Chapter 14, Week 4

Question 1

Health psychology

Answer 1

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

Question 2

trephination

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Hans Selye’s general adaptation syndrome

GAS

Answer 3

alarm, resistance and exhaustion.

Question 4

Psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Cartesian dualism,

Descartes

Answer 5

which contends that the mind and the body are completely separate entitie

Question 6

biomedical model

Answer 6

reductionistic view of illness, reducing disease to biological causes at the level of individual cells

–> ignores the psychological and social factors that affect illness

Question 7

leading cause of death - modifiable behaviour

Answer 7

smoking

Question 8

cellular theory

Answer 8

increased focus on the body as the source of illness

Question 9

Psychosomatic medicine

Answer 9

the idea that changes in physiology mediate the relationship between unconscious conflicts and illness

• -> from freud
• ->

Question 10

Wellbeing

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Theories of health behaviour

Answer 11

Theories that have been proposed to explain why people engage in health promoting or health compromising behaviours

Question 12

Health belief model

Answer 12

suggests that health behaviours are predicted by four factors.

1. perceived susceptibility tp threat
2. perceived seriousness of threat
3. benefits and barriers of health behaviours
4. cues to action

Question 13

Perceived susceptibility

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Optimistic bias

Unrealistic optimism

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Perceived seriousness or severity

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Benefits and barriers to health behaviours

Answer 16

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)

Question 17

Cues to action

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Self efficacy

Answer 18

A person’s belief in their ability to successfully undertake a particular action or behaviour

Question 19

Protection motivation theory of health

Answer 19

Health belief model + self-efficacy

Question 20

Theory of reasoned action

Answer 20

refers to a social cognitive view of health, postulating that behaviours stem from behavioural intentions

Question 21

Behavioural intentions

Answer 21

consist of two components: attitudes and subjective norms surrounding the behaviour

Question 22

Attitudes

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Subjective norms

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Theory of planned behaviour

Answer 24

Theory of reasoned action + Self-efficacy

= perceived as behavioural control

Question 25

Transtheoretical model

Answer 25

Outlines the five stages of change

1. Precontemplation;
2. Contempation
3. Preparation
4. Action
5. Maintenance

Question 26

Precontemplation

Answer 26

People in this stage are not even considering changing their behaviour in the near future. May also be unaware that a problem exists

Question 27

Contemplation

Answer 27

Aware that problem exists but are considering taking action soon but aren’t committed to that action

Question 28

Preparation

Answer 28

Willing to make behavioural change in the next month and are making small changes to help achieve their goal

Question 29

Action

Answer 29

actively working on behavioural change - lasts about six months

Question 30

Maintenance

Answer 30

Actively working to maintain this even after achieving desired behaviour

Question 31

obesity

Answer 31

one of the leading contributors to preventable deaths

Question 32

Smoking

Answer 32

is the single most preventable cause of illness, disability and premature death in Australia and in much of the world

Question 33

Self-handicapping

Answer 33

Process by which people set themselves up to fail

Question 34

Barriers to health promotion

Answer 34

1. individual barriers
2. Family barriers
3. Health System barriers
4. Community barriers.

barriers as to explain why people continue to engage in negative health behaviours and fail to engage in positive ones

Question 35

Impression management (self-presentation)

Answer 35

refers to people’s attempts to control impressions that others form from them

Question 36

Stress

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Primary appraisal

Answer 37

a person decides that whether a situation is benign, stressful or irrelevant

Question 38

Secondary appraisal

Answer 38

person evaluates how to respond

Question 39

Emotional forecasting

Answer 39

(both appraisal stages involve this) refers to the process by which a person evaluates what feelings particular situations will produce

Question 40

Stressors

Answer 40

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

Question 41

Acculturative stress

Answer 41

refers to the stress people experience in trying to adapt a new culture

Question 42

Catastrophes

Answer 42

are stressors of massive proportions, including both natural and human made disasters

Question 43

Daily hassles

Answer 43

are minor and annoyances of everyday life that contribute to stress

Question 44

Psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 44

refers to stress that affects physical health by weakening the immune systems

Question 45

Coping mechanisms

Answer 45

are the ways people deal with stressful events

Question 46

Problem-focuses coping

Answer 46

involves changing the situation

Question 47

Emotion-focused coping

Answer 47

aims to regulate the emotion generated by stressful situation

Question 48

Low effort syndrome

Answer 48

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

Question 49

Social support

Answer 49

refers to the presence of others in whom a person can confide and from whom the individual can expect help and concern

Question 50

Buffering hypothesis

Answer 50

proposes that social support protects people against the harmful effects of acute stress

Question 51

Alternative hypothesis

Answer 51

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

Question 52

Emotional disclosure

Answer 52

plays a key role in physical and psychological health,

i.e. death of a loved one through suicide

Question 53

aversion therapy

Answer 53

introduction of something aversive as a means of discouraging a negative health habit

Question 54

humour theory of illness

Answer 54

theory asserting that disease is cased by imbalance of the fluids