Chapter Fourteen Flashcards
Behavioral Medicine
An interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease
Health Psychology
A subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine
Stress
The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging
Glucocorticoids
Stress hormones secreted by the outer parts of adrenal glands
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
Hans Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three stages- alarm, resistance, exhaustion
Coronary Heart Disease
The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries
Type A
Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people
Type B
Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people
Psychophysiological Illness
Literally, “mind-body” illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches.
- This is distinct from hypochondriasis
Hypochondriasis
The misinterpretation of normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease
Lymphocytes
The two types of white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system
B Lymphocytes
Lymphocytes that form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections
T Lymphocytes
Lymphocytes that form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances
Coping
Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods
Problem-Focused Coping
Attempting to alleviate stress directly- by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor
