour
Theories that have been proposed to explain why people engage in health promoting or health compromising behaviours
Health belief model
suggests that health behaviours are predicted by four factors.
- perceived susceptibility tp threat
- perceived seriousness of threat
- benefits and barriers of health behaviours
- cues to action
Perceived susceptibility
refers to a person’s perception that he is likely to contract a particular illness
i.e. family member had disease, so likely to think they will contract it as well
Optimistic bias
Unrealistic optimism
refers to the belief that they are far less likely than other people to contract a particular illness
i.e. “I won’t get Covid-19” I can do what I want, when really you have an equal chance to contract it as everyone else
Perceived seriousness or severity
refers to an individual’s perception of the impact of a particular illness would have in her life
i.e. the more pain and discomfort associated with a health threat, the more severe it is perceived to be
–> cancer, because a lot of people die from it, is considered serious disease
Benefits and barriers to health behaviours
People evaluate the BENEFITS to be gained to stop unhealthy behaviours or adopt a health behaviour as well as outweigh the costs or BARRIERs associated with termination of behaviour
eg. quitting smoking is beneficial to offset diseases like lung cancer, but it is difficult to quit because they might experience withdrawal, weight gain, alienating peers (barriers)
Cues to action
refer to ancillary factors that influence whether or not a person is willing to begin a healthy behaviour or terminate an unhealthy one
i.e. advice from friends and family, age
Self efficacy
A person’s belief in their ability to successfully undertake a particular action or behaviour
Protection motivation theory of health
Health belief model + self-efficacy
Theory of reasoned action
refers to a social cognitive view of health, postulating that behaviours stem from behavioural intentions
Behavioural intentions
consist of two components: attitudes and subjective norms surrounding the behaviour
Attitudes
represents the beliefs one has that a particular behaviour will produce a particular outcome
i.e. practising safe sex will reduce likelihood of pregnancy and therefore will likely engage in this behaviour
Subjective norms
reflect someone’s perception of how significant other indiv. will perceive the behaviour and motivation to comply with the desire of those others
i.e. Jason’s parents are opposed to his smoking and he is willing to complete with his parent’s wishes, therefore, more likely to quit smoking
Theory of planned behaviour
Theory of reasoned action + Self-efficacy
= perceived as behavioural control
Transtheoretical model
Outlines the five stages of change
- Precontemplation;
- Contempation
- Preparation
- Action
- Maintenance
Precontemplation
People in this stage are not even considering changing their behaviour in the near future. May also be unaware that a problem exists
Contemplation
Aware that problem exists but are considering taking action soon but aren’t committed to that action
Preparation
Willing to make behavioural change in the next month and are making small changes to help achieve their goal
Action
actively working on behavioural change - lasts about six months
Maintenance
Actively working to maintain this even after achieving desired behaviour
obesity
one of the leading contributors to preventable deaths
Smoking
is the single most preventable cause of illness, disability and premature death in Australia and in much of the world
Self-handicapping
Process by which people set themselves up to fail
Barriers to health promotion
- individual barriers
- Family barriers
- Health System barriers
- Community barriers.
barriers as to explain why people continue to engage in negative health behaviours and fail to engage in positive ones
Impression management (self-presentation)
refers to people’s attempts to control impressions that others form from them
Stress
refers to a challenge to a person’s capacity to adapt to inner and other command
transaction process; a transaction between the individual and the environment
is a psychobiological process with physiological and psychological components and consequences
Primary appraisal
a person decides that whether a situation is benign, stressful or irrelevant
Secondary appraisal
person evaluates how to respond
Emotional forecasting
(both appraisal stages involve this) refers to the process by which a person evaluates what feelings particular situations will produce
Stressors
events that lead to stress
One of the most significant source of stress is change, we are creatures of habit and we do not like change
i.e. death of a spouse of child, divorce, marital separation, catastrophes
Acculturative stress
refers to the stress people experience in trying to adapt a new culture
Catastrophes
are stressors of massive proportions, including both natural and human made disasters
Daily hassles
are minor and annoyances of everyday life that contribute to stress
Psychoneuroimmunology
refers to stress that affects physical health by weakening the immune systems
Coping mechanisms
are the ways people deal with stressful events
Problem-focuses coping
involves changing the situation
Emotion-focused coping
aims to regulate the emotion generated by stressful situation
Low effort syndrome
occurs in minority groups who experience a ceiling on their economic prospects because of discrimination and thus seemingly stop making active efforts to alleviate their hardships
–> tendency to exert minimal effort to escape stressful social and economic circumstances
i.e. poverty
Social support
refers to the presence of others in whom a person can confide and from whom the individual can expect help and concern
Buffering hypothesis
proposes that social support protects people against the harmful effects of acute stress
Alternative hypothesis
suggest that social support is continuously positive force that makes the person less susceptible to stress
however is not uniformly beneficial as i.e. bad relationships do not promote health
Emotional disclosure
plays a key role in physical and psychological health,
i.e. death of a loved one through suicide
aversion therapy
introduction of something aversive as a means of discouraging a negative health habit
humour theory of illness
theory asserting that disease is cased by imbalance of the fluids
